Thursday multi art and adult karate classes, 3/27/14 - Sensei Chaisson

We had four folks for the multi art section of the night with Sensei, Colleen, Jack, and myself there.  We did a review of some of the weapons forms as well as some video review and application from empty hand form 5.


The adult karate class had eight total.  The class was split in to groups with Sensei working with the brown belts, Colleen working with Hannah, and me working with the white belts.

Michelle Obama tries her hand at tai chi at school in China

Tai Chi class notes - Saturday 3/22/14 - Sandy

We had a nice class this morning there were nine of us including myself (Read, Janie, Meg, Ted, Nancy, Pat, Jack and Karen). We started with the warm ups, walked a bit, then moved onto push hands, single both sides onto brush knee twist both sides keeping in mind each others center, relaxed but pung feeling and sensitivity throughout the drill. From here most continued onto the dance, Pat worked with Meg on the Solo Form. We ended with the the Solo Form. A very nice light hearted class, it felt good to be back in the studio again, leading class and being with my pals:)

Saturday kids karate classes, 3/22/14 - Sensei Chaisson

We had a very large class today.  Space in the room became scarce a few times.  We started with the 10 with some punching and blocking mixed in.  We worked a good deal of line work and ended with some moving pad work.


During the second class we did the 10 with some strengthening plyometrics mixed in.  We did some partner stretching and moved in to sparring drills.  We worked a number of distancing drills and had a few rounds of free sparring before we broke in to 3 rings for the remainder of the class.


Sensei, Ron, Teryn, Scott, and Jack were all in the room along with myself.

Thursday adult karate class, 3/20/14 - Sensei Chaisson

We had 7 students total in the class.  Jack, Thomas, and Teryn were in the room to help.  We started the class by working on some basic pad work in preparation for doing line work.  We split the end of the class with the black belts rotating in with the two white belts and working on the form and SD while the others worked on various drills of their choosing.  Great energy by all.

Karate class wed. 3/19

7 students with Sensei Kratz, Colleen, and Tom
I included traditional basics in 10 exercises: vertical punches and Seisan basic. Then we worked on elbows with body shields in pairs. First the rear elbow in vertical punches then in an SD drill that involved a palm heel to the air followed by rear elbow to the pad. Then we did line work with various combinations, followed by more bagwork with the offensive sidekick. We ended by splitting up by rank for kata and SD list work. Fun class

Adult Karate Class Report 3-17-14 - Sensei Angus Reid leading

Adult Karate Class Report 3-17-14

Angus Reid leading, 9 students attending

With Teryn visiting and a lot of energy from the young black belts in the room, had a very vigorous class that seemed to be enjoyed by everyone. Started with a speedy run through the 10, shadow sparring warm-up, floor stretches and a leg extension exercise. With partners worked on some sparring drills starting with the basic scoop/parry the roundhouse or thrust kick and step to the blind side, then added extensions for both the kicker and the defender, showing how a bigger kick was slower and more obvious but harder to parry, and letting the blocker step in and take the space of the kicker, with mention made of using the free hand to control the kicker's forward arm to prevent an easy counter attack that might otherwise be walked into. 

We then put on gear and did 2-minute sparring rounds at different speeds. 

To finish off, we went through the forms together, with the black belts taking turns leading. I dropped back to help Cherie & Mike with Seisan, which seems good for both of them. I advised them to have a little more extension in their strikes and a little more power in the blocks

Saturday 3.16.14 Tai Chi class - Marty Cormie

Had a good class with Jeff,Jack,Nancy Karen,Wes.and Meg. Did the usual warm ups and standing. then we did some two person push hands.then worked on the dance,ending with a round,both Jeff and Jack helped,

Sunday multi art class, 3/16/14 - Sensei Chaisson

Good morning with 6 students.  Sensei, Read, Jack, Max, Teryn, and myself.  We worked on the left side of the form, and then split off in to groups.  We worked on the dance, the second set of changes, some trapping hands, various karate forms, short and long power in the form of pushes and shoulders.

Saturday kids karate classes, 3/15/14

Good turn out for both the classes with Sensei leading them.  Jack, Teryn, Ron, and myself were assisting.  After the 10 exercises and warm ups for both classes, we focused primarily on sparring.  We worked some target practice and control drills in to the mix as well.

Thursday two person and karate class, 3/13/14 - Sensei Chaisson

4 total in the room.  Colleen, Hannah, Jack, and myself.  We took turns working with Hannah on her 1st empty hand anyo.  We were able to get her to the end of it.  The others who were not working with Hannah worked on various skills together.


The karate class started out with the usual warm ups and strengthening drills.  We spent a large portion of the class working on the development of power from the crescent stepping and turning as well as applications with it from various SD techniques.  We ended with some trapping hands and some forms.  The guys were outnumbered 4 to 2 in this class.  Colleen, Karen, Lana, Cheri, Jack, and myself.

Wednesday T'ai Chi class 3/12/14 - Sensei Chaisson

6 total in the class with Jack and Luke helping.  We started out with the warm ups, moved on to some circling drills and meditation.  We worked on some very basic pushing drills involving sensitivity and learning how to listen.  We ended with the form.

Tuesday Tai Chi class notes - Marty Cormie

It was a  good class with 7 counting myself,Jack,Wes,Karen,Nancy,Creg and Janee. I did the usual warm ups and for standing meditation we did 2 of the 21's. We worked on the dance as Nancy had not been  to class for a long time and wanted to brush up Jack had to leave early for school so Wes Nancy and Karen worked together and Creg and I worked on the first 2 parts of the dance,Creg also ahd to leave at 8:45. We ended abot 9:15 with a round all in all I think it was a good morning.

It's been along time since I've posted, indeed a long time since seeing Sensei/Sifu Red and Jason and all the others, much to my regret, but life gets in the way as much as our good intentions might wish otherwise. I've been thinking a lot about transitions in all the possible meanings lately. Our daughter Liz has moved to Florida, Bill will start college in the Fall at either Iowa State or Univ. Of Buffalo, Maggie is looking for presidencies at colleges all over the country and I am struggling with modifying my teaching methods due to the exigencies of age and circumstance.

I promised myself that I would stop teaching my Self Defense curriculum in it's current form when I turned 60 and that happens this coming June. That means this current semester's crop of S.D. Students are the last to go through the scenario-based, force-on-force, training that I have been doing for the last 30+ years. On one hand, I feel like I have earned the right to hang up the body armor and retire from having a slew of 20 year olds kick my butt around the room. On the other hand, I am sad that this, IMO, very effective method of empowerment for people will go by the wayside.

In a sense, some of this is my fault. Along with my Aerobic Kickboxing classes, the S.D. Classes could have been marketed and franchised and could have ended up like the Tony Blauer or Billy Blanks empires. But that is not why most martial artists train and teach. The inexpressible rewards of the personal touch we have on people's lives far outweighs any monetary or Googleable trace that our efforts may bring. I refer to Richard or Professor or T.T. or Ray in almost every class I teach, as well as forging my own path in what and how I teach. All of my teachers are in my classes and through the years I have gained the confidence that my humble contributions and innovations would draw nods of approval from those teachers.

I struggle with my own foibles, not the least of which is the vanity of thinking I can still do the things I was able to do 30 or 40 years ago. But reality dictates I must face the fact that time passes and my abilities must change with the passage of time. Thank the heavens Richard insisted that I start training Tai Chi as a Brown Belt, for just as predicted, the internal training has become the main focus of my personal practice and is the factor that enables me to train as vigorously, externally, as I still do.

I have been an evangelist, of sorts, to other external martial arts people in my area and have a number of people from other arts embracing the internal arts as a way of continuing a meaningful method of practice beyond a time when they thought physical limitations precluded the martial training they have loved their entire lives.

I've started to wander somewhat, but just want you all to know that your training and insights never end and will serve you we'll throughout your entire lives. Most especially when the training, attitude,and spirit is correct, as it is with Richard, Jason and all the J.R. Roy teachers. I know this from experience.

Cheers,

Tom

Monday night arnis and adult karate class 3/10/14 - Sensei Chaisson

We had a new/old (Karen) student start with us during the arnis class.  The class had seven total, with Sensei and Luke helping.  We worked some basic striking styles and focused on getting the full retraction on the 1 and 2 strikes.  Sensei led the class through the forms while Karen and I broke off to focus more on the 12 angles of attack.


The karate class had 10 in attendance, with Sensei, Ron, Colleen, and Jack all helping.  Karen stayed for the karate class as well, so we started off with a deeper explanation of the 10 exercises and some basic practice focusing on targets with the snap kick and vertical punch.  The staff members in the class took turns working with Karen off to the side on basics and the beginning of the form while the rest of us expanded on the sinawallee drills from Thursday's class.

Adult karate class 3/6/14 - Sensei Chaisson

Small class with only 3 in attendance.  Colleen, Jack R., and Lana as well as myself.  We worked some warm ups with various medicine ball exercises, worked some sinawallee applications, moved on to some basic knife defense and finished the night with rolls.

My early morning practice spot on Grand Cayman

I start before the sun rises and watch it rise as I practice....So peaceful and conducive to meditation. I'm counting my blessing.....you are all in there. Many thanks for all the help and support while I'm away. Keep posting class notes/reports to the Staff Blog. I keep checking'^)

Tai Chi for Health Video - Brigham and Women's Hospital

Below is a video of AKS Black Belt Dennis Sevene performing Kusanku Sai

I've had a bunch of trouble tying to add text to the video below...UGH!
Anyway Dennis was the Youth Karate star when I was coming up in the ranks (1975). The very first Karate tournament I ever attended in Nashua NH was with Sensei McCabe and Dennis Sevene.
Here he is as an adult still practicing and teaching in Colorado.

Isshin Ryū Kusanku Sai Kata - State Games of America

Saturday kid's karate class (second class), 3/1/14 - Sensei Chaisson

Good turn out this morning with Jack assisting.  We started with the 10 exercises with some jumping drills mixed in.  We moved on to partner stretching and then finished with pad work.  We worked various forms of roundhouse kicks, including jumping to try and work with some of the basics for the drills at the class start.  We ended with some jabbing, crossing, and upper-cutting. 

Saturday morning T'ai Chi class, 3/1/14 - Sensei Chaisson

It was a small class today with only four in attendance.  We started off with the warm ups and some meditation.  We broke off in to pairs to work on the dance and ended the class with the solo form.

Thursday night adult karate class, 2/27/14 - Sensei Chaisson

We had seven total including myself with Colleen and Jack assisting.  We started the class off with the 10 exercises and followed them up with the ba gi (fogive my spelling) stances.  With a few of the folks in the class going for an arnis eval and with some inspiration from the professor, I spent most of the class on trapping hands basics, building up to and ending with the slap off drill.  We finished the class working on roles.  Great energy by all.