When you lead a class.......

When you lead a class please make sure to take attendance and pop me an email about class size, who showed up, helpers any problems with students or parents of students etc. or you can post a short note to the Staff Blog. 

Teaching or instructing?

Teaching or instructing?

One instructs when passing on techniques and sequences without discussion of what is the essence of martial arts training: How you practice the techniques and sequences 

One teaches when passing on the essence of the arts: The daily practice of the techniqes and sequences.
Teaching about daily practice involves talking about consistency, training attitude, consciousness, etiquette and philosophy, partner dynamics, personal daily practice concepts and ethics, the spiritual aspect of martial arts practices, meditation and insights to a successful personal practice. 

Remember what we are teaching are practices.
These are solo and partner practices. In order to 'do' the system one needs to consistently practice the solo material (daily for advanced students) and also consistently practice the two person material with a qualified partner (unless your teaching).

What we 'teach' is consistency of personal practices. 

Sometimes you instruct.....At other times you teach....You mostly use the techniques as fodder to teach.

Modern Arnis Class Notes 09.22.2014

Rob, Jack and myself

With an eye towards reviewing materials for testing in November we started with some stick twirling, moved on to stick and empty hands forms, then to block check counter.  For Rob the focus was on the angles of attack and working on the coordination of the lower counter strikes. For Jack, we worked on review the obstruction removal drill/Slap off drill which was rather rusty. We ended with an introduction to the 6 count drill.

Prior to class starting Colleen made a brief practice appearance with Jack. It was great to see them working on the disarm counters. If we have the right mix of people tonight it would be good for them to get some more time in on the counters.

-Phil

Monday night classes, 9/15/14 - Sensei Jeff

We had 5 total for the arnis group.  Luke, Phil, Jack, Rob, and myself.  We did some warm ups with some double 0 twirling and switching hands mixed in.  We spent a large portion of the class working on the 6 tapi tapi entrances with Rob just following.  For the end of class we did some single and double stick twirling as well as a run through the forms.  Trying to initialize a testing, I was mainly looking at Rob through this.  I think if we can get him a little less glitch, he would be ready for yellow.


We had 4 for the karate class.  Mike, Lana, John and myself were all present.  We took a run through the 10 and did some strengthening/balance exercises as well as some additional stretching.  We worked on some crescent stepping and punching drills and moved in to a large amount of forms and SD work.  It was very productive for Lana and John (Mike and myself too!).  Lana is starting to get her mind in to what she is doing to the point where she is starting to catch her own corrections in her feet.  Through a number of conversations with John during the forms, I think I've finally gotten through to him that if he can't do it slow, he absolutely can't do it fast.  He had an adjustment to his mindset during his last couple runs through.  Great crew of folks who just wanted to train.

Thursday youth karate, 9/11/14 - Sensei Jeff

We had a good group for the taste of youth karate, though we only had one new student in the room.  We started off with some in depth practice of 5 out of the 10 exercises as well as some high blocks.  We moved on to some partner pad work on snap kicks with a good explanation of the partner dynamic as well as the importance of training partners.  We got some SD in with our partners, focusing mainly on breaking the hold for crash of the eagle and the lever.  We finished with a quick run through of the forms at demo pace up through wansu.  Great energy by all and even though we only had one student show up for the event, he did sign up.

Thursday night classes, 9/4/14

It was just Colleen and I for the 2-person class.  We started off with a review of the t'ai chi sword form and monkey staff.  We spent the bulk of the class reviewing up through the end of part 2 of the dance and got in a review of the 6 arnis changes.


We had 5 for the karate class.  We started with some leg strengthening drills and some floor stretches.  We had a heavy focus on basics in the beginning of the class with work on our traditional blocks and crescent stepping.  We moved in to some forms and eventually some trapping hands and unfriendly hand shake for the upper ranks and some SD for John.

Wednesday night classes, 9/3/14 - Sensei Jeff

We had 5 of us for the t'ai chi class.  We started with the set of warm ups and moved in to some meditation.  We spent a good deal of the class working on the foot work for brush knee twist and repulse monkey.  We ended the class with the form.


There were 4 of us in the arnis class.  We started with a few warm ups  and moved in to some two person work to continue warming up.  We went on to a review of the 6 changes as well as other tapi tapi drills.  We moved on to some form work and some joint locking to end the class.


Good energy and effort by all throughout both classes.