Wednesday night classes, 10/29/15 - Sensei Jeff

Youth karate - We had a good group for the karate class with 9 total and Mike present to help out.  We started with some warm ups and jumping jacks with an introduction to whacky jacks.  We then worked on some back kicks and finished up with various hold escapes, focusing on keeping a peaceful look and not letting the opponent suspect we know what we are doing.  Much better energy from the group this week.

T'ai Chi - There were only 3 of us for the t'ai chi class.  Mike, Sam, and myself were training.  Sam came in a bit late, so we started off with the short cane form for Mike.  Once Same came in, we swapped gears over in to doing some basic stance work and some arm circling drills.  Good progress was made.

Arnis - It was just Sam and I for the arnis class.  We started off by reviewing some of the beginner joint locks and worked on an arm bar drill that I tied in to from the t'ai chi class.  We then started working on sinawali, though we had to back track and drill down several times to get some of the correct stance work in the drill.  Sam had a very difficult time with the drag step, so we ended up isolating it for a large amount of the class and did a few different drills working on the body hook up for it.  We ended with a little work with the form, which Same had not yet started.  It was a small, but very productive class.

Monday night adult karate, 10/26 - Sensei Reid

Adult Karate Class Report 10-26-15

Angus Reid leading, Lily Serrentino assisting, five other students attending

Had a fairly well-attended (for a Monday night) class with some new faces: Matthew & Gianna from the kids class. Was great to have them, and also new student Jeff, and so took the opportunity to review the kicks that I often like to use when making sequences: front thrust, roundhouse, front-leg side kick, rear-leg side kick, inside-outside & outside-inside crescent kicks. After the usual warm ups we practiced single and then combo kicks in lines, then took partners and focus pads and spent the rest of the time working on all aspects of those kicks: power, body mechanics, speed, accuracy, and balance. Everyone had something to work on at whatever level they were at, and Lily did a great job bringing Jeff up to speed on the basics of these techniques, modifying them so they worked for him, allowing me to keep working with the other students. 

Thursday night classes, 10/22/15 - Sensei Jeff

It was Colleen , Ron, and I for the staff class.  We mainly did a review of the weapons forms, including the broad sword and staff forms.  We also spent some time on Sun su.

We had the same group as the previous Thursday with Ron, Colleen, Dylan, Cheri, Jeff, and myself present.  We started off with the 10 and some drills for kicks stepping in front, behind, and through the other foot for a warm up.  We went back in to some of the drills brought back from the arnis seminar, including a trapping hands adaptation or two we came up with.  We ended with some work on the forms.  Great energy in the room.

Wednesday youth karate class, 10/21/15 - Sensei Jeff

We had 8 total today with Mike assisting and Giana, Skyler, Sailer, Zephyr, Mark, Amos, and Sylas there as well.  It was actually a difficult group to deal with today as the majority of the class looked half asleep.  After the 10 we moved in to some shuffling sparring stance drills to try and get everyone moving.  From there the white belts split off to work on snap kicks, jabs, and crosses while the rest worked on some hook and axe kicks.  We then moved in to some escapes from head locks.  The group was pretty well engaged by the end of the class and there were a number of smiles.  Mike did an awesome job assisting and adding a great deal of energy to the group.