Youth Karate - Thursday, September 10th, 2015

One student on Thursday. We started off with some one and two strikes, then tried out some single sinawalli. Then we moved on to the first five movements of the locking series, and some belt-focused self defense techniques, which were the Ferrini's elbows.

We did a little trapping hands, working on switching from inside to outside, and then some single handed variations.

We ended with a little kata work. Very productive class.

Youth Karate - Thursday, June 18th, 2015

Four students on Thursday - all blue belts! We did the ten, with a bit of focus on the foot and knee position, especially on three, eight, and nine.

We did some warm up outside/inside crescent kicks to pads, and then worked on keeping the balance after. That was then chained into a crescent kick to side kick combo. The idea was to work on the balance with that kick to improve the kick in Seiuchin kata.

We went through Seiuchin as a group, and then individually. Some common themes for improvement were taking time to hit each stance, and keeping the eyes up.

We ended class with a review of the blue belt self defense techniques, and a few locks.

Class Notes - Thursday, April 30th, 2015

Youth Karate
Four students. We started with medicine ball ten exercises, then did outside/inside crescent kicks to pads. I had the upper ranks add on the side kick for a combination.

We did self defense for the second half of class, with some focus on aiming the spear.

Adult Karate
Two students with Ron assisting. Started off with the side to side drag step warm up series - the basics, then moving into the hooks and uppercuts.

We then did a couple kicks in a few ways. First the outside/inside crescent kick to pads, then the lotus kick just for aim to our partners. Then a similar thing with side kicks to pads, and angle kicks to our partners. The idea was to look at the different ways the techniques can be changed into different situations, such as sparring vs. self defense.

We went over our forms and self defense, with focus on trapping hands. And then worked on the mobility throw.

We ended with some shadow sparring. Good class with a good crew.

Youth Karate - Thursday, April 23rd, 2015

Private lesson with one student on Thursday, plus a brief visit from a new prospect.

We did the 10 with plenty of explanations, then moved into rear leg roundhouse kicks to pads, moving up and down the room. While we had the pads out, we did a little turning backfist, starting with the crane stance one, then the mobile one.

Then we worked on rank things - Kata and SD. We went over a lot of detail on Wan Su, and made some changes on the challenge. The SD was a lot of takedowns, and I thought they made good improvement in our session.

Very productive and fun class.

Youth Karate - Thursday, April 16th, 2015

Four students on Thursday, and Ron assisting.

Started with a very quick ten, then broke off into partners, white belts with an upper rank. We practiced the defensive side kick to pads, discussing pivots and the knee turning over the fence.

After a water break, we came back to practice forms. Ron started out with the white belts and me with the upper ranks. We worked for a while, then Ron took the upper ranks for some self defense practice, focusing on intensity and composure. I continued with Nihanchi with the white belts.

We ended with a bit of a tricky drill for the white belts - angling off against a sparring side kick and coming back in for a backfist. I think everyone had fun though.

Youth Class - Thursday, March 12th, 2015

Great class today. I had two of my regulars, Christopher and Josephine, and also Tucker and Djbril, who I haven't seen in a while. We did the ten exercises and then went right into form practice. We started out together with Nihanchi, then broke off. I had Tucker help the white belts while Djbril and I added a new move to Seiuchin, then I worked with Tucker while everyone did some solo practice.

We did a little leg warm up with some basic thrust kicks, and then tried some jumping thrust kicks to pads. Cristopher and Josephine caught on very quickly and the kicks looked great all around.

We didn't have much time at the end of class, but I thought Double Knee tied in really well with the theme of jump kicks, so we tried it out a few times.

Great energy in the room and I think everyone had fun.

Youth Karate - Thursday, February 5th, 2014

Small group on Thursday, just Christopher and Josephine, with Sensei Kratz assisting. We skipped the ten and reviewed a few basics, like horse stance, vertical punching, Seisan stance, and snap kicks. Then we practiced them to pads, which I thought was very productive. We did some detail work on the first half of Nihanchi, having each of them perform by themselves. We also did some applications, which helped Christopher especially. We ended off with some linework with basic combinations.

Youth Karate - Thursday, January 22nd, 2015

Good group on Thursday. We went through a quick ten and then worked on tiring out the arms and shoulders to practice relaxed punching. We did some of the step/drag stancework and integrated it with cross punches to warm up. We had some discussion and practice with not telegraphing our moves for sparring and worked on differentiating between jabs and backfists.

We ended off with some stretching, linework, and kata.

Youth Karate - Thursday, January 15th, 2015

Three students tonight, and Sensei Kratz helping.

Did a quick ten, and then did some side kick drills. First the muscle memory one, then the turning-the-corner one with sticks. We then practiced defensive side kicks to pads. It was a lot of information for them to absorb.

We then went into a little self defense by trying out Rising Elbow and reviewing the beginning techniques as well, then ended with some Kata.

Youth Karate - Thursday, December 11, 2014

Good crowd on Thursday (about eight of us). Interspersed basics into the ten exercises, then worked on rear leg roundhouse kicks, focusing on the driving of the knee and how that plays into the pivot. Also worked on forms for the different ranks.

Youth Karate - Thursday, 10/09/14 - Colleen

Four students in class today.

Started with the ten, with discussion about applications and "old school" style tiger crouches.

Then went on to traditional linework, sticking with just the crescent stepping and punching for the white belts, and randomized stepping, blocking, punching for the upper ranks.

With the modern linework, we also split up the drills, with the higher ranks doing the Simon Says sparring copying drill, and the lower ranks working on their forward and backward lunges, and keeping the center line around the circle.

We ended with a few minutes of harmony sparring.

Youth Class - Thursday, July 18, 2013

We had seven younger students, plus Mike at the Thursday Youth class. Started out with the ten, then did a little work with the medicine balls because there was interest in those before class started. First we did the situp passes, then the seiuchin stance tossing. That quickly got very silly, so we had to move on to something else. After a water break we came back and worked on snap kicks while balancing a focus pad on the head. Many of the students were very distractable, but when they concentrated, they were able to get it going. After a quick stretch, we ran through the katas twice each, with people dropping back to work on their own. Once everyone had some practice time and some water, we watched each student perform one of their katas. That went really well - everyone had great concentration and focus while performing.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Three students today and four assisting. After we warmed up with the ten, Sensei led us through some kicking drills and stretching. Then we went through several rounds of free sparring with different partners. The students were able to get some advice from the upper ranks. To finish up, we did a few rounds of two-on-one sparring.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Three students today with Jack assisting. After the ten, we pulled out the "over the fence" sidekick drill. We then practiced those defensive sidekicks to body shields. I think it really helped getting the pivoting and the initial knee position in there, but there was still a bit of roundhouse energy in some of the kicks.

The students wanted a balancing challenge, so we practiced roundhouse kicks to pads from the balance boards. Even with the kicking partner holding on to the bar, it was tricky. After a quick water break, we worked on forms. Everyone was still in the sequence-learning phase, and got a few more moves for their rank form.

We ended class with another student favorite - rolls. I was still seeing quite a bit of over the top somersaulting, but assisting them with the momentum by flipping their feet seemed to help. We even did a few backwards rolls.

Very fun class!

Youth Karate - Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Six students with Jack assisting. I was a little late opening up, so we had a rough start, but we got right on track with the ten exercises. Maybe I was a little disheveled, because for some reason I picked some complicated exercises to try. We started with the jab/backfist/cross drill. We did a little bit to the air, and then some to the pads. Doing them to the pads made it tricky to keep the flow going. Then, to get the legs involved, I suggested a kicking combo of hook/roundhouse. After seeing most of the students (blue belts excepted) struggle with that, we tried to change it to crescent/roundhouse. Hopefully it was a fun challenge, but I'll try to stick with single kicks in the future for the lower ranks.

After some stretching, we had a little self defense discussion about basic SD strikes versus sparring or traditional strikes. We then did a round of the gauntlet. There was a bit of silliness starting to pop up, especially with strange attacks. I saw more confidence in defending against the standard attacks we practice.

To hopefully get rid of some of the excess energy, we did burpee/drop knees. Each partnership shared a body shield, and alternated doing a burpee then a drop knee to the pad. We went full speed for about a minute. Another minute or so of lying down meditation ended off class.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, August 14, 2012

One to one ratio today with 4 students and 4 instructors. Warmups included the 10 exercises and floor kicks. We paired up for hamstring stretching with our partners pushing on our backs, making sure to go through the different kicking positions of our feet while we stretched.

Then we did some work on thrust kicks and side kicks. I did a short demonstration for each kick, but left it up to the partnerships whether they wanted to do stationary, moving, distancing, etc. for each kick.

Those kicks were then worked on in the self defense ground kick drill. We emphasized to keep the head up and not kick your partner with any force. I was planning some other SD stuff, but we only had time for some kata work, and to watch Simon's kata in front of the group.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Four students today with Jack assisting. We had a sparring focused class today. During warmups, we practiced our spider walking, then went into a couple of focus pad drills.

First, forward leg roundhouse. The white belts had a little trouble remembering to get back into stance after the kick, but the retraction looked pretty good.

Then we did a drill to speed up the backfist. Instead of the usual "dropping the pad" exercise, we had the padholder try to catch the punchers' hand if they didn't retract fast enough. I think the students really enjoyed that drill.

We had time for a couple rounds of sparring before the end of class. I started out coaching the white belts about the basics of targeting and stancework while Jack gave pointers to the more advanced students. We then switched it up a couple times with one person attacking and one person defending.

A little stretching to cool down.

Youth Karate - Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Private class with Gianna, Jack and Lily. It was quite hot, so we just went at a relaxed pace. Started out with a good portion of stretching, then did a run through the katas. Went slowly through Sanchin so Gianna could follow along. We went though a couple of the higher rank self defense techniques, then ended with push hands. A lot of high level stuff, but an excellent class!

Youth Karate - Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Small private class - two students and Jack assisting. Started off with the 10, and added in some additional Tai Chi warmups - touching the shoulders and flicking the hands. Also the drill where you whip your hands out from behind the belt. (Not sure of names for any of these drills?) The idea was to get that loose feeling to transfer into the punches.

We did some traditional linework, starting with the punches, trying to get the relaxed power. Then we went through each block/punch combo individually. Then Jack and I switched off calling out a block randomly while the other three did the step/block/punch. It was challenging for the students, but I think it improved their blocks.

Katas we went through twice each, first for position, then for speed and power. Jack helped Luke refine the end of Seisan while I watched Gianna perform Seiuchin.

We took out the mats for the end of class to work on rolls. Luke was just starting with them, and Gianna made a lot of improvement over the session. In the last 5 minutes, I set up a fun, but probably not very realistic situation where they were in an alleyway, had to roll away from the attacker behind them, jump up on the other folded up mat, then self-defense their way past Bob to escape.

Adult Karate - Monday, May 14, 2012

Small, high quality class tonight - there were six of us in total. After the 10, we went straight into self defense padwork. It was a good cardio workout and review of individual techniques for all of us. We made time for palm heels, hammerfists, knees, and elbows. I did a quick presentation before each one, reminding everyone of the different styles each technique could have - for example, elbows could be forward side, rear side, upwards motion, etc. I left it up to each partnership to choose the style of each technique they needed to practice most.

After a quick water break, we took out the mats to do takedowns. We started with a quick discussion of what we thought were the basic takedowns (excluding variations, follow-ups, etc.) and made a list. What we came up with was:

- Armbar
- Backwards throw
- "The Bridge" type sweep
- Reverse armbar
- "Overhead Club Attack" type takedown
- Mobility throw
- "Flying Elbows" type takedown

We each worked with several different partners, with the lower ranks staying with the techniques at the top of the list. Again, it was a little free form in what variations of each takedown and what follow-ups each person needed to practice.

Could have spent a lot more time on all of that stuff, but I wanted to get a little circle self defense in at the end. The takedown practice worked well I think, because there were a lot more controlled takedowns than normal in the circle self defense.