Adult Karate class notes - Monday 1.23.12 - Dennis

Here are the notes from adult karate 1/23/12:

It was a large class.  After the ten and some stretching, we did pad work.  We started with the basic rear leg roundhouse kick as a warm up and then moved on to some pad drills for speed and distance training.  After that,Tyren led through the kata and Colleen led the black belts through Sunsu.  Finally, we used trapping hands as a platform for joint locks.  Sorry Angus didn't take more video.  We did mostly two person work and I needed Angus to try out the drills on before showing them to the class. Ron led the group through Sanchin.

-Dennis

Adult Karate 11.17.11 class notes - Dennis

Ron led the karate class.  In attendance were myself, Marcia, Colleen, Scott, Thomas, the twins, and Chelsea.  We started with kata and took turns leading.  After that, Marcia led through basic punches and blocks;  I led some basic kicking drills for balance and conditioning; Thomas led stretching.  We then paired up and did free form self defense.  Finally, we sparred for the remainder of class.

Adult Karate 8/22/2011 - Dennis

There were about eleven people in class.  Angus, Colleen and Ron were there to assist.  After the ten and some stretching, we did some partner drills for weight shifting and stealing the opponents space.  The lotus kick, arm bar, and elbow strike were added in for self-defense.  After that, we did bag work.  We started with the self-defense sequence that I didn't get to last time.  It incorporated knees to the groin, palm heels and elbow strikes.  Then we did another bag drill for timing and then a final bag drill for distancing and footwork.  Energy was high.  I thought that it was a good class and that the material presented was useful for the people in the room. -Dennis

Youth Karate and Little Dragons class notes - Thursday June 2 - Dennis

The weather that day was horrible.  It alternated frequently between a light dizzy and an absolute downpour with high winds.  It was also very humid.  When class started, the energy in the room was low and students seem distracted.  Despite that, the turnout was huge among the youth karate.  There where some faces that I've never seem before.  Teryn, Colleen and Thomas were there to assist me.  I asked Colleen to take attendance and Thomas to lead through the ten.

 

We lined up with the two little dragons in the front.  They seemed to be the most enthusiastic.  I had a few corrections for them on the ten exercises and they were able to implement them right away.  After that, I led the class in a four stage side kick drill that I've been practicing recently.  I wasn't sure that the little dragons would be able to keep up so Thomas worked with them at the bar.  The class handled the drill well, so I added a jab, cross, and later a hook punch.

 

We then moved on to partner work and Thomas worked separately with the little dragons.  We focused on the over the head x-block which I explained as a bunkai from Seisan.  It seemed like new material to many students and needed lots of work.  We started off simple and then added to it.  I showed the beginning students some simple techniques to add (like deflect to the side and escape) and the advanced students some advanced techniques (arm bar; backward throw.)  We also did bunkai from Nihanchi, specifically the weight shifting stance work with the oriental backfist.  Since the oriental backfist can be tricky, I substituted the hammer fist.  Everyone seemed to be having a hard time making the leap from kata to reality on this one so I added some pad work to help them out.  That improved things substantially with the hammer fist and by that time the energy in the room had built up to a good level.  Alexis managed to get it so well that I asked the class to stop for a moment and look at her.  I think she wins the gold star for over all performance that night.  Yanni also did his usual consistent good job.

 

It was a big class and I was glad that I had help.  Thomas was a great help with the little dragons.  Teryn and Colleen provided some useful suggestions for the youth group and they both seemed just as invested in the success of the class as I was.  That really helped with moral.  Teryn was giving me some useful input on the hammer fist drill at the end but unfortunately we had run out of time.  It was really disappointing to end class while things were finally going so productively.

 

-Dennis

Adult Karate class notes - Monday 11.9.11 - Dennis

Angus was there unexpectedly.  He said that he returned from his trip early.  The other students were Marcia, Colleen, Scott, Thomas, Jack, Lana and Josh.  The class consisted almost entirely of partner work.  Since I was the odd duck out, I walked around and gave tips.  Partners were changed frequently.  I thought that the pairings were good.  I saw a LOT of really good feedback going on.  It seemed like the class ran at optimal efficiency.

 

Scott was a big help.  He was my uke for demonstrating most of the drills.  Also, when we did harmony sparring at the end, he volunteered to sit out so that I could work with Josh.  I had Marcia sit out instead, since I knew she wasn't feeling 100%, however I was really impressed that Scott was thinking ahead like that.

We started with the ten exercises and stretching.  Then we did some drills for stealing the opponent's space and pushing followed by some SD applications.  After that we did pad work for a crescent kick/hook punch combination.  It's one of my favorite combinations in sparring.  Finally we did harmony sparring.  I worked with Josh.  I found that it was much more productive to have him focus on resetting his stance rather than following each block immediately with a strike.  It was so productive, in fact, that I instructed the rest of the class to try and counter by shuffling in and out of range rather than just blocking.  The energy in the room was good.

-Dennis

Adult Karate class notes - Thursday 11.13.10 - Dennis

We started class with the ten exercises, then stretching, and then Kata.

 

Since I've been working on the Kata corrections you gave me, I thought it would be good if we tried some of the strikes against the pads.  We did the Nihanchi plus the Seiuchin variants of the oriental back-fist and also the sternum strike from Seiuchin.  After that, we did some harmony sparring drills followed by some sparring.

Dennis