Instructor Class with Sensei Field by Dave Bracklow
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Andre McWilliams and I went to California on Sunday May 16th for Instructor training class. If you plan on doing this in the future, I recommend allowing 1.5 to 2 hours min travel time between LAX and the Santa Monica dojo. (get with me and I’ll give you the details)
Training started promptly @ 1:00 and finished @ 2:30. The subject matter for the day was lesson #2 “What parts of the body do we use in Karate, Heian #1 and 2, Sanbon Kumite”.
As we started training Sensei told us to “think about what parts of the body we use in Karate” I thought feet, hands elbows. Mostly striking and blocking. We’ll see later that I was thinking to small.
One of the main things he mentioned in this class and the one at the Spring Camp was to show the technique as if a white belt was watching. Don’t talk about it; demonstrate the technique so that they can copy. Obviously if your basics are bad the student will see this and replicate the same bad technique.
We practiced side kicking for quite a long time. I guess the group as a whole didn’t have very good basic side kicks. (considering we were all Nidan and above)
Then we practiced Heian 1 and 2 emphasis on complete hand movements i.e. first movement down block (gedan bari) moving left right hand towards the target left hand to the ear. (repeating this throughout the kata) Same thing with knife defense (Shuto uke) “DON”T MAKE SMALL HAND MOVEMENTS”
Last 15-20 minutes was discussion. He asked the group “What parts of the body do we use” One of the students responded “the whole body” He asked for a demonstration. (the student used reverse punch as his subject) Starting with the heal on the ground, straight leg, rotated hip, core (body center) tight, lats, arm wrist, knuckles. Sensei asked if we need to add anything else we all agreed he cover it pretty good. Sensei said, “What about draw hand (hiki te). Stumped again. Draw hand though a small part of a punch is not the least important. I relate draw hand in karate to the lug nuts on a car. Probably the smallest element, but just as important as the engine.
That’s all for now. There were a lot of small points, but I think you need to be at a class to appreciate all the information that was given.
Good training as usual with Sensei Field. We all enjoyed it. As usual tons of traffic returning to LAX allow plenty of time if you plan on doing this.
My goal is to do 2 or 3 a year in Santa Monica. Plus Mr. Field will teach one class at each camp.
I still need to schedule a trip to Master Camp. (a pre-requisite to testing)
OSS – Dave Bracklow