Hands Up

I told both our outreach groups today (Capitol Hill Elementary and Robert Grey Middle School) that if they take only one thing away from their two months of training it should be "keep your hands up".

Why would that be the one thing I want students to learn?  Perhaps it's because that is the thing I find myself saying the most to students of all ages.  Perhaps it's extremely important to protect your head in a self defense situation.  Perhaps I just wanted to be dramatic and have a moral at then ending of my story.

If it is the first reason, then I need to find more effective ways to communicate the idea.  Simply saying "hands up" over and over isn't enough.  That's what the windmill drill is for.  One student swings their arms back and forth while the other tries to move in and out while throwing strikes.  It's not easy, even at a slow speed and getting hit in the head once is the only reminder students need to protect themselves.

As for the other two reasons, I'll save those for another day.

DownDay Camp 1/6/09 Guest Movement Artist *Warrior Mat Club*

This Friday marked the second Down Day Camp of the 2009-2010 school year.  The theme for the day was WIND, or speed; campers engaged in Ki-Ai, Sui-Wan, and street stage drills, as well as loads of stance work.

Our guest movement arts teacher of the day was Jim McNeely of Cleveland High School's Warrior Matt Club, who as longtime Assistant Coach at Cleveland High, along with his two young assistants Garth and Eddy, exposed the campers to various basics of wrestling through a wide variety of fun drills and games [that had the kids screeching with delight]!

The reputable Warrior Wrestling Club is open to students in grades K-8, and practices take place three times a week (M, Tu, Th from 6-7:30) in the Cleveland HS Mat Room.  Practices cover both the fundamentals of the sport as well as fun drills that help develop general fitness skills.  The cost of club registration is only $60 for the entire season, which functions to cover entry fees to most all tournaments at local schools.  It is a wrestling league designed for novices, associated with an extremely strong HS wrestling program, taught by dedicated, well-qualified coaches of wrestling and High-School teachers by profession.

Sign-ups and a parent info meeting is to take place on Monday, November 16th at 6PM in the Cleveland HS Mat Room (or families may sign up at the beginning of any practice). 

Turning paper flooring into lemonade

Today at our after-school Kung Fu class at Lewis Elementary, we found ourselves faced with a gym floor covered in brown paper!  The PTA had apparently prepared the school gymnasium in anticipation of the annual Lewis Elementary School Holiday Bazaar to take place this Saturday, November 7th, 2009 10am – 3pm.

At first students came unhinged, and skated across the surface in socked feet like (highly-vocal) giraffes on roller-skates!  But the day's lesson had to do with maintaining focus, intention, balance, and the ability to attend to fine detail in facing a challenging situation...

Group work included inversions with cartwheeling, and picking apart and performing their form before "hypothetical" judges at a mock tournament.  For the craft fair proper students drew tiny ninjas (more detail work) on hand-made paper, to be backed with pins & sold at the bazaar. 

We made the floor work for us after-all, and turns out the tape lines and paper covering made a terrific "airstrip" for novice daredevil cart-wheelers to tumble down!

Junior Purple Sash Requirements

Knowledge	Strikes	Grappling
Proper Salute	Vertical Punch	The Mount
Be able to stand without moving	Backfist	Umpa
Be able to follow directions	Elbow Smash	The Guard
Know the name of your teacher	Step 45 Elbow	Cross Body
Know the name of your Kung Fu style	Ridgehand	Knee to Stomach
Hold Strong Stances	Palm Up/Palm Down Chop
Snap Techniques Back		Tumbling
	Drills	Shoulder Roll
Kicks	Kiai	Rear Breakfall
Front Snap	Shuffle Up	Front Breakfall
Knee	Shuffle In
Roundhouse	4 Count Street	Blocks
Side Thrust	Street Stages 0-3	Single Frame
Curl	Basic Stances #1-7	Double Frame
Hook Kick		Soft Inward
	Stances	Soft Outward
Forms	Normal Stance
Sui Wan - complete	Tiger Stance	Calisthenics
	Horse Stance	Jumping Jack
Combinations	Glass Horse Stance	Six-Step Squat
Wrist Grab Counters #1,2	Medium Cat Stance	Push Up
Grab Counter #9 (Airplane)	Long Cat Stance	Burpee
Hand Combinations #4,5,6	Crane Stance	Sit Up (partner or solo)
Kick Combinations #1,2,4

Students must have consistent attendence at twice a week and demonstrate the ability to teach another student of their same age any technique they know. Purple Sashes lead by example on the training floor, always showing quality in both technique and effort. If there is confusion about what is required - ASK.

Garage Door!

Do appearances matter?

Depends on what appears.

When it's a giant garage door, YES!

It means you can wheel the rower outside and paddle in the Portland rain.  It means you can launch a dozen students into the parking lot at once to do four count street on the pavement.  It means carrying Olympic sized bars out with zero concern for hitting the walls.  It means hours of horse stance with a cool breeze on your sweat soaked shirt.

And yes, it means a way cooler looking facade.

Full Moon, High Kicks and Splitting the Rower.

For the Kung Fu class tonight, we riffed a little bit more on the notion of flexibility as it applies to martial arts.  My most recent aha moment surrounding flexibility occurred at a tournament I went to last weekend.  I got kicked in the face a few times and lost the match because of it.

The wonderful thing about a kick to the head, is that it's so darn visible.  When the game revolves around making sure the judges saw the point, it makes total sense to kick high.  If they can't see the point, it doesn't matter how hard or precise the shot was.

We worked some basic partner stretches and the Turkish get-up (don't ask me about the name, I don't have any idea).  The motion of the TGU essentially involves holding a dumbbell overhead while you sit down and then stand back up.  While the stretching is obviously an exercise in flexibility, the Turkish get-ups are a less clearly connected.

The thought goes something like this: the range of motion that your body is capable of moving through is directly related to the activities that you engage in.  Thus, if you sit in a chair all day, your body won't have much dynamic capability at the joints.  However, if you sit in a chair for 8 hours a day then do Turkish get-ups for 10 minutes well then you're body will need to adjust.  Flexibility, therefore can come through usage if that usage pushes the limits of your range of motion.  A simple example is: if you want to kick higher, then keep trying to kick a little bit higher every class.  Over time, your body will make the necessary adjustments.

For the functional fitness class, we did a partner three round workout.

While one person rowed 1000 meters, the other did as many push presses as they could for the first 500 meters and then as many over/unders with the PVC pipe as they could for the second 500.

By the third round it felt like a mercy killing.

Westside Academy of Kung Fu *Now Open For Business*

Today marks our first day of classes as a new school.  Our glass garage door comes tomorrow, and we are waiting on signage still...but we are otherwise ready to go!  Adult Kung Fu class meets tonight at 6PM, and Functional Fitness from 7-8PM.  Westside Academy of Kung Fu...Full speed ahead!