So busy!
Since our return from Switzerland, I've been crazy busy with martial arts stuff. Let me summarize-
*I passed my test for high level red belt in TSD. This leaves me with just under a year to pass two more tests before another black belt test emerges.
*The Little Tigers program has been a blast. Saturday morning class has been progressing well, and I've been invited to take over an early Friday afternoon class on an ongoing basis.
*Our school had a booth open at Broomfield Days, a local annual event where nearby businesses try to gain some visibility during the fair-like events. We had our demo team show their stuff and they drew in quite a crowd. Here's to hoping we gain a few new students for our efforts.
*Sunday class has been reasonably successful, though so far only our teenage brown belts have really utilized it regularly. I'm not complaining, mind you, as they've been practicing quite hard during the unstructured time, but I do hope some of the other students take advantage of the class.
Of course, while I'm on the topic of a Sunday Class, let me share with this little tale with you...
The teens are taking the training seriously and it clearly shows in their technique, so to give them a reward I offer some unorthodox training activities like the free-for-all weapons combat sessions. Four stations are set up: staff, sword and shield, spear and shield, and dagger and small shield. I let them choose which weapons they started with, gave them some advice on how to fight using them, and took the remaining station. After some reminder about control, we begin.
Aaaand, they lost. Promptly tossing my advice right out the window, they flail and panic. Sigh. A few "stabs" later, I remain and order them to switch weapon stations. They eventually realize the need for tactical fighting, occasional truces, not running head-first into weapons, and manage to "kill" me off once. Good for them!
After everyone gets to try each weapon, I swap out the weapons for different ones: spear and small shield, twin daggers, two thrown weapons (darts/shuriken/kunai/bombs/whatever) and shield, and dagger with large shield. A fun and creative session, certainly, as they tried to get used to the new weapons. I was slain once (head wound from the spear), which is keen as they were more adaptive than I expected, but they lasted less than 10 seconds when I had the twin daggers. Three heart stabs later, we wrapped up class.
Well, we almost did. One of them overheard my mentioning use of dual shields and asked how that would work. He learned the hard way. ;D
*I passed my test for high level red belt in TSD. This leaves me with just under a year to pass two more tests before another black belt test emerges.
*The Little Tigers program has been a blast. Saturday morning class has been progressing well, and I've been invited to take over an early Friday afternoon class on an ongoing basis.
*Our school had a booth open at Broomfield Days, a local annual event where nearby businesses try to gain some visibility during the fair-like events. We had our demo team show their stuff and they drew in quite a crowd. Here's to hoping we gain a few new students for our efforts.
*Sunday class has been reasonably successful, though so far only our teenage brown belts have really utilized it regularly. I'm not complaining, mind you, as they've been practicing quite hard during the unstructured time, but I do hope some of the other students take advantage of the class.
Of course, while I'm on the topic of a Sunday Class, let me share with this little tale with you...
The teens are taking the training seriously and it clearly shows in their technique, so to give them a reward I offer some unorthodox training activities like the free-for-all weapons combat sessions. Four stations are set up: staff, sword and shield, spear and shield, and dagger and small shield. I let them choose which weapons they started with, gave them some advice on how to fight using them, and took the remaining station. After some reminder about control, we begin.
Aaaand, they lost. Promptly tossing my advice right out the window, they flail and panic. Sigh. A few "stabs" later, I remain and order them to switch weapon stations. They eventually realize the need for tactical fighting, occasional truces, not running head-first into weapons, and manage to "kill" me off once. Good for them!
After everyone gets to try each weapon, I swap out the weapons for different ones: spear and small shield, twin daggers, two thrown weapons (darts/shuriken/kunai/bombs/whatever) and shield, and dagger with large shield. A fun and creative session, certainly, as they tried to get used to the new weapons. I was slain once (head wound from the spear), which is keen as they were more adaptive than I expected, but they lasted less than 10 seconds when I had the twin daggers. Three heart stabs later, we wrapped up class.
Well, we almost did. One of them overheard my mentioning use of dual shields and asked how that would work. He learned the hard way. ;D