Good old days!

HI George -

I watched the kumite film with interest, and had some comments - now it's been a looong time since I taught the freshman phys ed class with Dick Philbrick (vanished) and Dave Ruth (hear from him once in a while), so I suppose I could be romanticizing... anyway, I'm writing mostly to remind myself, --- you are after all the one I learned all this from!

Anyway, here was my reaction:
1. Ouch - your sparring partner has not been taught wrist position! I would teach that the very first day with my new students - with his knuckles out and wrist bent, that poor fellow will break three or four bones very painfully if he ever actually HITS anything :-)

2. You say you teach in four stages. I remember at least one that might be what you're referring to ... What about the inside hand in the circular block kumite? When I taught it, it was in stages, and the first stage didn't use the circular right block (for a right thrust parry) at all! I taught them to first use a the very fast left deflection, just guiding past the solar plexus, since they were REALLY slow for the first year in the speed of the circular block. I would bet that forgetting this essential partial block in the kumite is the reason that other student was getting hit - not being taught the full block sequence! Then I merged the left deflect and the right circular for two stages of speed and strength that could be adjusted to the need of the moment. Working on body motion, feet and balance would be part of this also.

3. I do the circular block itself with a much stronger elbow-snap-down- to-my-rib than you showed in the demo. This I think is an advanced refinement - didn't teach to the class until they got pretty advanced. But this is essential if you miss part of the block or a second thrust comes before you're ready, to protect at least part of the mid-body while you gauge your next reaction. It also adds a lot of strength and leverage of you are physically weaker than your attacker.

4. And I agree 100% that the most important and often not-learned feature of the circular block is to cover the absolute minimum area, with no wild swings to the outside, blocking useless regions far outside the attack area. (And another bad habit - raising the elbow so high the midsection is unduly exposed to, e.g., an unforeseen kick.) I would drill on these over and over to get the hand just high enough but not too high on the cross-body motion, and no outside flailing on the finish; we would mark the area and train people to keep the elbow low and stay inside a compact region by constant nagging and tactile feedback by putting an instructor arm in the "wrong" region and making fun of them if they hit it ...

...ah, the good old days.... The classes I teach now have no conceivable means of such excellent and instantaneous class-wide feedback - I always thought teaching martial arts was much more rewarding for the instructor than academics... Best, Andy