Today was a good day.
Classes at Carrollton Montessori and Children's Lighthouse went well - fast paced, high energy classes where I feel more energized at the end than at the beginning. Great focus at Carrollton Montessori from the kids, and I added stripes to belts for Sarah, Caitlyn, and Jaidyn at the Lighthouse. Then back to the Studio, quickly.....
We had a really good class from 4:45 5o 5:20 with our Junior Black Belt Candidates, getting ready for the test on the 18th. That test is shaking down as Katherine Rogers, Aakash Padakandla, Eric Brem and Rohit Nair. We spent 35 minutes working on hitting harder doing the techniques, getting more realistic hits.
After that, Advanced Juniors, Brown and above. We had 10 kids in class, which is a good turnout for that level. We covered a lot of material, and it was a lot of fun. We worked on doing techniques and forms while screening out confusion - doing things like having everyone face random directions and do forms. It's hard to focus on a form when 10 peeople are doing different forms in all different directions, but it can be done.
That class ran late, as I added stripes to Red/Black belts. Fortunately, Frank Rodriguez was there to get the late Junior class going, so I had time to finish with the advanced students. I finally took over from Frank, so that he could do Systema with Kevin, Jason, and Steve, and while I worked with the basic Junior class, Dawn Rowland was working from 6:15 to 7:15 with the Demo Team.
A busy day - great classes, lots of activity, lots of positive energy. The kind of day that makes me want to come back tomorrow because I want to see what's next!
Monday, December 3, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Lots of events in December!
Saturday, December 15 - 6 to 10PM - drop the kids off for 4 hours and go have dinner or finish the shopping. We've got Santa coming over to meet the kids, and we're going to decorate the tree! $30 per kid, Reserve early, as space is limited!
Friday, December 21, 7PM to 7:30PM - come sing some Christmas Carols with us and have some punch and cookies. No charge - but feel free to bring a snack, some cookies, cake, or brownies. It'll be a fun evening for everyone on the last Friday before Christmas.
Saturday, December 22 - it's a special testing day for those students who are ready to test. Fillour the testing form to schedule a test if you are ready!
And New Years Eve, we're having our first New Years Eve Party! Drop the kids off any time after 7PM, and pick them up any time before 8AM. We'll play games, watch movies, and have fun on New Years Eve while Mom and Dad have their own fun. $50 per kid, and space is limited, so reserve early!
Friday, December 21, 7PM to 7:30PM - come sing some Christmas Carols with us and have some punch and cookies. No charge - but feel free to bring a snack, some cookies, cake, or brownies. It'll be a fun evening for everyone on the last Friday before Christmas.
Saturday, December 22 - it's a special testing day for those students who are ready to test. Fillour the testing form to schedule a test if you are ready!
And New Years Eve, we're having our first New Years Eve Party! Drop the kids off any time after 7PM, and pick them up any time before 8AM. We'll play games, watch movies, and have fun on New Years Eve while Mom and Dad have their own fun. $50 per kid, and space is limited, so reserve early!
Saturday is the best day of the week!
Saturday, December 1 - I love Saturdays. We have the biggest classes of the week (usually) and we also have extra help. We usually have 2 or 3 advanced Juniors (like Sarah, Sammy, and Mehvish) who show up to help teach Little Dragons. We hit a lot of material on Saturday - the classes can be intense. Forms, Techniques, basics, and extras - and it moves fast.
This Saturday, we had 13 Little Dragons, followed by 22 Juniors. Included in the Junior class were 4 kids from Dallas International School, where we're coming up on the end of our first half-year with 15 kids in the program! One fun drill we did - a race at the end of class. We did suicides - start, then run to the third line and back, 2nd line and back, 1st line and back, and then we add a twist - you run at the wavemasters and, as you get close, Tammy Walters yells out a technique, and you have to do it on the bag. You've got to be fast - and focused - and you've got to think on your feet. It combines many elements of the class, in one short, fast, intense burst of energy!
Sparring - 10 kids. In sparring, we do one on one - and multi attacker sparring - and then we circle up with two Juniors sparring in the middle of the circle. Juniors around the edge yell suggestions and support, and push the juniors who are sparring back into the middle if they hit the edge. It's realistic, and intense, and lots of fun.
Adults - a really good class. If we can get a lot of kenpo done at a pace that leaves everyone hot and tired, then we've had a good class. Today, we had a group of Yellow and Orange Belts, and another group of higher belts. We warmed up with lower forms and created a form that included all the Yellow Techniques - and then split the lower belts off. Frank Rodriguez assisted, and we swapped halfway through, with me moving to lower belts and Frank doing Green Techniques with the advanced students.
After that, a few minutes with sticks, doing basic sinawale patterns. We finished the class with 5 minutes of work with the focus mitts.
After the class, Frank, Kevin, and Steve sparred for an hour during open adult sparring. One one one and two on one - I was doing back to back private classes with students, but from where I was standing, it looked like they were getting and giving a workout.
Saturday's the bestday of the week. This one was great!
This Saturday, we had 13 Little Dragons, followed by 22 Juniors. Included in the Junior class were 4 kids from Dallas International School, where we're coming up on the end of our first half-year with 15 kids in the program! One fun drill we did - a race at the end of class. We did suicides - start, then run to the third line and back, 2nd line and back, 1st line and back, and then we add a twist - you run at the wavemasters and, as you get close, Tammy Walters yells out a technique, and you have to do it on the bag. You've got to be fast - and focused - and you've got to think on your feet. It combines many elements of the class, in one short, fast, intense burst of energy!
Sparring - 10 kids. In sparring, we do one on one - and multi attacker sparring - and then we circle up with two Juniors sparring in the middle of the circle. Juniors around the edge yell suggestions and support, and push the juniors who are sparring back into the middle if they hit the edge. It's realistic, and intense, and lots of fun.
Adults - a really good class. If we can get a lot of kenpo done at a pace that leaves everyone hot and tired, then we've had a good class. Today, we had a group of Yellow and Orange Belts, and another group of higher belts. We warmed up with lower forms and created a form that included all the Yellow Techniques - and then split the lower belts off. Frank Rodriguez assisted, and we swapped halfway through, with me moving to lower belts and Frank doing Green Techniques with the advanced students.
After that, a few minutes with sticks, doing basic sinawale patterns. We finished the class with 5 minutes of work with the focus mitts.
After the class, Frank, Kevin, and Steve sparred for an hour during open adult sparring. One one one and two on one - I was doing back to back private classes with students, but from where I was standing, it looked like they were getting and giving a workout.
Saturday's the bestday of the week. This one was great!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Thursday is a great night for class!
Thursday is just a lot of fun. Noon class included Orange, Purple, and Red Black students; Primrose is always a fun class, and our biggest preschool; and then we get to the evening. It's an advanced night, and it stars at 6PM with our Purple+ Junior class. About 15 kids in class tonight, and then we had an additional 10 kids in the Little Dragon class.
Little Dragons was great! I led the class with Dawn assisting; we made up a form that included all the Yellow and Orange techniques, did the creeds, did the forms, and three kids got stripes. It was a fast class with start to end kenpo. Pretty good for a group of kids age 3 to 5.
The last class - adults - is one that I really enjoy every week. Some weeks we get 10 people - tonight we had two. But both were Purple Belts who might move to Blue in the next month, and we really hammered the Blue techniques. We closed with basic escrima patterns.
Tomorrow is Friday. And Friday is always good, because we have a great Noon class, and we go to Dallas International School, where we have 15 great kids in class.
Little Dragons was great! I led the class with Dawn assisting; we made up a form that included all the Yellow and Orange techniques, did the creeds, did the forms, and three kids got stripes. It was a fast class with start to end kenpo. Pretty good for a group of kids age 3 to 5.
The last class - adults - is one that I really enjoy every week. Some weeks we get 10 people - tonight we had two. But both were Purple Belts who might move to Blue in the next month, and we really hammered the Blue techniques. We closed with basic escrima patterns.
Tomorrow is Friday. And Friday is always good, because we have a great Noon class, and we go to Dallas International School, where we have 15 great kids in class.
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