Taking Over Class

For the next week, anyway. Master Rion is on vacation (probably needing a
break from all of us. ha ha) & I'm going to be running TKD on
Monday/Tuesday (no class on Wednesday/Thursday). Mr. Reif/Mr. Godfrey will
be handling HKD.

We started the first round of "vacation classes" tonight. TKD went pretty
well. The fact that five of eight students were black belts sure didn't
hurt things. I worked them fairly hard & accomplished everything we set out
to do. Paddle kicking went particularly well with many of them showing good
control & excellent power. I spent most of my time for one steps &
self-defense working with the black belts on some basic/intermediate HKD
techniques.

HKD was great! Mr. Godfrey showed us "leapfrogs", which are like jump
rolling falls with two students. As the name implies, one student is the
jumper & the other the jumpee. They alternate down the line & it's pretty
fun stuff. I got the hang of the stand-up rolling falls but sucked at the
reverse ones. I guess practice will make those better. Towards the end of
class we worked on basic combinations. One-Two into a focus mitt & the last
was a power shot to the knee/outer thigh. It was good kicking bag work.
Since I don't have much exposure to the Muay Thai style, I need some work
getting that insert in with conviction. TKD relies on a "snapping" motion
that utilizes the hip & knee to strike with the end of the foot. In Muay
Thai, the snapping motion is not as exaggerated & there is a stepping
motion to open the hips & deliver tons of power with the shin. Knowing one
can make it difficult to break habit & work with the other.

Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going in Master Rion's (well-deserved)
absence & have a great week come Monday!