ude tanren

Last night was my first night assistant teaching. It felt very strange to be in front of a class. I didn't do much this time except stand there and help with some kata and blocking drills. Next week they will have me do a little more. maybe take the class thru basics. I don't know. After that i went to my class. I love monday night class. It is so crowded-i think there were at least 36 students, half black belts, half underbelts. It was a long class too- usually classes are 45 minutes but this one can run long-depending on how much Renshi wants to cover. This class was about 1/2 hour longer. we did lots of arm conditioning, blocking drills plus kata, oyo bunkai kata (naihanchi shodan and pinan shodan) and then we formed hans and worked on the application. i suck at take downs by the way. I'm referring to the throw at the end of naihanchi shodan oyo bunkai. SUCK AT IT. Then after each han was done he had us work on "coffee grinders" HAHAHA! ITS BREAKDANCING!!! of course, it originated from Kung fu and really its a sweeping technique but its BREAKDANCING! Renshi said he likes to watch the adults do this because it makes him laugh. He said that sometimes if he needs cheering up all he has to do is picture us attempting this and it puts a smile on his face. He's so kind. :)
For the rest of the class we did self defense using arm bar holds. lots of them. The technique starts out with your partner grabbing your wrist, then you do this arm bar similar to a move in kusanku sho. He kept adding on to it and if you got the flow going it looked pretty cool and effortless. It ends with a take-down then another arm bar hold while you're basically lying down over your opponent's head with their arm locked between your legs and you raise up your hips until your opponent taps out. its really cool to watch, but very awkward to do. I have bruises on my ude.