The new year has begun, as has the new session at our Kyu rank karate club. As for the Instructors club, it just continues going as usual, with no new students.
Our first class at the Kyu club was on Saturday the 7th. It was a small class (about 20 people, when normally we have 30-40) but the first class is always very introductory anyway, since there's always at least one or two new people.
This time there were two new people - one adult male and another male who appeared to be around 11-12 years of age. (unrelated) The adult male thought I looked familiar but couldn't place where he might have seen me. At any rate, I'm hoping there are a few more new people at Tuesday's class, although I guess it doesn't really matter because we still have a few white belts left who started earlier than January.
We've certainly got a whack of yellow belts in our club now - testing in December promoted about 8 of them from white to yellow. It's been a long time since we've put much effort into working on Heian Nidan, it'll be nice to start getting into that after so much work on Heian Shodan.
And the best thing about karate being back in session is that our head instructor is back in "karate action" and back instructing. I definitely enjoyed the instruction from the assistant instructor and enjoyed the instruction opportunities I've been allowed over the last 4 months but it's really nice to see Sensei back, too. His style of teaching is quite different than most of the rest of us, and it's HIS style I want to emulate because I see how well it works in terms of helping people see the good that's already inside of them.
The last few months without Sensei there, the rest of us have been trying to reign three "overactive" kids in and we've implemented various changes in how the class runs in order to do that. I do believe the kids are improving, but I know that having Sensei there will quicken the process because he's got a way with kids. It's like we prepared the kids for the fact that they're not going to get away with fooling around, and now Sensei is there to back us up and also stroke the egos of the kids in just the right way that they respond positively and respectfully.
It's that ego stroking I've got to learn how to do. It's that ego stroking that is sorely missed in many of the clubs I visit. Most of the Sensei's just lecture and give instruction. Our Sensei brings individuals up and gives an individual specific attention that also teaches the rest of us something general about karate and physical errors.
Tonight is our next class, I'm looking forward to it. Nice to start to see my Sensei again on a regular basis. :)
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
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