I got asked to take the Advanced Beginners during training today. A little earlier than I expected, and with grading on Sunday, it would have been nice to do some last minute practice, but I guess that is ok. I shouldn't fail my grading, if I do, then what on earth have I been doing these last five months since Picton?? LOL. I should be ashamed of myself for one... and train a lot harder for two.
In any case, I was asked to take them through seiza, sonkyo, footwork, cuts and kirikaeshi. I wasn't sure about the kirikaeshi because I thought they didn't need it for 6th and 5th kyu grading, and well, they don't. It was more for the fact that they will need it for our own club test before they can get into bogu.
The group itself was eight people so quite small and easy to look after as we had a major group of new beginners that were being looked after by someone else. I ran them through the basic things in seiza and sonkyo with emphasis on posture and foot positions. We then ran through the footwork and commands for footwork (Mae, Migi, Ato, Hidari), and then did their basic two step cuts for men, kote and do. Then that was followed up by a bit of kirikaeshi. Those who I know that are regulars did quite well, just a few corrections in their sayomen cuts to ensure the cuts go up the middle before the next cut, and not \ / style cuts. Kiai was strongly emphasised too.
I raised a sweat during warmup, but not during the leading which was a bit unfortunate, but I did get to yell a lot to be heard haha. Oh, I also took the footwork practice which I found my self pushing myself to be able to do, so that was good.
Post training as we were off for Dinner before coming back to set up for Founders tomorrow, I asked two of the beginners I knew how I did, with as honest answers as possible, since I am not going to learn unless they criticise me. One of them said "No offense to the other two, but you are easier to understand than [ ] and louder and easier to hear than [ ] " while the other said "Fundamentally is nothing bad about how you taught us today"........ Well, I guess that is good on both counts, but non-fundamentally there was something bad?? Haha. Oh well, see how it continues to go in the future.
Dinner was a salmon sushi box and a pistachio thickshake, then shopping for stuff we needed. We bought 45L of water in tanks and a 24x400mL bottle pack for the official people (you see, you can't expect them to use cups, they have to have bottled stuff). We also got serviettes, paper plates, garbage bags and teatowels for wiping the floor.
Back to uni, and the great cleaning and setting up. We had two hours, it wasn't enough time. We washed the floor and wiped it (old school style, people with clothes running up and down the hall in the very back-breaking position you see in Japanese films), set up two bleachers and very very dangerous/rickity banisters (seriously, if you lean on them, you'll fall off with them... but they have to be there for OH&S...) and then tables, chairs, banners and the taping up of the court. We still need to do banners and more chairs, putting out the trophies and prizes too, competition draws, signage and other stuff tomorrow.... A lot of work, but we were lucky we had a lot of people helping.
I was kind of disappointed in our 'sensei'. Fair enough, he doesn't get to train much, so he trained, except that everyone else besides the person he was training with was helping out. Two more pairs of hands would have been really useful, and also not for them to be playing on the floor space and us having to move them as we cleaned.... Sure, he is the person to respect and all that, so he should be able to train while we toil away, but I personally if I was in his position would have helped out too because it is my club that we are showing to the rest of the people out there coming, and we want to present the best possible face we can. ~shrug~ I guess that is just me.
Tomorrow I will be playing photographer for the competition. See how that goes. I wish I had the money to get some really good high speed lenses for the darker conditions though, it would really help I think in capturing much better and more awesome pictures.
In any case, I was asked to take them through seiza, sonkyo, footwork, cuts and kirikaeshi. I wasn't sure about the kirikaeshi because I thought they didn't need it for 6th and 5th kyu grading, and well, they don't. It was more for the fact that they will need it for our own club test before they can get into bogu.
The group itself was eight people so quite small and easy to look after as we had a major group of new beginners that were being looked after by someone else. I ran them through the basic things in seiza and sonkyo with emphasis on posture and foot positions. We then ran through the footwork and commands for footwork (Mae, Migi, Ato, Hidari), and then did their basic two step cuts for men, kote and do. Then that was followed up by a bit of kirikaeshi. Those who I know that are regulars did quite well, just a few corrections in their sayomen cuts to ensure the cuts go up the middle before the next cut, and not \ / style cuts. Kiai was strongly emphasised too.
I raised a sweat during warmup, but not during the leading which was a bit unfortunate, but I did get to yell a lot to be heard haha. Oh, I also took the footwork practice which I found my self pushing myself to be able to do, so that was good.
Post training as we were off for Dinner before coming back to set up for Founders tomorrow, I asked two of the beginners I knew how I did, with as honest answers as possible, since I am not going to learn unless they criticise me. One of them said "No offense to the other two, but you are easier to understand than [ ] and louder and easier to hear than [ ] " while the other said "Fundamentally is nothing bad about how you taught us today"........ Well, I guess that is good on both counts, but non-fundamentally there was something bad?? Haha. Oh well, see how it continues to go in the future.
Dinner was a salmon sushi box and a pistachio thickshake, then shopping for stuff we needed. We bought 45L of water in tanks and a 24x400mL bottle pack for the official people (you see, you can't expect them to use cups, they have to have bottled stuff). We also got serviettes, paper plates, garbage bags and teatowels for wiping the floor.
Back to uni, and the great cleaning and setting up. We had two hours, it wasn't enough time. We washed the floor and wiped it (old school style, people with clothes running up and down the hall in the very back-breaking position you see in Japanese films), set up two bleachers and very very dangerous/rickity banisters (seriously, if you lean on them, you'll fall off with them... but they have to be there for OH&S...) and then tables, chairs, banners and the taping up of the court. We still need to do banners and more chairs, putting out the trophies and prizes too, competition draws, signage and other stuff tomorrow.... A lot of work, but we were lucky we had a lot of people helping.
I was kind of disappointed in our 'sensei'. Fair enough, he doesn't get to train much, so he trained, except that everyone else besides the person he was training with was helping out. Two more pairs of hands would have been really useful, and also not for them to be playing on the floor space and us having to move them as we cleaned.... Sure, he is the person to respect and all that, so he should be able to train while we toil away, but I personally if I was in his position would have helped out too because it is my club that we are showing to the rest of the people out there coming, and we want to present the best possible face we can. ~shrug~ I guess that is just me.
Tomorrow I will be playing photographer for the competition. See how that goes. I wish I had the money to get some really good high speed lenses for the darker conditions though, it would really help I think in capturing much better and more awesome pictures.
1 comment:
Nice job with the beginners by the sound of it. Interesting to hear. Good luck tomorrow!
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