Larger class tonight with several newer students along with a brown belt that hasn’t been to our class in the previous times I’ve been there.
Ollie was head instructor for the night. We did all our kihon drills in a circle so the newer students could watch others and get a better idea of what was going on. I still maintain that everyone 8th kyu or unranked should be grouped on the side and asigned one of the higher ranking members to work with them on just kihon, leaving the remaining students to work at a faster pace and to a more advanced level (without confusing the beginners).
After kihon, we made two lines and did ippon kumite drills for the remaining time. I have no special observations for this. I had the opportunity to work with the new brown belt, which was a good work out. He has a lot of zeal for his training and likes to push others to the same level. I don’t personally feel the same way about kumite as he does, I think, but it was good training.
The very last thing we did before lining up was have all the mid- to skilled- students line up in front of Ollie (one line) and one by one practice short-mah defense (standing within two or three feet of each other). Naturally Ollie nailed everyone. This is another form of training I am not at all fond of. Not only is it a form of sparring, it’s a form of very close, in-your-face sparring which is *exactly* what I’m avoiding with Shotokan. If I wanted to train in martial arts dealing with that distancing, I would learn Aikido or Jujitsu. After a couple times through, we lined up.
All in all, a good work out and a decent class.