Attention all Advanced Students: Commitment to the push for the Black Belt tests starts next Saturday, June 29th, at 9am. All students green belt or higher should plan on attending so we can test and evaluate your material. At the end of the test, students will be assigned to either the December 2013 test, or the June 2014 test. To help everyone prepare properly, there will be clinics throughout the summer and fall based around advanced material that will be expected on the test. The clinic topics and schedule will be posted; there will be a monthly teaching session, as well as a practice and review of the preceding topic.
After a week of kicks, its time to apply the improvements to the rest of our material. It was a little frightening to see the nice, tight kicks from the basics lines disappear when it was time to perform kempos, combinations, forms and in sparring. We’re going to take another week to work on the attention to that sort of details, with emphasis on applied strikes. Focus and discipline are key to delivering power in a fluid situation. Advanced students must be able to regularly and consistently perform material properly to be considered for promotion. Those people on the push to blackbelt need to be a level above that!
Time to tighten up your older material! Advanced rank students are aware of this by now; keeping up with material you’ve had for months or years, takes more then a few hours a week. This week, everyone will be hitting on the old material, looking to bring improved focus and delivery to the techniques that have been sitting in the back of everyone’s notebooks.
One example from last week’s student creations;
This past week, we spent a lot of time working on the circular kicks; crescents, reverse crescents, and roundhouse kicks. These kicks are an important part of every martial artists arsenal, both for sparring and range work. For the week coming up, students should be prepared to work on the student-developed kempos; we will be recording by the end of the week.
Just to make sure everyone’s heard the schedule for the long weekend;
Friday – 5/24 – 9am Class Held, Afternoon Privates Held
Saturday – 5/25 – 8am Family Class Held, all others Cancelled
Monday – 5/27 – 9am Class Held, Afternoon classes Cancelled, pending private arrangements.
Enjoy the long weekend!
First, a thank you to everyone that made it in for the post-tournament photos! Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, the quality of the pictures are not what we need, so we’re going to have to try it again. Please be sure to have full uniforms, all sparring gear, and weapons to all classes during the week of April Vacation. This includes the Saturday sparring classes, private lessons, and any off-schedule classes that have been arraigned. We will be trying to design photographs for in-studio posters, new brochures, and publications, so we need everyone’s help.
The t-shirt design for the summer of 2013 is in, and it looks great! This summer’s design highlights the snake and the year of the snake with a very sharp, drawn design that is posted on the wall at the studio. Order deadline is end of the first week in May, and the order blanks can be picked up at the studio.
We’ll be reminding you as we get closer to the deadline, so keep your ears open as well. Be sure to leave the order forms (and payment) at the studio by the end of classes on Thursday.
