During the holidays I was in Thunder Bay and my sister-in-law, Shihan Susan Baldassi, invited me to her testing of a few students. There were two children, one teenager, and an adult who were testing for different kyu ranks. As you know, I do not teach kids but I sure do enjoy their energy in the class. I love how they try so hard and how their kicks are so effortless. Shihan Susan creates a great atmosphere of learning for her kids class, something that I could never achieve. It was good to experience how others run a testing. One thing that I liked was the self-defence portion in which students have to respond to random attacks. I can only imagine the injuries that would be sustained if done in our dojo without establishing some ground rules such as: no striking, stop after someone does fake a hit that would have stopped you, do not go psycho and show restraint and control. We will try this in class on Sunday and I will report back.
Happy New Year Toshikai! We will be having kyu promotions at the N1 Dojo location on December 14. People testing are asked to arrive at 5:30 prepared to complete your written exam. Then we will proceed with the physical requirements and basics, bunkai, kata, sparring, etc. as usual.
All, please come out and support the dojo and your fellow students! Seminar 1Knife fighting, drills and self-defence Time: 2:30 pm - 5 pm Location: 2401 Cheshire (come through back door) Instructor: Andrew Tam Seminar 2Stick fighting, self-defence
Time: 11 am - 2 pm Location: 2401 Cheshire (come through back door) Instructor: Till Kuendiger |
AuthorToshikai has been offering martial arts instruction to Ottawa since 1997! ArchivesCategories |