kata drill

From Stephen Irwin’s blog comes a good suggestion that I’ve done before, but sometimes need to be reminded of. Instead of doing kata all at once, break it down into segments and practice from there, with other things in between. Tonight, if I’m teaching kids, I think I’ll do Heian Shodan like this.

Part 1, four moves, stopping before the left turn/rising blocks

Part 2, start with the last move of part one, then work through the kiai

part 3, from the kiai to the southern progression (I tend to think of the katas on a compass, though we tend to actually fast west when we start them at our current dojo, and faced east at the old one (because of where shomen is)

part 4, southern progression

part 5, shutos

With those being done in repetition, out of order, etc.,.