---HKD MADNESS!!!--->

<----when in doubt . . . KIHAP!!!--

---Thursday, July 31, 2003-------------------------->

aiyaa.....so today is gonna be my last day TAing cuz i start work next week. to top it off, i also got injured yesterday, so i shouldn't go to practice anyways, or i'll be tempted to get my injured...

the class has been doing really well. i actually see everyone improving everyday. and they ALL kiyap. well...some of them could be louder, but still. i'm pretty sure they're all going to at least make 8th kub. and a couple will make 7th too.

it's amazing how much they've learned in such a short amount of time. when james was running a practice test the other day, i took the opportunity to observe them, and they really impressed me. today i just plan on going over all the specific techniques, since we've been drilling them so much and we haven't been correcting lately.

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by ken at 9:57 AM [+]

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you should do a short kiyap session with them. stress the importance of the kiyap. tell them they will be asked to kiyap on the test. tell them they are graded on spirit. it's true, isn't it? OR you could always try negative reenforcement, and make them do pushups if they don't kiyap. oooooh.... or better yet, make them do dog kicks if the don't kiyap


take a day to be funny and goofy. do barrier rolls all day, or lepfrog, or do the tag warmup that steve likes to do. you could even do a cheer at the end of class... hey it might help the camraderie part... everyone cheering... yeah...

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by muce at 1:51 PM [+]

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yeah yeah..i know, i've been getting lazy. but no one else is publishing damnit. does anyone even read this? anyways...we have less than two weeks before these guys got to test. nuts i say.
we've gone over a couple of wrist techniques now, so they know almost everything they need to know for the belt test, except for the 2 16 step, but that should only take a day to cover.
i think i'm mostly gonna focus on getting their motivation up. when everyone comes to class at the beginning and they're waiting for me to start class, it's completely silent. where's the fun? the comraderie? i hope that by mixing them around and having htem work with different people they'll get to know each other a little more. it's such small class too...

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by ken at 10:14 AM [+]

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thursday we just reviewed, and monday we ended up watching a video recording of the summer camp in korea. pretty cool me thinks, cept for the tkd demo where they kind of just danced a lot and did random crap.

tuesday dr. ur didn't realize that he hastn' taught blocks yet, so we did that all day. everything is going really well, 'cept for the fact that the two girls in the class aren't kiyaping. dunno what to do. james and i have tried everything. maybe we need a female TA to show them how it's done. james and i can only act so femine...

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by ken at 10:44 AM [+]

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we did a bunch of falls today. fortunately, james gill started coming today too. i find myself thinking "why doesn't dr. ur explain more" all the time..it's kind of weird cuz sometimes i have to explain one key concept to each person individually.

after reviewing the kicks for a bit, we basically had them doing falls for the next 35 minutes or so. kind of painful...i remember one of the hardest things for me was to keep track of which leg was bent straight up, and which one would be slightly extended. and then just having to do it over and over again. kind of painful. i hate doing falls the most cuz i still bruise easily; i'd hate having to learn them all over again.

we also need to work on kiyaping. it makes practices more fun when we're all crazy..not just me......

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by ken at 5:13 PM [+]

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So in my free time this summer i've decided to help out the Hankido PE class taught by Dr. Ur. On the first day (which i missed) I believe that the students were just told to go get their uniforms (they borrow them from somewhere) and to come back tomorrow.

Today was my first day with them, and Dr. Ur just told me to lead them in warmup. Then he went back to his office. I remember him telling me to start at 15 after, so i waited till then, but that was all i knew. Even though i've led warmups all the time for wushu, and i've participated in it countless times in hkd, i was a little hesistant when it came time to deciding what to do. i had no idea how long to warm them up for, and no idea what specifically to warm up. that and while we were running around, i noticed that ppl's belts kept falling off.

it's funny cuz when i started doing the warmups with them, i kept having to remind myself that most of them probably aren't familliar with even the basic stretches. since i didn't think we would do anything too strenuous, i just kept it light and talked a bit about hkd and stuff. we did some lines of running, and then that was it, it was dr. ur's show from there.

he went over a lot though. i guess it's cuz we missed the first day, and we only had 22 practices left. he went over the ready stance, fighting stance, giving quick jabs, front kick, roundhouse kick, and side kick. i thought it was a lot for the first day, but most of them did fairly well in my opinion. i didn't even have to tell most of them to raise their knees up first, they all seemed to pick that up naturally.

the biggest thing i'd like to tell all of them is to get them to start using their hips more. even on jabs, but especially on kicks. that and staying relaxed. but i think that's a problem everyone has. it's so much easier when you can just relax and not think about it. i have the same problem when i'm playing badminton and my friends just aim their smashes at me. i always just pause in fear and freeze instead of reacting and hitting it back. i guess what i'm saying is that once you build up the muscle memory, it's just a matter of relaxing and letting inertia do the work...

---> Comments-[ comments.]
posted by ken at 4:37 PM [+]

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