News from the frigid ice bowl that is the state of
Iowa…it is cold. That is all. Not really, but that does seem to be the biggest
part of this week’s update. If anyone
actually enjoys the weather here in January, please raise your hand…I thought
so.
I didn’t have a convention this past weekend (sad
face), but Jillian and I did begin our school teaching tour for the year. West Branch Upper Elementary and Middle
School students were subjected to three days of arduous torture with “Sensei
and Mrs. Sensei”, and the results were pretty much as expected.
The forty minute classes started off with basic
rolling exercises (ukemi), from kneeling and then standing, followed by “bonus
round”—where the kids got to choose between rolls, somersaults, cartwheels,
one-arm cartwheels, round offs, handsprings, and in one case, aerials (I hate
that kid!).
These exercises are my least favorite part of
teaching in schools, but probably the most important. Learning how to control a fall, and land
without damage, is far and away the most practical self-defense that I teach in
any school. Hopefully no one will need
to use the really cool “moves” that I teach them to defend themselves against a
bad guy (statistically they have a better than 1 in 4 chance of needing it),
but EVERYONE falls down. Some of those
kids don’t make it through an entire day without managing to faceplant or
otherwise crash, and helping keep them from injuring themselves is a daunting
but important task.
Most of the kids throw themselves into the rolls, if
you’ll pardon the pun, and seem to enjoy the tumbling. However, even the previously injured ones
that aren’t supposed to participate in class are ready to jump in when it’s
time to knock each other on their rear ends. J
This year’s self-defense edition featured a side
entry knock down known as sokumenuchi in Japanese, roughly translated as “side
entry” in English. The younger kids
practiced the move against someone grabbing both of their arms, and the older
ones got to practice against the grab AND against someone punching at their
faces. This was, of course, closely
supervised by both instructors and the PE teacher.
No matter how effective the techniques are, the best
(?) part of each move is the final count, after controlling the attacker, where
the victorious student gets to perform his/her “Victory dance.” This addition, made by the tall, frequently
silly main instructor (me), may have gotten out of control, and grown way
beyond the scope of what was originally envisioned. By that, I mean that 4th graders
were running into the gymnasium by the second day, shouting “Sensei’s gonna do
Gundam Style!” and lining up expectantly. No matter how much trouble they had
performing the technique itself, they all could do the dance. J
I didn’t see the harm…but Mrs. Sensei spent three
days doing the long-suffering wife look paired with the rolling of the eyes
technique that only women seem to really master. She’s good at that move. Of course, she’s had a lot of practice.
Oh well. She
has two days to recover, and then we start round two, with the little kids! On
to the kindergarten through second grade!
I am brushing up on my dance moves…I was thinking about “the sprinkler.”
It’s been a while…
