Mr. Dennis Nelson, V Dan from Casper was Black Belt Instructor for April. He had the Black Belts and a couple of red belts working on everything from sparring to flying kicks to breaking and patterns. What a great day!

Mrs. McDill gave an update on Mr. Sisco's recovery from hip replacement surgery last Friday. Sounds like he's doing great! He was up and walking with assistance on Saturday, and on Sunday morning was getting around on crutches. He should be home on Tuesday. All the best, Mr. Sisco!

A few exercises to loosen up the joints, and then on with the sparring gear. In two lines facing each other, bow to your training partner, fighting stance. The drill started with one-minute rounds, hands only to attack - it was okay to use feet/legs for blocking. A minute went quickly! Then one line moved down to the next sparring partner and we were right back at it again. After a few rounds of 'hands only', the next instructions were 'feet only' for several rounds. Next came 30 second rounds, hands and feet both, with instructions to get in at least three jumping or flying techniques during the 30 seconds. Then pick up the pace...15 second rounds. No time to dance! Everyone had to get to it immediately, no waiting, just get in the air and get busy.

After everyone had fought each person in the other line (plus one or two rounds), we broke up into groups by rank and worked on jump kicks with target pads, concentrating on current testing kicks. Suggestions: breath control, relax the upper body, knees up, load the kick, position the body properly for the kicks being performed. Multiple kicks - don't wait until you're at the top of the jump to start kicking. Position the pads so that your first kick is on the way up. Kick the target, not just at it, extend the kicking leg, tuck, see the target.

Continuing in our groups, we rotated into breaking the rebreakables, and working on patterns.

Patterns by count, working on correct technique, i.e. proper level, proper line, good stances, correct facing. When jumping into an X-stance, strike on the first foot landing. Know the name of each technique you are executing.

Breaking: instructions were to set up the break (number/color of boards), set the height, step back into a stance, ki-yap, and break. Finish in a stance with a ki-yap. No measure, we should know our distance and know where to stand. No long pause to think. Just stance, break, fininsh. Mr. Nelson stressed that today we weren't looking for massive breaks, just one colored board was fine. But he was looking for us to set up and make each break quickly without any wasted time or fussing around. Hand breaks, foot breaks, flying, midair, both sides. What a great time!

We closed class with Mr. Fay's birthday gauntlet...it must have been his lucky day because he got to run twice!

Testing in Rock Springs on the 19th...see you there!

Wyoming Black Belt Class, April 6, 2008

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