Most of the time when I introduce students to the crescent kicks, I try and sell it more as a coordination/flexibility workout than as an actual functional kick. I tell students that the major benefits I’ve gotten from practicing all the various crescent kicks is more flexible hamstrings.
I will, from now on, direct them to this video (thanks to Sean for the link) and keep my opinions to myself.
We spent about 1/2 the class building up to doing a jump spinning inward crescent kick. If it sounds like a mouthful, it feels like even more of one. Just ask anyone who was in class tonight though, once you get the hang of it and you actually connect a kick solidly with the pad – it’s super fun.
As a final note (mostly to the students who were in class tonight), after watching the video several more times, it looks like the fighter only does one jump during the kick as we were doing two – probably less of a telegraph that way.
At 1:28 into the video, the single clap and expression on the spectator’s face is priceless!
As part of the July Kung Fu goal at the Academy to write about our training, I have some closing thoughts on my own personal theme of the week, intention. I’ll unleash that monster post on the internet universe soon.
Today, teaching is very much on my mind, partly because I have to complete some teaching hours at the school as part of the requirements for my next rank, but also because of some personal experiences this past week.
At work I was helping a co-worker solve a problem that involved about ten different steps and included wading through a ton of wonky government-speak policy. This was definite policy nerd territory, where I’m right at home, but it was proving to be tough to communicate the process to another person. We went over it several times, I broke it down into small pieces, then I circled back around and communicated the same information in a different way. Eventually the light bulb switched on and my co-worker got that “Ah-hah! I get it now!” look on her face.
I’ve had similar experiences sharing what I know of the bo staff form with other Kung Fu students. It’s a tricky form with lots of spins, grip changes, and stance changes. Teaching a new move to a fellow student can be almost as challenging as learning that new move yourself.
What clicked for me this week is that everybody has the capacity to learn. Everybody. If I’m trying to teach someone and they’re not getting it–that’s not their fault. It’s back on me as the teacher to change my game and ask myself some questions. What specifically aren’t they getting? How can I communicate differently? What do I know about this student that will allow me to get creative and tailor the information being presented to their learning style?
Teaching in little bits here and there has proven to be great fun, but the unexpected benefit to me has been the opportunity to cultivate my own creativity in an effort to be a better teacher. Teaching and creativity are two important aspects of Mo Duk Pai as a system, and it’s been interesting to watch those two aspects play off of each other this week, both on the mats and off.
I’m wondering if the woman they panned to after the knockout was a girlfriend/wife of one of the fighters and if so… which one?
Or was it just some woman who realized the fight that she paid to watch took exactly 2 seconds.