The beauty of the knee kick is that once a student gets it, then there is nothing to teaching them the crane stance (balancing on one leg) and how to chamber a kick (lifting the knee up to the waist before kicking). Beautiful - three lessons wrapped into one.

But how to justify teaching such a powerful strike to young students? Simple. This is a martial arts class. It is about the use of force and how to deal with it. Students (of all ages) have to understand right off the bat that when this stuff comes into play "for real" there can be very serious consequences. I have my standard "if I hear about anyone using any of these strikes on another person outside of class they're out" speech and I hope that other teachers do as well. The heart of the art is, after all, learning ethics. With time, students can find their own lines of what is right and wrong, but I feel just fine about laying down this initial boundary.

That being said, the Duniway class (pictured above, 10 students) is zipping right along into their second week. It seems like with these smaller classes, it should be easier to really pile on the basics. I wonder how many of the junior orange sash requirements they can get through in six classes?

- Wally.