Saturday Kids Class
Let’s take a moment to give a shout out to Dug, yet another awesome instructor here at WAKF. Dug Martell runs the Saturday kid’s classes at WAKF, both the regular class and the sparring class. He also...
View Article3,2,1… Sparkle!
Can you see the sparkle? Can you find the two PRs on the zoomed whiteboard photo? We should be getting heaping piles of these as we are retesting our front squats this week. Why are we retesting?...
View ArticleA System Standard
Coming down the pipeline for 2016: a system wide standard for the kids requirements! I’m sure not too many people are as excited as I am about this but it will be nice when all three of the schools...
View ArticleMoving Along
Next on the kids requirement list are the front snap kick and the knee kick. As you might expect from the first two kicks that kids are introduced to in our system, they are fairly simple....
View ArticleFakes
Faking. It’s a simple enough concept. Pretend to do one thing and then do another instead. In sparring, you are best served faking with a technique that you have already landed on your partner....
View ArticleIndependent Motion
You don’t want your sparring partner knowing that you’re going to attack, do you? Probably not. In which case, one method you can use to disguise your attacks is to try and make them move weapon...
View ArticleMore Than One Direction
Thursday night in Kung Fu class we looked at three ideas around doing the monkey line drill. The first idea was to try and be fluid rather than choppy. When you are dealing with multiple problems...
View ArticleLead versus Side Facing
Tonight in sparring class we experimented with fighting from a lead versus fighting from a side facing stance. A lead is definitely the more common stance, the one you will typically see in a boxing...
View ArticleArm Drag
The arm drag is such a wonderful, basic tool for the martial artist. It is a simple way to improve your position from being directly in front of your partner to being at their side or back. Even...
View ArticleHandy Hammerfist
What a versatile and relatively simple strike the hammerfist is. You can hit from almost any angle. You can hit hard with a reasonably low chance of injury. You can make a really loud noise on the...
View ArticleRobert Gray Demo
We had a blast over at Robert Gray Middle School on Thursday, showing our stuff. Thanks to all the students who participated, the parents who helped bring their kids and to Rich for the photos!
View ArticleBeing a Good Partner
Rule #1 of being a good partner: meet them where they are at. If you have a higher skill than your partner, work to find a pace that gives them challenge. One of the best signs that you are doing …...
View ArticleWait, They Can HIT Me?
As a system, we try to continually emphasize practicality. Things need to work in order to stick around in our style. If they don’t work, we should discard them and change them out for something...
View ArticleGet In or Stay Out
Stick drills are tough. They’ve got a stick and you don’t. It’s a huge range advantage and they are almost certainly going to try and maintain that advantage for as long as they can. The solution...
View ArticleSafe Boxing?
Someone coming at you with boxing gloves can be intimidating. So, if you’re feeling terrified at the idea of getting hit with a glove, slap boxing might be a beautiful way for you to work yourself...
View ArticleWhat’s a Frame?
Early on in the requirements, we teach a block called the frame. What is a frame? What is it for? Confusingly, there are a few different things in martial arts called frames. In this particular...
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