On Saturday the 2nd of April, Master Daher and Mr Paul Harper travelled to Stawell to run our first grading and masterclass for 2011. For many of the students it was their first time meeting Master Daher.
The masterclass commenced with a focus on the self defence techniques Master Daher had showed us at the masterclass in December, 2010. We had been practising them during class but Master Daher wanted to teach us the fine detail of the movements. We practised No.1 – release from an arm grab, No.2 release from arm grab with wrist control and No.3 release from someone grabbing the clothing at the elbow and control. The students picked up the finer details of the movements very well and we will certainly be incorporating these movements into our syllabus.
The second half of our masterclass concentrated on fundamental movements. Master Daher had the class run through some basic fundamental movements and quickly analysed and diagnosed problems with the class. We started at the beginning with the stable rock of our art, our stances.
We first worked on the length of our walking stances, which for many of our students starting out is a real problem. Master Daher taught us that walking stance is natural, that we shouldn’t force our bodies to do anything out of the ordinary and that the only difference between walking in the street and our walking stance is the length. We bring our balance to our centre line in both instances but stride longer in walking stance. We then used the lines painted in our gymnasium to guide us in our width of stance and where to place our feet for a correct walking stance. The class then walked up and down the hall trying to perfect the one shoulder width and one and a half shoulder width in length stance that is our walking stance.
We then practised our L-stance with a firm focus on the weight distribution of 70% back and 30% front. The correct length of our L stance is one shoulder width from the outside of the rear foot (the footsword) to the toes of the front foot. The correct width for L-stance is 2.5 cm between the heel of the front foot and the rear heel. Both feet are pointed 15 degrees inward. We also practised moving in our walking stance using the lines as our centre of gravity. The lines were an excellent aid in trying to perfect our stances.
The grading then commenced with all students working hard to pass. All students did very well. As always there are many things to work on after a grading and we will be working very hard to correct their techniques.
Thank you to Master Daher and Mr Harper for travelling to Stawell, we look forward to seeing you both again for our next grading and Masterclass.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!