Recent Pictures
Some pictures from an early class. Special thanks to Roc's mother for taking them. These are from the youth and adult class. Scroll to the bottom of the page for pictures from a recent kids class.
Quiet relaxation, deep breathing and meditation before class. As you can see, we are pretty casual. Classes are informal, friendly, uniforms are optional, and participants vary a lot in age, size and abilities. The variety helps everyone do better. In this class one of the participants invited his father and two brothers.
After relaxation we proceed into dynamic exercises in which we condition all major joints and actively stretch major muscle groups. This usually takes 10-15 minutes.
Some drills with partners. We try to always be working with power against a target, either held by a partner or a heavy bag. We do different combinations every time, while encouraging people to develop their own combinations that work for them and their abilities.
Working into some free sparring. In the sparring we apply the various combinations we've been working on. Our sparring ranges from no-contact, to varying levels of contact (with gear), to grappling.
"Mmm, must get leg... then you fall down...."
Sometimes it isn't always easy to tell which arm or leg belongs to whom. But it gets sorted out eventually. Our basic rule is that, if you bite something and you feel pain, that was your leg or arm; bite something else.
People are free to spar as intensely and with as much gear as they are comfortable with. Sometimes a bandage, ice or some aspirin is called for. It happens.
Here we are working on some submission basics. Submissions are reserved for more advanced and adult participants. We focus on simple, high-percentage submissions; arm bar, sleeper and guillotine chokes, heel hook, and triangles (leg and arm).
We do calisthenics and stretching for about the last 30 minutes of class. On endurance nights they can choose between jump rope or, for more advanced people, levitation. Here two people appear to have beginning-success with levitation skills. Roc watches in awe, planning to take down both people with one pass as soon as they touch ground again. The rest of the class is oblivious.
(Yes, this is a joke.)
Kids Class
In the kids class we work on similar skills, but try to keep things a little less intense. Here are some pictures from a recent kids class.
