Summer's been nice to our dojo.  Mild weather, and cool breezes has made it possible for us to train in comfort, and without overheating.

Although I have allowed my students to wear T shirts to class, I'm finding that many of them prefer to train in their Gi.  I have to agree with them. I've tried the casual wear for training, but found that there is such a positive feeling when I'm wearing my gi as I teach.  I can feel the obi swing with the rotation of my hips helping me sense how much power I'm placing with each move.  I can hear the sound of my strikes, and blocks by the snap of the gi.  There just seems to be more atmosphere when wearing a
Gi.

One thing that I did realize this summer, through my own personal training outside on the grass in my backyard, is that training on grass is damaging on the lawn.  I did a good hour of training outside, then as I walked away from my impromptu dojo, I looked at my grass, and noticed that it had tons of bare patches where I had spun on the spot turning in my kata, or moving back and forth. I pictured a whole classroom of students training on that grass, and shuddered.  I know that the grass can recuperate from this damage, but I'm going to have to be careful as to which grass I will chose
to use when I take my dojo outside to train.  I'm thinking of using the field that has been set aside for football, and soccer.  They must have seeded grass there that is tough, and capable of handling trampling and quick turns.

Summer training with my students has been WONDERFUL!  Since there is no upcoming belt rank test at the end of the summer, I have chosen to do some intense focused work on little things that can be improved, or knowledge that may help my students understand their karate.  These past weeks we've been looking at how the strength of our technique is affected by the direction that our eyes are looking.  I had the students do the same technique looking at their target, past their target, or even away from the target in the opposite direction.  The "aha!" look on their faces was
priceless.  Continuing this concept, I had the students perform their kata, but emphasizing a turning of the head, and a "look" in the direction that they will be moving.  It was a great review of their kata, keeping their memory sharp through the summer, and even offering opportunities to reminding them of corrections if necessary.

I even went into having my new white belts learn some simple bunkai from their kata with the senior belts to help them understand why they do a downblock in the manner that I've taught them.  Class always seem to end too quickly, and then there is the knowledge that it will be a week before I see my students again. I always end the class with a deep exhortation for these kids to take advantage of the beautiful weather, drop the video game controller, go outside, breath fresh air, feel the sunshine, and have fun swimming, running, biking... or who knows perhaps practice kata?