I Almost Didn't Go

to class tonight, because of the tooth thing. But since Cody is testing Tuesday for ni-kyu, I felt he needed to be there. I sat out class, though. I talked to sensei about it beforehand, and since he is dealing with a broken tooth himself, he completely understood.

After basics, Joshua took the higher ranks into the back room to work on kata, while the white belts stayed in the front and worked with Sensei. I went back into the back, since that's where Cody was, and Josh asked me if I would help him critique the kata. I mostly watched Cody and another young yellow belt. I have to really watch myself when helping younger students. I have to remind myself to take their age into account and not be too critical of them. The most common problem I see with the younger students is that they rush their kata.

Speaking of kata, BBM has posted an excellent article on the value of kata. I meant to post about my opinions of this topic here, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Just one more item on my list of things to catch up on.

After class, Josh and I were talking. Seems some of them have found my blog, and were uncomfortable with some of the stuff I've posted. Out of deference to them, I've removed some of the things they've mentioned--though it was posted so long ago that most of you wouldn't even remember it anyway. It wasn't anything bad, but I guess I'll have to be more careful about what I say in the future.