We're back!
Last night I taught our first live class at Elite Dragon Martial Arts since March 9.
Wow, I missed that SO MUCH.
We are doing the social distancing thing (we have markers on the floor). We're also sanitizing in-between each class and everyone is hitting the sanitizer or washing hands before they enter the room and after they leave.
I had them warm up playing sinawali at largo (long) range, then we worked on Baston (Itak) Anyo Isa (that's our first weapon form), then we worked on defensive responses with a partner feeding with a bo (6 foot staff) in order to allow our students to step forward (vs. backwards) doing the technique while maintaining distance.
One advantage of using a long staff (one that can take a beating like mine can) is that our students were able to hit the staff hard, representing hitting a hand, and so they had a lot of fun.
Hitting stuff hard is always fun.
We won't have our Meetup back up and live until June 7 (we're working out some new schedules with our distance students), and I am SO looking forward to that, too.
We're on a way back to a semi-normal state, and I'm so happy!
This experience opened my mind a little to the value of video training. After two months of teaching virtual sessions, I can tell you that I don't think they are useless.
They are a fine supplement when you don't or can't have anything else.
But I'm more convinced than ever that it cannot in any way be as good as, or substitute for, live in-person martial arts training.
One session back showed me that.
The difference in what you are able to communicate in person vs. what you can on video is really, really obvious after you train in person. It takes a lot less work on the part of the student as well as the instructor when you have an in-person class.
It's just a lot more efficient. And as a Filipino Martial Artist, I'm all about efficiency.
With our distance students, we're working out a special schedule to support them virtually, but we will do everything we can to arrange in-person training as often as we can.
So we'll keep the virtual sessions going to supplement the live training we are definitely moving back to offering.
There is absolutely no substitute for live, in-person training, y'all.
Are you back to training in person? If so, what has changed and what rules are in place? If not, are you coming back soon, or not? Let us know in the comments!