Family Double Lesson (diary entry)

04.09.18 Tonight I taught an unusual double lesson. The first half was a junior boxing lesson and the second lesson was a Muay Thai class for the student's uncle. Family training is a great way to improve overall education. The elder family member can encourage and help the youngster and, likewise, the elder family improves by coaching. The western boxing lesson was a beginner's class especially developed for children. We worked on footwork, upper body mobility, jabs and crosses. Each was taught in isolation and then combined. The lesson finished with a visualisation round on the focus mitts, where the young fighter was taken through the fighting process. The lesson also included a brief on not misusing any combative skills. My client's uncle acted as a good assistant throughout the teaching process. The Muay Thai lesson was a high energy class. We covered material from both the basics and advanced lessons. Beginning on the focus mitts, we went through the basic punch/kick combinations then used the same frame-work to set up knees and sweeps. Then we focused on elbow strikes. Elbows were taught from stand-up range, within the clinch and as counters. We went through horizontal, slashing, spear, smash-down, diagonal, backward and jumping/climbing smash down before looking the spinning elbow from a kick-catch. The lesson finished with a round of sparring.