So today was a good-ish day, though I've not been doing as many formal lesson plans as I used to, and my rather offensive-smelling hyper-eager subcontinental student duly informed me that an informal survey of other students revealed that I am actually a horrible horrible teacher--100% of his poll pool in fact! I blame not myself but his own inability to succeed quite as much at my more qualitative tasks. The envelope, at least is big enough, as some would say.

It's amusing that at the dojo there is this consistent stream of one-timers who drop by when it just happens that Shrimp Sensei decides to ratchet up the training a notch. This increased, um, focus is usually in the form of one-breath exercises, such as men your way across the room, or continuous triple men. I'm glad to say after 21 practices I have cut down my problems to just flaccid fumikomi, too-tense shoulders, improper breathing, a too-loose tanden, not enough te-no-uchi, askew okuri-ashi, chicken-head on any strike, hidari-men that's a bit too shomen, a wobbly kote, too much ayumi-ashi on my kirikaeshi, hand-flipping as motodachi, a chudan-no-kamae that's often too high, a sumo-foot-lift-off-balance preceding the landing of the strike, and a do that could sterilize.

That, of course, is only what they've bothered to tell me so far.