Made a rare (for me) Monday class led by Sempai.

At least for tonight I was the lowest rank in class.

Worked on ido kihon. Few things to remember:

In chudan-uke relax and keep elbows in this will provide natural tension for the block. The elbow should also be about a fist width from the body.

Jodan, chudan, and gedan-uke should all have a pulling motion across the body.

In kazami-zuki mai-geri, the kick should be forward, inline with the body. Be sure to bring the kick back before planting forward.

At this level the rear hand in chudan shuto-uki can come forward quickly. The scoop doesn’t need to be exaggerated or deep.

Matsubayashi-Ryu is a close-in fighting style, so for most techniques, work on rotating at the hip (center). This generates power and improves timing.

Worked on Yakusoku kumite Ⅰ-Ⅳ with Lara. I need to work on the attacking part more as I messed up the footwork on the first three.
The part in Ⅲ where the defender blocks the opponents chambered fist, is not only to prevent a punch, but also to upset his balance and make the tate-hiji-ate more effective.

Developed a couple of practical applications of Ⅲ as well.

In one, the attacker tries to choke with both hands. The defender comes inside the attackers arms with both hands clearing them from his throat and follows with the elbow attack. In another, the attacker grabs the defenders wrist. The defender pulls back with inside uchi-uke and freeing the hand, immediately attacks with uraken or shuto-uke.

In the kata any punch could also be delivered as a kick.