They're little adults?

Tuesdays are not my favorite training days. 

I go because its better than not going, but I seldom get a lot out of it. I am often the only adult, and always the only black belt besides the instructor. Which isn't that I can't learn alongside lower ranks, or children - but that I often end up assisting. Which is fine - part of karate is passing on what you learn and helping others figure it out. But I don't often work on anything new, and we often do the same things. Kata. Breaks. Occasionally drills. And I'm usually partnered in these drills with a child - by default - which is a lesson in itself: how not to hurt them.

Today we started with a bunch of punching drills.  And to be honest - I can sit in a wide squat (kiba) for a long time - but by the end of it my legs were trembling. I have too much pride to lessen up my stances as we go on, but Hah! it was funny to find my tremble point again. We ran through the first few kata, and then the instructor and I briefly ran through two more advanced kata alone, before I took a few of the kids to work on the kata they were learning. They did really well, I was impressed. Its cool to see improvement, and to try to help them figure out how to do things different and better. I'm still trying to learn how to explain things to kids. I tend to teach kids the same way I teach adults, and I'm not sure I should be?

We came back together and did 'basic breaks.' I am almost always partnered with a maybe-ten-yr-old brown belt boy. He is fast, and he knows the movements, but he doesn't have much focus (he's a kid, though  - what do I expect?).  I try to rein in his energy some, but since the instructor is his dad, I mostly let him handle it. So we worked on basic breaks, and then a bit of that same drill we've been doing for a few weeks.   Countering with a sweep-punch.  Did figure out a bit about the timing of the combination (short pause between block and counter).

Tomorrow is JiuJitsu. Can I say: I really hope we work on mounts?