Say It Another Way

Instead of telling someone to move their feet, tell them they are going to play a game. The name of the game is “don’t get stabbed with a rubber knife”. Then, give that person and everyone else in class a rubber knife.

Most assuredly, almost everyone will move their feet.

There will be a few students who don’t, for whatever reason, use footwork to try and avoid getting stabbed but most folks will move. Most people will rise to the challenge of a game and most people have a natural inclination to not get stabbed (even when the knife is rubber).

Learning to stay mobile in martial arts is huge. Communicating the idea is not always so easy. Today we played “don’t get stabbed with the rubber knife” and everyone moved their feet really well.