Another nice First...

Last night was a great practice. All the guys got stuck in traffic but eventually showed up almost an hour late. Only one beginner showed up (when I was expecting 3) but that's ok. The big challenge was to get everyone do something of their rank: 4 "advanced" with bogu, 1 beginner with significant budo experience, 2 without. Since no one is qualified to teach I had to manage 3 groups at times. Kept working on Suri ashi and Taisabaki with the experienced guys, while doing fumikomiashi with the budo guy and worked on kikentai with the 2 new girls (one of them is my wife, hehe).
Fumikomi: Started with foot-stopping-body-from-falling routine, then adding back foot momentum and then zanshin. All this with shinai pushing on hips. When comfortable, with these mechanics, do dojo lenghts: suriashi 1-2-3, fumikomi, suriashi 1-2-3. Then 2 fumikomi in a row. Always focus on hips and building momentum.
The girls were doing quite nice and I felt the need to have them work on their cuts and more power in the back foot...
As for the bogu guys, did half an hour of men+zanshin, tai-sabaki & repeat... They're getting good at it. After doing this for 2 practices they better ... But afterwards I had them put their men on and kirikaeshi. They are not used to receiving (motodachi) hits, I usually am the motodachi, so at my orders, they went soft on each other, to get accustomed to working in pair. Things were going well so I asked them to go at it with more intensity. When after a couple of gos I didn't see any intensity I stopped the whole thing and asked them to go for it. Things got better then... Did some work on motodachi, receiving tai-atari and presenting a clear target & distance, then focused on tai-atari (when I noticed it was, well, quite shitty). That took a while and will still take some time. First we did some "belly bounces" from one side to the other against motodachi, then added seme-men-taiatari, then added hiki-men. Almost broke my nose when demonstrating without my men on and crashed on motodachi's mengane... stupid... Then I got my gear on and took them on one by one. Better results than last week, they seem to feel more comfortable. D is still so damn insecure and has to get a grip on himself. He's about 17 and obviously is going through a personal crisis of some sort (late teenage years?) and just so breakable. He likes Kendo and actually (surprisingly) the most improving of the gang; he's go enourmous potential but has a long way to go to find his way. Hopefully he won't drop by then. His older brother is extremely motivated but not as naturally gifted as D and K. But he'll be a great fighter when he becomes more comfortable and like D, finds his own way.
Like I said, things are getting better on the "Straight attacks" and "Straight tai-atari" but much needs to be done, if I want to get them ready for serious opposition. They're still very self conscious and afraid of affirming themselves. "Just let go..." I keep on repeating.
Went out afterwards for a couple of beer, great fun and discussed next year's tournament in Aruba. Just planting the seed...