More on variety and repetitions in class

There is, of course, some flux to be expected in the general class outline that I provided in the previous post. You know what they say, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds." The guideline I posted is not absolute and you can and should frequently break from the pattern to meet your students' needs.

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Here's another structure I like to use in my lesson planning. Consider Judo, which really only has one large pile of techniques (called The Gokyonowaza) as opposed to the three main things of the previous post. In this case, I like to work through the system like this: pull out about 8-12 of the most important throws or techniques in the system and put them in a group. For about 1/3 of each class, work through this short list like this:
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class 1 - technique#1, technique#2, technique#3
class 2 - technique#2, technique#3, technique#4
class 3 - technique#3, technique#4, technique#5
class 4 - technique#4, technique#5, technique#6
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and so on. This way, you get plenty of review and repetition from class to class. Whatever you introduce in today's class will be repeated in the next two classes.
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With the next 1/3 of each individual class I work on things outside of my short list. I may pick a kata to pull a technique out of or I may ask the class for a tokuiwaza (favorite technique) that is not in my short list.
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The last third of class should be randori.