Dear Advanced Students,

Many of you have told me the struggles you are having with learning Form 9, Sun, to your satisfaction. I didn’t design it to be easy. I also have no expectation of you having it completely memorized until you are going for your last tip as a Red Senior. You are building the foundations for your Black Belt, not earning it right now.

My feelings have always been, “Can you perform the moves in the form? Good, then let’s progress and memorize it later.” It’s doubtful you will still have it fully memorized by that time as a Red Senior anyway, that’s a year or more away. 

Now, with that being said, I know you, and I know you are striving for excellence, just like I did and you want to get the form memorized as quickly as possible. Here is some ideas. 

1. When you practice, if you don’t remember it all, do what you can remember, it is better than doing nothing.
2. If there are moves in the form that you cannot do yet, congratulations, you are about to accomplish greater strides in your development than those poor people that everything comes easy for them.
3. Make adjustments according to your age and physical limitations. We are not all 20something years old and some techniques just aren’t going to be within our grasp. This doesn’t mean there isn’t benefit from trying, and finding our own alternative technique. 
4. Tuesday nights after the end of the adult class, Either Master Brennon or myself stay late to work on all forms with any student, of any rank that wants to work them. These days, we’ve had Orange Belts running through forms 1-9 with us. It’s a great opportunity for you.
5. Ask us after class if we can do the form a couple of more times with you. If we can’t right then, we’ll schedule a moment with you. More is always greater than none.
6. Ask another student to work on the form with you. Black Belts love helping.
7. Purchase a private lesson pack and use them at will. We can often get more done just for you in 15 minutes than we can in a packed 45 minute class.
8. Watch the video, follow along if you can but just watching can really help: https://youtu.be/wMfPu3PbcKs 

I hope these ideas help. Graduation is not going to be delayed for the holidays, we keep doing that every year and it ends up pushing every graduation back. Get ready, or graduate anyway and deal with the form when you are a Red Senior.