Friday Karate class – 1/18/08 – Back to basics shifting drills.

Sensei Noia has us do a more dynamic warm up.  Some leg raises and other moves to get the blood flowing along with some push ups, v-situps and some supermans for the lower back.

After our warm up, we got right into some shifting drills.  We started in a fighting stance and shifted forward and backward across the gym, then switched front legs and repeated the drill.  We then did double shifts the same way.  Next, we added a jab to the first shift and a reverse punch to the second shift.  Going backward, we did a  block with each shift.  We spent a good amount of time working on these drills with Sensei reminding us to keep good kamae by keeping our hands in the correct place and holding our bodies upright when moving both forward and backward.

Next, we worked on some partner drills.  We worked on shifting, along with some block and counter movements.  We started with one partner attacking and the other remaining stationary and blocking only.  After that, the stationary partner worked on blocking and countering.  We then finished up working on the same blocks and counters but with both partners shifting back and forth.
We finished up with some coordination drills.   With our partner in front, we would throw a punch, our partner would block, then throw a punch and we would block with the same hand that we just punched with then our partner would do the same.  We started out slowly and then did our punches and blocks at a faster pace.

I am not light on my feet but I feel that my shifting is starting to improve.

Good class.