Tuesday Karate class – 2/26/08 – Side thrust kick torture.

This was a very hard class.

Sensei Noia had us a different warm up.  We started by jogging back and forth across the gym.  Next came shuffling back and forth.  Then jogging forward trying to kick our butts with our feet.  side kicks in circles.  I think we did each movement at least four times across the gym.  When then did our normal stretching routine.

Next came side kick circles.  Sensei had us get a partner, they held our their hand, we did a side thrust kick and then circled their hand with our foot both clockwise and counter clockwise.

After that, our partner put both hands out in front in a cup position and we did a side thrust kick and rested our foot in their hands.  Next Sensei had us raise our leg up off our partners hands, pull the kicking leg back to the start position of the kick and then put it it back to the resting position.  The idea was to bring the out stretched leg back to the start of the kick very quickly along with strengthening our legs.

We spent a good amount of time working on just those movements and we also did some conditioning movements too.

We finished up the class holding out stance for one minute each.  Horse stance, front stance with both legs and back stance with both legs.  Sensei Noia wants us to do this as homework each to help improve our stances.