Tuesday Karate class – 5/27/08 – Squeeze those muscles and close your eyes.

We spent a good amount of time on our warm up:

Jog to each line and back.
Shuffle to each line and back.
Low walk forward and backward across the gym
Shuffle across the gym.
Shift across the gym.
Kick our hands behind us across the gym.
Walking knee raises across the gym.
Walking while doing dynamic leg raises to the front across the gym.
Walking while doing dynamic leg raises to the side across the gym.

Class:

Moving forward and backward with combination blocks and punches in Japanese.

Sensie Noia had us do something that I never remember doing before. He had us do combinations with our eyes closed. This felt so different. Since I couldn’t see what I was doing, I wasn’t caught up in my form. The moves felt like they just flowed.

Next, it got a little more interesting. We did kicks with our eyes closed – front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse kick was really different. Oddly, I felt that my balance wasn’t any worse but maybe even a little better.

We spent the rest of the class working on kata with Sensei Gatch. He had us do a couple of slow kata’s to help us catch our breath from all of the kihon that we just finished. He then had us do a very slow motion kata but he also had us squeeze our muscles and hold them for three seconds during each move. Doing Jion felt like an eternity with all of the moves but it also felt real good. Locking for that time with each movement really brought a different dimension to the kata.

Great class again.