What an excellent class. Sensei Noia really taught a great class.
I am not sure what was different but every bit of the class felt right. I am not sure if my body was just on today but the moves went together like pieces in a puzzle.
We started with a hard warm up and some stretching and then got right into it.
Sensei had us start in a horse stance. We did the normal drills of punches, double punches, rising blocks, downward block, inward blocks and outward blocks. We then turned sideways and did side snap kicks across and back the dojo.
Next, we were moving forward doing combinations. Sensei was calling out the movements in Japanese. For example, we did moving forward, downward block, front leg roundhouse kick and reverse punch.
After that, Sensei had us work on some kata parts. We started with Jion, He had us do the first movement about five times and then had us do the first, second and kick with sanbon zuki over about five times. Then we did the third movement with the kick and sanbon zuki about five times. All of the movements started with the end of the last movement. Next came the reach, block punch about five times and then we did from that movement all the way to the first kiai. From the first kiai, we did the turn with double block and then into the horse stance with hook punch. We then did the double block, shift into horse stance going both ways 10 times. We then did the move from the horse stance into the downward block.
Next came Bassai Dai. It was really cool to work on that kata. We did the first move about five times, then the first move again, turn into the outward block with reverse outward block. Then from the start again, turn into the outward block, then reverse outward block into the reverse inward block and outward. We spent a some more time doing moves after that all the way to the low knee side kick.
We then went out to do our entire kata. My first Jion felt really good. I was the last one to finish. I took my time and did each move not worrying about anyone else. We then did a second kata and again, I finished last. I did the kata like I felt it should be done. After those, Sensei Noia had us each pick a Heian kata. I normally would have picked Heian Shodan but I wanted to Heian Yondan. It felt excellent. With the exception of the second from the last backstance knife hand block, it had to be one of the best Heian Yondans that I have ever done.
After our last kata, Sensei asked for some to volunteer to stretch out the class since everyone worked so hard. I did and I picked my friend Robert to help out. It felt good to stretch right after class and I might start doing that on my own going forward.
Class has just been better and better lately. I am really starting to relax when I am training and I think it is helping.