Kata until you drop – 5/21/09 – Thursday Karate class

Sensei Cieplik had us work on many of our usual kihon movements for the first half of the class and then we moved into kata.

Everybody was one-step sparring….

Sensei had us get a partner and do one-step sparring.  We worked on the normal six attacks.  Front punch to jodan and chudan, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.  I am glad that we worked on one-step since I never feel that I do it enough.  I like to think of my one-step as one punch – one kill.  I know that sounds extreme but if I ever had to use the skills that I am learning in Karate, I would not bounch around trying to spar a mugger, I would want my counter attack or even my block to stop the attacker in their tracks.

A lot of kata…..

We started with the Heian katas.  We worked on Heian Shodan to warm up, then we did Heian Nidan twice, followed by Heian Sandan twice, Heian Yondan twice, Heian Godan twice and then Jion three times.  Next, we worked on Bassai Dai.  We did Bassai Dai at least 10 times and the point that Sensei was trying to get us to understand was that if we were tired, we would relax when doing the kata and perform it the correct way.

After about the sixth kata, I thought I was going to fall down but some how, I was able to dig deeper and finish every kata that Sensei asked us to do with the most power and speed that I had.  It felt good!