Lots of good advice from Sensei Cieplik today!
Don’t drop the knee…
We started with the normal warmup doing our kicks and as I was doing the front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick Sensei noticed that my knee was dropping between the kicks and most noticeably between the back kick and roundhosue kick.
Punch and punch some more…
We started with combinations moving forward and backward with downward, rising, inward and outward blocks with reverse punch. After that, moving forward and back with front punch followed with sanbon zuki. Next came front kick with front punch forward and backward.
Project yourself forward…
This was a really interesting drill. Sensei had us get into a short front stance and squeeze the floor to create a lot of tension in our legs. From this point, we did a really fast front snap kick with the rear leg and then stepped down into a tall front stance, shifted slightly forward and then project our intention forward. By intention, I mean project your mental extension or energy forward against your target. The idea was to build up all that tension by squeezing the floor, let the kick fly and then step forward, chest out and looking forward. I had a hard time getting letting the kick fly fast enough but I feel that I understood the concept of projecting my intention.
Time for some kicks….
Next, we did horse stance moving sideways with side thrust kick. Then side snap and then the combination move with side snap kick and side thrust kick. We then did moving sideways with side front kick.
We then did back stance, front snap kick with nukite. Sensei told me to let the front leg fly instead of pulling my foot back first. Let the kick go right from the floor.
Extra kata….
We started with all of the Heian katas and Tekki Shodan. Sensei told me, when doing Tekki shodan, GET LOWER.
Next we worked on Jion, Sensei said that I need to be lower in my horse stances and push from my legs and not my shoulders!
Next came Bassai Dai. Sensei spent a lot of time helping my work on a problem area in my kata. From the second back stance with knife hand block after the kiai, Sensei wants me to pull back, STAY LOW, and have my hands and feet finish at the same time for double upward block. After that, I need to bend my front knee, into a front stance and double strike from the hips, NOT THE SHOULDERS. Next, the back leg up a little and push forward and punch. Also, to keep me from punching with my shoulders, Sensei told me to punch chudan instead of jodan.
Sensei gave me a lot of great advice and I am sure it will help me with my upcoming exam.
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