Sensei Brien had us work on preparing for our rank exams but as of yesterday all exams are over for this session. With that said, Sensei said the best time to start to prepare for our exams is now. Don’t wait for three, four or five months to start preparing, start preparing now.
Getting to the core….
Sensei spent a lot of time give us tips on how we can work our core to improve our Karate.
We started with simple sit ups. After that, Sensei had us put our knees down to the side and we did more sit ups.
Next came standing drills to help us engage the proper muscles when punching. We started with our hands out in front in a fist with the palms facing forward, we then turned the palms over and tightened our butt muscles while pushing our hips forward.
Next, we worked on a simple punching drill. From standing, we put one hand out in front and the other on our side. We slowly punched and then pushed our hips forward and tightened our butt muscles and upper back muscles as the punch finished.
The next drill was lying leg raises. We laid on our back with our legs straight up in the air and we pushed our feet up bringing our lower body and lower back off the ground.
Simple tips and drills to help us improve…
When moving forward and backward, try keep the stationary ankle straight. When stepping into a front stance, keeping the both the back foot and front foot straight ahead will improve all basic movements.
For the next drill, we stood with both feet on a low pad. We then leaned forward like we were skiing to stretch our calves. The next drill was standing in a front stance with our back foot up on pad, trying to push our heel down. This was a really good stretch.
Next came a drill for the hips. With one foot on the pad and the other on the floor, we evened our hips by picking the foot up from the floor. This is a mobility drill to help the hips.
Last but not least, Sensei suggested the we ring our feet out each day. This movement is much like ringing out a wet towel.
It was good class with some good food for thought and some things to work on over the holiday break.
Can you describe the ringing out of the feet that Sensei suggested?
Hi Jim,
If I recall correctly, he had us grab our feet like we would a towel and ring it out. The idea is to imagine that your foot is towel that is vertical and not horizontal. You would twist the top half of your foot in one direction and the bottom part the other way. Let me know if that helps.
Doug,
Thanks for the explanation.