Things to work on – 12/10/09 – Thursday Karate class

Now that exams are over for most of us, Sensei Cieplik had us working on some things that he wants us to correct for future exams.

Working the bugs out…

After our warm up, we moved into knee strike with front snap kick.  Then came moving forward and  back with rising block, downward block, inward block and outward block all with reverse punch.  Sensei also had us do outward block with a twist.  We did the outward block with our draw hand under our blocking arm instead of over.

Next, we worked on moving forward and back in a back stance with knife hand block.  Sensei then added a little twist and had us the same movement but with a squat between each.  For example, move forward with knife hand block, then squats, move forward again and squat.  This was tough.

We then did back stance, front snap kick and spear hand strike.

Work those kicks….

We did double front snap kick, double roundhouse kick, and shuffle up with front leg roundhouse kick finishing with reverse punch.

Next came horse stance with step across, side thrust kick, then side snap kick and then both of them with one step.

We also worked on a similar movement where we stepped across with the lead leg behind and then we did a kick.  What a strong kick and it can be done from a lazy front or horse stance.

All kata’s….

Sensei had us do all kata’s from H1 to H5, then Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  We did Jion and Bassai Dai more than a few times.

For Tekki Shodan, I had asked a question about the arm movements after the step across outward block.  The first movement is an upper block in front of the face with a gedan strike, the next move is much like a rising block with a chudan strike and the last move is a jodan strike with the palm of the fist turned torward the body.

Sensei had me work on a special drill for the yama zuki in Bassai Dai.  He had one of us hold a pad on the wall while the other punched, driving the bottom hand with the hip.  The top hand stays loose and the bottom hand strikes with power coming the hips.  Hitting objects makes the moves so much more understandable.

Sensei also gave me drill to help me improve my horse stance.  He had me start in a wide stance with my toes turned out, then he had me squats as low as I could.  After that, he had me push my knees out then straighten up, turn my toes in, and then tuck my butt under.  I have an uphill battle with these messed up hips of mine but anything is possible.