Bring that knee up – 3/25/10 – Thursday Karate class

After our warm up, Sensei Cieplik had us work on knee strike with front snap kick.

Next, from a front stance we leaned far forward on our front leg.  From there we put most of our weight on the front leg, then back kicked from the floor.   Next, we did front leg low front kick and then rear leg back kick.

We then worked on moving backward in a back stance.  From the back stance, we pull the front leg and drag the heel on the floor.  The idea is to use the hips, not the shoulders, to pull back in order to keep our head back or away from an attack.

Another drill we worked on was moving from back stance into front stance while keeping all of our weight on the same leg.  For example, from a left leg front stance, we turn the front foot out and keep weight on that leg, we then slide the back foot to the front to end up in a back stance.  The hardest part for me is moving between stances without using my shoulders to move.

For the next drill, we worked on moving from a back stance to a front stance with spear hand.  This is one of the biggest movements that we will do in our kata’s.  The hardest part of the drill is getting the footwork and hand to finish at the same time when doing to the front stance with spear hand.

Kata….

We started with Heian Shodan but with attention to the pulling leg back with the heel on the floor as in the drill above.

Sensei gave me some good advice for Bassai dai – when doing the crescent kick, he told me to bring my kicking leg up like a stepping up three stairs then come down into the horse stance and squat to get ready for the u-punch.  Also, before the kick, Sensei said to turn the front foot forward before starting the kick.

Lots of good stuff to work on before exams!

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