This was a very mentally challenging class for me today. Sensei Cieplik had us work on bunkai from different katas.
Basics, then add a partner….
Sensei had us work on a drill that I haven’t seen in a while. This drill had us in a fighting stance and from there, we changed our feet quickly and jabbed using the power from our upper body. For example, starting with the left foot forward, we pulled the left foot back to the right foot, then stepped forward with the right foot and jabbed.
Another drill that we worked on was moving forward with reverse punch. We did this with one, two, three and four punches moving forward.
For our next drill, we moved into groups of three. We started with a drill where on partner stood between the other two. From there, the middle person put a hand on each partners shoulder. We then did a forceful knee strike. The idea was to get the feeling of a powerful knee strike while keeping our posture and balance.
Kata bunkai….
We spent the rest of the class working on bunkai from the Heian katas. We started with the first three movements from Heian Nidan. Our partner punched at our head and blocked with the left hand, they then punched again and blocked with the right hand and trapped their arm between the front arm and back arm.
We also worked on Heian Shodan. From there, our partner attacked with a front kick from the side and we did a downward block, deflecting the kick out of the way. We also worked on moves three and four where we block a front snap kick and counter attack with the hammer fist.
It was a great class, I wish I could remember more of what we did.
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