I am starting to wonder if there is a push to improve our kicking abilities in the club. I did more kicks this week then ever before. I know that I need them but my hips are saying bad things to me when I have to complex movements, like walking for example.
Start making those kicks better now for the upcoming exams….
Sensei Brien had us spend 80% of the class working on kicking drills. After our warm up, we started in a horse stance. From there, we did many punches, double punches and triple punches. Next, we turned to the left from a horse stance into a front stance, threw a reverse punch and then turned back into a horse stance and threw a punch with the opposite hand. We then turned to the right and did the same thing. Sensei wanted us to open up our hips.
Next came the kicks. Not in any particular orders, we did slow motion low front snap kick followed by slow motion high front snap kick. The idea was to push the hips forward and work the legs. It was successful.
For roundhouse kicks, we stood facing front, picked the kicking leg up to the side, turned our body and pointed our kicking knee forward, kicked and then turn back so that we were facing front again. We did the this movement slowly.
We did double height side thrust kicks, first to the knee and then to the belt or higher. After that came front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick. Sensei sad to make sure that you look before doing a back kick at the exam. For kicks, we finished up with some side snap kick drills.
Crazy hands….
We spent the last part of class working on some sparring drills. The idea was for the defender to move their hands in some crazy but loose patterns to easily deflect our opponents punching attacks. The movement of the hands is used to distract the attacker, deflect their attack and allow them to be counter attacked easily.
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