Archives for March 2010

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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Tonight, Sensei Cieplik had us spend a lot of time working on our side snap kicks.

Basics first….

After our warm up, we worked on some kicking drills.  From a front stance, we did a front snap kick with the right leg and then turned 90 degrees to the left, while keeping our knee up high and then put the kicking leg back down behind us forcefully.  We the did the same movements again until we were facing front again and then worked the other side.

We did the same drill again but this time, we were able to bring our left elbow across to our right leg as we turned.  This allowed us to utilize our core and turn from the hips instead of our shoulders and upper body.

Many side snap kicks….

For the next drill, Sensei has us get a partner.  One partner crossed their hands in front and held on to the other partners foot, like in the end of a side snap kick.  From there, the other partner pulled the foot back, hard and fast to the inside of the opposite leg.  Sensei wanted to here the slapping sound as the kicking foot retracted to the stationary leg.

In the next drill, one partner stepped in for a front punch and the other did a short side step and side snap kicked them under the kicking arm.  I am not sure how many times we did this drill but there were a lot of kicks.

Whip your body….

We worked on something a little different next.  We did a front punch but leaned back before we threw the punch.  The idea was to push hard from the hips and allow the upper body to lean backward and then let it whip forward as the punch is thrown.  Even though our form was broken, somewhat, the punch was extremely powerful.  This made use of the rock on a rope concept that Sensei often talks about by using the body to let the arm whip out.  I like this move a lot, even though it is not proper form for exam purposes.  It really makes the punches snap!

We spent some time working on this concept while doing the punches in Heian Shodan.  The idea is to be loose in form in the mind but not when executing the technique.  Getting the feeling of using the entire body to throw a front punch while keeping good form is the goal.

Kata….

We finished up working on kata.  We did Jion, Bassai Dai and Heian Godan while the Shodan’s and above worked on a few other their katas.

It was an awesome class.

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Sensei Noia had us work on our kicks today.  I don’t remember doing this many kicks in one class ever before.

Get a pad….

After a tough but good warm up and really good stretch, we each got a white pad.  The pad is about 18 inches tall and about a foot wide.  We stood the pad in the short edge and stood next to it.  From there, we picked up our leg and moved it from one side to the other over the top of the pad.

Next, we stood next to the pad again and pointed our knee at the edge of the pad.  From there, we did did a low, slow motion roundhouse kick to the pad and then pulled our foot back as fast as we could.  After those, we did the same drill but after we snapped our foot back, we did two full speed roundhouse kicks over the pad.

Put the pad away….

Next, we put the pad away and did kicks across the dojo.  We started in a horse stance and did slow motion side thrust kicks.  First, we kicked a three different levels while keeping our kicking foot front touching the floor and our knee raised up between kicks.  After that, we did five different height kicks.

After that, we worked on front kick, side thrust kick and back kick.  Then front kick on an angle to the side, then low side thrust kick and back kick on an angle to the rear.

I am sure that we did even more kicking drills but I think my mind is blocking some of them out now.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.