Mind before movement – 4/30/10 – Friday Karate class

Sensei Brien has been upping the intensity to help us prepare for our belt exams and today was another really tough class.

Double moves for each step….

Sensei had us start with basics but with each count he wanted us to increase our intensity.  To make the drill harder, Sensei also had us do double moves with each count.  For example, we took one step, did downward block with reverse punch and downward block with reverse punch again.  We did the same drills, all with double moves with rising block, inward block, outward block, double front snap kick, double roundhouse and knife hand block with front snap kick and nukite.

Partner kicks and fighting one step sparring….

For the next drill, we got a partner and did standing front snap kick and side thrust kicks.  The idea was to stand upright and not lean when doing the side thrust kicks.  We stood right next to our partner with our arm on their shoulder to keep us as upright as possible.

For the nest drill, we did one step sparring but with a twist.  instead of standing in a the normal front stance for attacker and ready stance for defender, we started in a fighting stance.  This makes the drills much more realistic than doing them the other way in my opinion.  We did all six attacks; Front punch to head and stomach, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.

Mind before movement….

We finished up class with something really neat.  We did kata but with some different mental focus then usual.  Sensei had us do our first kata with fierce intensity and relaxed form.  The idea was to use knock down all out power.

For the second kata, he had us pay extra attention to our draw hand. Before each move, Sensei wanted us to focus on the draw hand exclusively.

For the next kata, we used loose or relaxed muscles to focus on speed.

The forth kata really made me think.  Before doing each move, we were to say the next stance in our head before we moved.  The idea was to focus totally on the stance and I noticed a huge improvement in my stances just by thinking about them.

For the final kata, Sensei had us focus on all of the above.  This was pretty tough but Sensei said that he saw a huge improvement in everyones kata.

It was a great class but the kata at the end really wiped me out.

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