After our warm up, Sensei Cieplik had us work on knee strike with front snap kick.
Kihon details…..
We started with downward block and reverse punch. The detail here was to follow the pull hand arm to the wrist then speed up the blocking hand and pull the draw hand back. The idea is someone someone might have grabbed your wrist and you are breaking away by striking their hand and pulling hard and fast.
Next came, back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand. Sensei wanted us to escalate the intensity of each movement. The knife hand block is strong, the front snap kick is stronger and the spear hand is strongest. Also when doing the spear hand, think of hitting them with your shin. Scare then with your footwork!!!
When blocking or reaching the front hand should be as strong as blocking hand. You can also use the front hand to block too.
Next, we did horse stance with side thrust kick and then side snap kick. We then did horse stance with side snap kick and side thrust kick combination.
Kata….
We spent a lot of time working kata. We did six Heian Shodan’s. Sensei wanted to see if we were doing the downward blocks like in the previous kihon drills. Next came three Heian Nidan’s, three Heian Sandan’s, two Heian Yondan’s, one Heian Godan and two Bassai Dai’s.
One point that Sensei made when doing Heian Sandan is to practice the kata but use your hands to block low on the last few movements. Having your hands down makes the stance at least and inch lower. Sensei mentioned that using five pound dumbbells might be a good training aid.
The advice that Sensei gave me when I was doing Bassai Dai was LOWER DOUG!!!
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