Archives for 2010

Sensei Noia had us start class doing kata. We started with Taikyoku Shodan, Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan then back down.

Kanku Dai….

We spent the rest of the class, about 45 minutes, working on parts from Kanku Dai. We started doing basics but with moves from the kata. For example, we did moving forward doing back stances with three knife hand blocks and then a front stance with spear hand. We also did moving forward with high / low block in a back stance.

We then worked on sections of the kata four or five moves at a time. Some parts, we did maybe 10 times each and other parts we did up to 30 times or more. I really like working on Kanku Dai but walking afterward was not easy.

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Sensei Cieplik fit a lot of Karate into a short time today.

Lots of kihon….

After the warm up we did rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, then front leg roundhouse kick, then the same but with reverse punch at the end of the kick. Next, we did double front snap kick and double roundhouse kick.

Sensei had us do a little different move, more for our mind than our bodies. We did moving forward with reverse downward block, jab and reverse punch. This really got the hips moving.

Next came back stance with knife hand block, then we added a front snap kick followed with knife hand block, then we did knife hand block with front snap kick and spear hand.

Next came inward block, elbow strike and back fist. Then horse stance step across, just step across. Then step across in horse stance with side thrust kick, then step across horse stance with side snap kick and then step across horse stance with side front kick.

Slap that foot and block…

Next, we got a partner. Our partner did a front snap kick, we slapped their foot out of the way, stepped in a did and attack using the same hand that we slapped their foot with. Slapping their foot out of the way

Kata…

Next, we did Hian shodan, squeezing the floor hard, between each move. Next, we did Bassai Dai, Tekki Shodan, Heian 5, Heian 4 and Heian 3.

**Special note**

Sensei shared something tonight that made moving backward feel totally different. He said, when doing techniques moving backward, think of stepping down instead of stepping back. It changes the feeling of movement just by changing your mind.

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

We warmed up by jogging to each quarter line across the gym and back four times.
After the warm up, we moved forward and back across the gym in a front stance with our hips closed, like a punch. Next we did the same but with hips open, like a block. We did the same again but this time, we moved into the stance with our hips open, then we closed them, like doing a block with reverse punch.

Get a pad…..

We stood in a front stance and put the pad even with our knee and toe on our front leg. From there we held the stance and did punches and blocks, without letting our knee move around.

Next, we did the drill like above but in a back stance. From the back stance, again we put the pad in line with our knee and toe but on our front leg. From there we did blocks.

After that, Sensei Noia had us put those stances to the test and we did a front stance with punch, move into a back stance with knife hand block, then back into a front stance with punch again.

Get it right, slow kata….

We started doing very slow Jion but was as close to perfect stances as we could get. I am not sure how many times we did Jion or parts of it but there was lot.

We then did our own kata, Kanku Dai for me, holding each stance for two seconds then exploding into the next move. We finished class with a single full power and full speed kata.

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