I am really enjoying some the drills we are doing in class with Sensei Cieplik. It’s not that I don’t enjoy everything but there are some drills that I enjoy more than others.
More hip…
From a front stance, do a rear leg knee strike, after the knee strike turn the body 90 degrees and then step back with the knee strike leg into a front stance. We did this with both the left leg in front and the right leg in front. We did the same drill as above but Sensei added a front snap kick after the knee strike.
Some combination blocks and punches…
We stated with moving forward and back with downward block, rising block, and inward block with reverse punch. Next, moving forward with outward block, job and reverse punch. Then, moving forward and back with inward block, elbow strike and backfist which is my favorite (sarcasm) move. Even after all these years, that move is still ugly when I do it.
The last group movements was knife hand block with kicking and striking combination’s. We started with moving forward and back with knife hand block , then with front snap kick, and then we added spear hand at the end. Sensei made an awesome point about the spear hand strike. He said, do not pull the draw hand back to the hip before the strike, just do the move from WHERE your draw hand is! This makes the spear hand so much sharper and faster and it just feels right.
Hold on the floor or you will get pushed over….
We started with moving sideways in horse stance. The idea is move with intent and keep the feet in contact with the floor at all times. Next, we got a partner and moved across, in a horse stance while our partner pushed against us from the side. The idea is to keep the intention of moving forward while moving in a horse stance.
The next drill was really neat. We stood with our back to our partner, our partner would point at any of three spots, the back of our neck, the middle of our low back and the back of our legs. The idea behind this is that you have what are similar to radar disk like receptors in those three areas and if someone points at those areas with intent, you should be able to feel it. Out of five tries, I was correct on four. There is a lot more to this than meets the eye and I hope to explain it in more detail sometime in the future.
Finish with some kata…..
We did Heian Shodan through Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai to finish up the class.
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