Sensei Cieplik is working on having us move from the hips not the shoulders. This is a harder task then it sounds but I think I am starting to finally improve at doing it.
Use the hips….
Sensei had us do this drill a few weeks in a row now and it is becoming one of my favorites. We start in a front stance, do a rear leg front snap kick, turn 90 degrees, using the hips, and then we step back into front stance by putting the kicking leg behind us.
The next drill one that we worked on in the past but I never realized I should have been doing this every time I turn. We started in a front stance, we then pull the back foot up to just behind the front foot, then turn on heel of front foot and move into a cat stance, from there, we push forward into front stance. We did the same drill but we added a downward block at the end. The idea is to not use the upper body and shoulders to turn, instead bring the legs closer together to turn using the hips and also block the groin at the same time. It certainly does keep the upper body from leaning when turning.
Next, we did a drill moving forward from front stance to cat stance, slide the front leg back into a front stance and do a downward block. Sensei had us do the downward with a slapping motion to have us use less tension when doing the downward block.
We followed up with front snap kick and front punch then front snap kick with sanbon zuki.
The next was another one that I really like. We start in a high front stance with our left leg forward and our left hand palm facing down. From there we knee strike our palm with back leg twice then front snap kick when knee touches hand on third move. I need to add this drill to my outside training drills. It really opens up the hips.
We finished up with kata. Heian 1 through Heian 5, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.
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