Tighten fist, push from hips and move partner – 8/11/11 – Thursday Karate class

For many years, Sensei Cieplik has been telling me “with the body” when doing our techniques and tonight was another example of how using the entire body can make the movements very strong.

Kihon….

After our warm up, we did some kihon.  We did rising block, inward block, and downward block all with reverse punch forward and backward.  We also did moving forward and backward with knife hand block.

Next, from a stationary front stance, we did jab, front leg front snap kick, then stepped back and a reverse punch.  After the front snap kick, Sensei told us to drop down and then move back in to the front snap and throw the reverse punch.  Dropping down helps us get our balance and drive the punch from the legs and hips.

The next drill, from a stationary front stance, was front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse to the front kick, front snap kick to the front and hook kick to the punch.

By yourself, then with a partner….

For the next drill, we started started in a front stance with our hips forward and our reverse hand out, from there, we did a back fist opening the hips then we closed our hips and reverse punched.  The hip twisting action made this a very powerful movement.  We did the same drill with a partner holding a pad.  For example, we did the back fist to their head and then the reverse punch to the pad.

Another drill that Sensei had us work on had us stand in front of our partner with our fist in front and our elbow close to our hip, from there, we tightened our fist, pushed our hips forward and hit the pad that our partner was holding.  This was a very small movement but driving from the hips and legs made my partner move back and pop both of his feet off the floor.

We finished up class with some kata and did Kanku Dai twice.

Today was a very special day…

40 years ago today, Sensei Cieplik stepped in to the dojo for the very first time.  It’s an honor for me to be able to learn from someone with so many years experience and I am grateful that he continues to share his knowledge with us in every class.