Archives for 2011

There is a message that Sensei Cieplik often tells us about how the higher belts often share their knowledge with lower at some point.  He shares this information with us so that we can make it easier for those that follow us to reach their ranks and I know that many higher ranks have helped me get to Shodan.

Get those kicks in…..

After the warm up, we did stationary knee strike with front snap kick.  Then front leg front snap kick with rear leg front snap kick.  Next, we did front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap with triple punch.  We finsihed up our kicks with front leg roundhouse kick and rear leg roundhouse kick.

Standard kihon…..

Moving forward back doing rising block, inward block and downward block all with reverse punch.  We did outward block with jab and reverse punch next.   We finished up the kihon with front stance with inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and back fist.

Share high belt knowledge with lower belts….

For the rest of class, Sensei had all of the black belts line up at the front of the dojo and he gave each one of us a lower rank to work to help them improve a basic movement, stepping forward with front punch.  Sensei paired me up with a very good purple belt.  She always works very hard in class and there was little for me to have her improve on this movement with the exception of having her punch through me to an imaginary target behind me and to punch more from her lower body.  Her punches started out with enough power to sting but after just a few minutes, she was punching really hard and I was glad to have the pad on my stomach.  I am confident that if she punched someone in the face or solar plexus, she would drop them.

Even though I have been helping out with classes for almost five years now, it always makes me feel good when I can share something that my Sensei shared with me and help someone improve.

I really enjoy a good warm up, especially when it involves kata.  The was no disappointment to today when Sensei Noia had us start by doing all Heian kata and Tekki Shodan for a warm up.  When I do this warm up, I am pretty sure that my first katas look, less then great, but as the blood gets moving and the joints warm up, the katas improve.

Stance basics….

After my favorite warm up, we moved in to basics.  We stated in a horse stance and did 60 or punches and blocks.  After that, we did cross leg stance and cat stance for many punches and blocks too.

Next, we started moving forward and back with outward block, jab and reverse punch.  Then came,  what is most Sensei’s favorite movement said with heavy sarcasm, front stance with inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and back fist and front stance with reverse punch.

For the next drill, we did stationary front snap kick.  Then we did stationary front snap kick with punch while in a cat stance.  we finished up our kihon with moving forward front leg front snap kick and rear leg front snap kick for each one count.

More kata….

What’s better than warming up with kata, doing more kata during class.  We worked on Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan, Jion, Bassai Dai, and our own belt kata.  We did our own kata (Kanku Dai for me) three times but just up to the first kiai.  We then did one more kata full out at 100% to finish things up.

We didn’t do a lot of different movements in class today but Sensei Cieplik made sure that we did the few drills and movements the correct way.

Get the basics done….

After our normal kicking warm up we did moving forward and backward three times with downward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch and inward block with reverse punch.

Next we did front leg roundhouse kick, rear leg roundhouse kick and reverse punch.  We followed that, starting in a horse, then moved across with side snap kick and then side thrust kick.  As always, the idea is to keep the moving foot in contact with the floor and making sure to move from our hips and not our shoulders.

For the next drill we did a roundhouse kick, then pulled the hip all the way to the back and then brought the kicking back to the front and stepped down in to a front stance and did a reverse punch.  The idea here is to recover your balance from the kick and then do the reverse punch while driving the hips forward.

Hit them with your leg….

Because of the last drill, we moved in to groups of three.  One partner held a pad on their stomach and other other held a pad at shin height.  When stepping in to punch, the idea was to hit the low pad the shin and punch the pad.  The idea is to throw your leg at them and once it hits the pad, let the punch fly.  Throwing that leg forces us to use our hips when moving forward and throwing those punches.  The punch just goes out because the body has stopped moving and the extension of the arm happens as the body stops.

Kata at the end….

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We started with the black belts and Kanku Dai.  We then did Heian Shodan trying to punch the same way that we did when doing the pad drills.  Next we did Heian 2 – Heian 5, Jion and Bassai Dai finished it up.