Archives for 2011

Sensei Noia gave us a class full of some kihon and many many kicks.

Warm up with some basics…

We started out in a ready stance, turning 90 degrees to the left and do a downward block, then turn 180 degrees behind and downward block, then turn 90 degrees to the left and downward block and turn 180 degrees behind and downward block again.  We did the same drill as above but added a reverse punch.  Then one more drill the same way but instead of blocking, we reached with what would be the blocking hand and then front punched.  This is a great drill that you can do it you have limited space.

Let the kicks begin…

We started in a front stance and did a stationary back kick.  Next, we did a spinning back kick, turned 180 degrees behind and did it again.  The next drill was moving forward with spinning back kick, set the kicking leg down in front and back kick again.  This was a real hip opener.

For the next drills, we got a partner.  We started with alternating spinning back kicks.  Sensei Noia said to make sure that we spot our target before we kick.   Next, we did alternating spinning hook kicks, then followed that up with alternating spinning roundhouse kicks.  The spinning roundhouse kick was something that I don’t remember doing before and needless to say, it was different and I am sure it was ugly to watch me do it.  We finished up with some combination kicks and class was over.

Walking out to the car was painful but it was a good pain or I am just telling myself that it is a good pain….

Sensei Brien gave us a taste of explosive kata in class today.

Explode then freeze….

This was an awesome class and spent close to 90 minutes working on this one concept.  The idea here was to do a movement with 100% speed and power, then stop and hold, then repeat.

For example, when doing Heian Shodan, we started from a ready stnace, then moved as fast and strong as possible into the front stance with downward block and then froze like a statue.  Then we moved into the front stance with front punch and did the same.  We did these drills with Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Jion.

This is an extremely hard way to train and even though we only did a couple hundred techniques, doing it all out for more than a few katas is almost impossible.

Give this a try in your own kata training and let me know what you think in the comment area.

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.