Do not let that knee move

For this class, Sensei Noia had us work on our stances with focus on keeping our knees from moving and super fast turns in our katas.

Do not let that knee move….

We started in a horse stance doing single punches, double punches and rising blocks.  Next, from a horse stance, we stepped back with the right and leg and did a reverse punch, then back to horse stance, step back with the left and reverse punch again.  When doing drills like these, the front leg should stay bent and the front knee should not move back or side to side.

Because of all the knee movement going on, Sensei had us get a while pad (18” x 12” x 1” styrofoam like pad) and put it in front of our knee while holding a front stance.  From there, we did blocking and punching movements trying to keep our knee from moving.

Pay attention to your hip rotation…

We started out doing Taikyoku Shodan very slowly with extra attention to hip rotation.

Next, we did Jion, maybe 5 times or so, doing each move slowly but Sensei wanted perfect stances and again, extra attention to hip rotation.  We did Jion again but this time Sensei counted each move out for us.

After that, with Sensei counting again, we did the kata again but all forward or backward moves were slow but the turns were super fast.  We did it again but on our own this time still focusing on the fast turns.  We finished up with one last Jion with 100% speed and power on all the moves but without the rhythm.

We finished class doing two more katas of our choice (Gojushiho Sho for me) and then we bowed out.