Hit it hard

It’s the last day of the session so Sensei Noia had us hit it hard today.  Both figuratively and literally.

Warm up the body with some kihon….

After the warm up, we got a partner and a pad.  We both moved into a horse stance, facing each other and punched the pads as Sensei counted.  This was just a quick warm up to get our arms and legs ready for what was coming next.

Next, from a horse stance, we brought both knees together, stepped back into a front stance and did a downward block.  After that we did the same with the other leg in front but always bringing the legs knees back to center between each stance.

For the next drill, we moved from a horse stance into a back stance doing a rising outward block and downward block from Heian Godan.  We finished up these drills with in a horse stance moving sideways doing a double downward block.

Hit those pads hard….

We paired up with our partner again and did the following strikes to the pad:

1. Elbow the pad with horizontal elbow, sideways elbow or draw hand elbow.
2. Back fist or hammer fist.
3. Front punch, reverse punch or jab.
4. Knife hand or ridge hand strike.
5. Palm heel either sideways or straight.

Next came the big pads and the huge air shields.  We did back kicks and spinning back kicks on the big pads and full power roundhouse kicks on the air shields.

It’s always fun to hit the big pads because we can go all out and not hurt the person holding them and it was also a fun way to end the session.