Learn by helping others

Today was a very enjoyable class.  We did our basics and then spent the rest of the class helping our lower rank fellow students with some kihon and kata.

We started class with our normal kicking warm up.  I thought that I finally had my front snap kick problems worked out but I guess not.  Sensei told me that I am straightening my kicking leg again.  Ugh!  I am nearing my eighth year of Karate and my sixth year of training with Sensei Cieplik and my kicks are still off.  I know I will get it one day.

Basics are the building blocks of everything else…

We spent the first part of class working on basics.  We did moving forward and back with rising block, downward block, inward block and outward block all with reverse punch.

Moving forward and back in back stance with knife hand block, then knife hand block with front leg front snap kick moving into front stance with spear hand strike.

We finished up basics moving side to side in a horse stance with side snap kick, side thrust kick and then both kicks with one count.

Help the lower ranks with one technique….

For the rest of the class, Sensei paired each black belt up with a lower to work on a specific technique.  The technique that I helped my fellow student work on we moving forward with front punch.   The best part about helping others with their techniques is I normally learn something too.

Sensei wanted us to help show them how to punch with the in and down movement.  For example, instead of just stepping in and punching, Sensei had them do a lunging movement to get the feeling of driving in low and punching while using the entire body.   After a few tries, the person I was working with was hitting like a truck.  We then did the movement, the normal way and had him apply the same body motion but in a regular stance.  Even though the movement was not strong when lunging in, it was much stronger than before we did the drill.

We spent the rest of class working on kata and helping our fellow students fine tune their moves for their upcoming exams.