One step warm up

There’s nothing like some good old fashioned one-step sparring to warm up you for class.

Sensei Noia had us get a partner and warm doing six one-step sparring drills.  We started with step in front punch to the head, front punch to the stomach, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.

Mental kihon….

We started with back stance with knife hand block then move backward into a front stance with downward block and reverse punch.  From there, we did front stance with front punch, move into cross leg stance with reverse punch, then cat stance with low knife hand block into a  back stance with double high outward block and  downward  block.  At times, these drills feel more mentally demanding than physically.

Next, we moved into horse stance with downward block and reverse punch, then horse stance with palm heel strike and horse stance with dropping strike, like that from Jion.

We finished up kihon moving forward with front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick all in one count.  I lost track of how many times we did that, maybe 25, for a total of 100 kicks in a short time.

Low belt and high belt kata….

For many classes now, Sensei has had us do alternating low belt katas to help those that are testing for Shodan along with a mix of high belt katas for those who are already Shodan.  We started with Heian Yondan, then Hangetsu for me, Heian Godan, Hangetsu, Heian Nidan and then three katas of our choice which was Hangetsu again for me.