Power goes in, again

Sensei Cieplik had us work on the famous power goes in drill today.

After our warm up we worked on our kihon.  We moved forward and backward in a front stance doing rising block with reverse punch, downward block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch and outward block with reverse punch.

Next, from a back stance we did moving forward and back with knife hand block, then knife hand block with front stance kick, then knife hand block with front snap kick moving into front stance with spear hand strike.  Sensei put emphasis on keeping the front foot quiet when moving forward in a back stance.  The idea is to move the front foot very lightly with the toes not the heels which requires most of your weight to be on the back leg.

Power goes in…

We partnered up and spent a lot of time working on hitting a pad. The movement is much like a vertical punch but it needs to have a distinct flick of the fist at the end of the movement.  Think of it as if your first s hitting the same area twice with one movement.

Loose arms are needed to execute this correctly.  Keeping the hand loose just until impact is key.  One movement that Sensei shared with us to loosen our arms is to lean forward so that the arm hangs down in front and move arm in a circular motion from the shoulder.  The best way to describe this movement is a rock (your fist) on a rope (your arm) attached at the shoulder.  The movement of the body makes the arm move not the arm itself.

We finished our class doing kata.  We started with Heain Yondan, then Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai each a couple or few times.