Many kicks to follow

We spent the first 20 minutes of class doing slow motion sparring.  For this drill, we execute perfect techniques while constantly moving.  The idea is to get a good warm up along and keep our egos in check.  No matter what, you are going to get hit while doing this drill and as long as you can deal with it, you can learn a lot of from it.  Sensei Noia could not stress the point enough, so I will say it again, no ego should be used when doing this drill.

Three step sparring….

For the next part of class we worked on three step sparring with a partner.  We started with both partners in a horse stance while one side punched at the face, stomach and just below the belt while the other partner did a rising block, inward block and downward block respectively.

We followed that up with the same type of drill but instead of a stationary horse stance, one partner moved forward in a front stance and attacked while the other moved backward and blocked.

Many kicks to follow….

Going back to a previous post where I talked about there being an interest in kicks for the upcoming exams, today was no different.  We did a lot of kicks.

We started in a front stance across from our partner doing alternating front snap kicks to just above knot of our belts.  After what felt like an eternity we left our partner and did moving forward with front snap kick.  Then, we did both front snap kick and side thrust kick to the front.  After that came front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the side.  We then added back kick to the same drill.  We finished up class with front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side, back kick to the back, roundhouse kick to the front and step down with reverse punch.

I know that I had said this in the past but walking after class is often a challenge and today was one of those challenging days.