New dojo for the summer

Today’s class was a new beginning for some students. Class was held in a different dojo for the first time in 12 or 13 years. I took class at this location a couple times over the years, when there was something going on at the other place, but we are going to be in this dojo for at least three months. Sensei Noia mentioned that this is where the Hickory Hills Karate program started. The dojo is a little small for all of us, but it is very clean, the floors are hardwood, the room is warm and there are floor to ceiling mirrors on one wall. The only problem is, I heard rumors that we are going to have to be in an even smaller room once the summertime activities for the park district begin in a few weeks.

Kata sections

We spent most of the class working on sections of Kanku Dai. Sensei would have us do a couple of moves and then he would add on to it, creating groups of moves for a total of six to eight moves combines.

Instead of starting at the beginning of the kata, Sensei has us working on the section with the knife hand strike to the neck, front snap kick, turn 180 degrees into a back stance with a manji uke (high outward block with downward block), then the groin / upper strike and then slowly pull back. Next we moved into the side snap kicks with back fist, on both sides for at least eight repetitions. Then we added the four back stance with knife hand block section that comes after the side snap kicks with back fist. After we moved into the high knife hand strike to the neck all the way to the kiai. From that point, we did the move dropping to the floor and them moving into the back the stance a bunch of times.

We did these patterns with all the moves for the entire kata and then, at the end of class, we did a full Kanku Dai, then two katas of our choice.

Great first class in a new place.