So many kicks

Today was the first day of the new Karate session.  With a week off in between sessions Sensei Noia thought that it would be good to have us work on our kicks.  I mean really work on our kicks.

Get a pad and kick over it

For the first kicking drill, we each got a pad and stood it up the tall way.  The pads aren’t too tall, maybe 24 inches or a little less but after many kicks they seem as tall as the Sears tower.  We started in a horse stance with the pad to our left, shuffled up to it and side thrust kicked.  We did ten with left leg and ten more with the right leg.

For the next drill, we started in a front stance and did a single side thrust kick with the front leg and spinning back kick with the rear leg putting the opposite leg down in front for 15 double kicks with each leg.

We moved on to hook kicks over the pad.  We normally stop hook kicks when training but with no partner in the way, we let the kicks follow through.  We did a good amount of kicks here, maybe 20 with each leg.

Get a partner and a focus mitt

We kept working front leg hook kicks for a while more but this time our partner held a focus mitt.  After many kicks with both legs, we did more hook kicks but this time, we kicked using the back leg and then shuffled back with the kicking leg in front allowing us to work alternating legs.  I lost count here but I think there were about 15 with each leg.

For the next drill, we did front leg hook kicks again but followed them with a roundhouse kick before putting our foot back down.  We did the same drill with four kicks while our partner held two focus mitts.  For example, hook kick high, round kick low, hook kick low, round kick high.

More kicks followed but this time, we did one roundhouse or hook kick, then two kicks, then three kicks and so on for about 30 seconds with each leg.  For example, kick and put your foot down, kick twice and put your foot down, kick three times and put our foot down for as many in a row before time ran out.  Then came the other leg.

The last kicking drill was kick and tap.  We kicked the focus mitt, tapped the floor with our kicking foot and kicked again using hook kicks and roundhouse kicks.  The idea is to kick, tap the floor as fast as possible and then kick again for 30 seconds.  Then again, came the other leg.

Finish with a few katas

We ended class with three katas of our choice.  They could be the same kata three times or different katas.  Sensei wanted us to up the intensity for each kata.  Just when we thought it was over, Sensei had us do one more kata, Tekki Shodan and then it was over.

Class summary:

• Side thrust kicks and spinning back kicks over the pad
• Lots of partner hook kicks and roundhouse kicks
• Finish up with a few katas