We have been doing a lot of work to prepare for you upcoming rank exams. I haven’t been feeling too well for the last five days and I don’t think my performance tonight was up to normal because of it.

We started with warm up and then moved right into basics. We did all of the basic blocks, outward, inward, downward and rising with revers punch. We also worked on knife hand block with front kick and nukite. Next came outward block, horse stance with elbow strike and backfist. We also did the normal kicking drills, side thrust, front snap, roundhouse and combinations of those kicks.

After that came one-step sparring. That feels so better to me than before. Since my wife was still not feeling well, I got to work with one of our 1st kyu brown belts. It is always nice to work with someone with a higher rank every now and then to get an idea if my techniques are good or bad. I was able to move and block without any problems and my counters were strong as ever but a little farther away than when I work with my wife.

We finished up with kata. My kata felt good and Sensei Noia gave me one takeaway to work on. He said that I need more power when I step and do the outward block.

Good class.

Before class:

One each of Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Heian Godan.  Five Tekki Shodan and two Jion.

Helping prepare us for our upcoming rank exam, Sensei Noia had us work on some of the more advanced kihon.

Most of us should already be fairly proficient at blocks with reverse punches, he had us work on movements such as knife hand block, front snap kick with nukite.  I was having a hard time getting my legs working the right way and my feet felt like there were dragging instead of moving.  My stances felt off and my nukite felt weak.  I was feeling a bit under the weather so I assume that was why I was having problems.

We also did front stance with outward block, horsestance with elbow strike and backfist.  I was pulling my elbow back too far instead of striking straight.

We then worked on some kicks.  Side thrust to the side with roundhouse to the front.  Front snap kick to the front with side thrust to the front.  Then horse stance with side thrust.  After that came horse stance with side snap kick.  My side thrust kicks felt good and my right leg kick was extremely strong.  I was able to kick hard and then hold it for a second before setting my foot down.

We then did a form of anchorman one-step.  One of us would start in front of the line and block with counter and then rotate to the back of  line.  Since I was the only adult in the group and everyone else was about a foot shorter than me, I had to shorten up my shifts when blocking.  It brought a whole different feel to the movements since I am used to working with partners that are near the same height as me.

Sensei Noia had all of us come out for kata one at a time.  I was tired but I volunteered to go first.  After getting compliments from Sensei Plocharczyk the night before, I did my kata the same way.   Sensei Noia said that my kata looked really good and better then before so I plan on trying to keep that up going forward.

We then lined up and class ended.