We spent most of the class working on sparring drills again but this was a little different than most of our sparring classes.

We partnered up right away and started doing kicking drills. With our arms down at our sides, each of us would throw a front snap kick at our partner and then switch legs and do the same. The idea behind this drill was to help us with our balance.

Then we moved on to punching drills. I would throw a jab to jodan and then my partner would do that same, then to chudan and then gedan. The idea was to punch hard with control and also move in and out of the way after the attack.

We went back to some kicking drills where we would throw a rear leg roundhouse kick, then our partner would do the same, then a front leg shuffle up roundhouse kick. We then switched legs and did the same. I didn’t have too much trouble with my right leg kicks but my left leg is really far behind when it comes to height and power. We also worked on some other drills with some sweeps and kicks.

We finished up with a kata. Sensei Noia told us to pick any kata that we wanted to do and for some reason Heian Nidan was on my mind. I used my new breathing technique and it really made my kata very fast but I need to video tape myself to see if I am going too fast and to make sure that I still have good kime.

Today was the first time that I tried to practice my kata without taking in the extra breath before each move. I was a little hard to concentrate on my breathing at first but it started to come more natural after the first few moves. When doing Heian Godan, I noticed that I was short of breath right around the jump and it really slowed my kata down a great deal.

I did one each of:

• Heian Shodan
• Heian Nidan
• Heian Sandan
• Heian Yondan
• Heian Godan
• Jion – I did the first group of moves up to the first kiai.

I also did three Tekki Shodan. I am starting to correct my mistakes and the kata felt better than it has but I am moving at a slower pace until I get the moves totally correct. I do need a lot more work on my horse stance though.

The first class was similar to last nights class with a lot of pad drills but no kicks. We did a lot of punches from horse stances and front stances. We also did a lot of blocks and I was able to test flexing my lat when doing the outward blocks. It did seem to help but I think I need a lot more time working on it to make it as strong as my inward block.

We finished up with some kata, Heian Shodan. We did it to Sensei’s count first, trying to do the moves the same way we did when we were working with the pads. Then we did it at our own speed and full power.

One thing that Sensei Gatch noticed is that I was pausing to take a deep breath before each move and it was slowing me down tremendously. Before each move, I would inhale deeply instead of just going and then exhaling at the end of each move. When I did Heian Shodan while focusing on breathing the right way, I was faster then ever before. It has taken over three years for one of my Sensei’s to notice that I was doing this and help me fix it. I never would have guessed that I was doing something so simple that has been hindering my Karate for so long. The key thing for me is relearning all move kata moves while breathing properly going forward.

The second class was mostly sparring drills. We did a lot of simple drills but one that took some time to get used to was as follows. From a front stance, we shifted out with an inward block and then threw a reverse punch and then we angled out to the corner and did the same thing but after each move we angled out again until we went in a complete circle completing nine moves. Then we switched to the other hand.

We did an anchor man drill and the object was to stand in front of the line and shift out without blocking and then back in and counter. I was having the worst time not blocking. It is just natural for me to want to block an attack but the object was to shift far enough away so that I didn’t have to block and then shift back in to counter.

Both classes were really good but it really tells me how much work I need to improve.