More to come……

Hard classes!

If any of you noticed that I typed classes above, it is because I signed up for two classes on Friday.  I wanted to try to improve my endurance and I hope that by taking two classes in a row, I will improve.

We spent most of the time working on sparring and conditioning drills.  We did a lot of basic sparring moves in the first class but the second class go interesting.  About two thirds of the class was standing in a circle and the rest were in the center.  Each of the people in the center shifts in and then throws a punch or kick while the other blocks and then the move on to the next person.  It was much like anchor man but with a little different twist.

We also did a lot of conditioning. Many push ups, push ups with one leg, push up then stop and hold out one arm and the opposite leg and even a move where we held the top push up position and did a side thrust kick movement.  We also what felt like a million low walks and lunges.

I am not sure if two classes will help my endurance or not but it has to help something.

Workout: 

I had a decent workout today.

Side leg rasies – 3×15
Slow side thrust kicks -  2×15

Slow Heian Shodan, holding each stance for a three count.  I then did one of each, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Heian Godan but I used little power and just did the moves to make sure that they stay fresh in my mind.  I also did a Tekki Shodan where I held the stances for a three count.

Class: 

This particular class is always hard because of the amount of Kihon that we do each week.  We started with our normal kicking warmup but for some reason my front snap kick felt different.  Not bad different but good different.  I really felt that I was putting some solid power behind them.   For the first time, it feels as if my hips are behind my kicks.

We did a lot of different moves, some old and a couple new.  One of the harder moves was a reverse punch, front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick.  It sounds easy when I type it but it really required a lot of concentration.  This next move makes the last one sound really easy.  We did rising block, rear leg roundhouse kick, setting the kicking leg back behind us.  Bringing that leg back while holding the blocking hand up just wiped my mind.  Out of eight moves, I did maybe two correctly.

We finished with kata.  It was very interesting to watch Sensei do kata with us and show us how he does the particular moves and what some of the alternative moves are.  When working on Tekki Shodan, he talked about body shock.  He gave some interesting pointers on moving the wrist when doing the various blocks in the kata and how those types of simple motions make the kata powerful.

I seem to walk away with something new every time I go to class lately and I hope it continues.