Very hard class tonight.

I feel like my left leg is going to fall off or do I wish it would!  We worked on a lot of different moves tonight.  After exams, Sensei takes notes on the movements that people have the most problems with and then has all of us in class, work out the kinks.

I won’t outline the entire class but I want to type the parts that I want to use in my training before I forget what he said.

1:  When doing front snap kick with side thrust kick to the front, he made a point that on the front snap kick our core closes and on the side thrust kick our body or core opens.  When doing the front snap kick, we squeeze our core or midsection and when doing the side thrust kick we should try to open or stretch our body.

2:  Practice doing front stance, reverse punch, front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick and finish with reverse punch.  Even though it is simple to read, getting the mind to do these moves is a little more challenging than it sounds.  On the second kick, you need to switch your hands in order to execute the reverse punch.

3:  When practicing the front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick combination, start slow and low and then work up to fast and high.  Again very simple advice but I know that I often do not follow it.

Another move that I found interesting was left leg front stance, start moving forward and throw a jab and then follow it up with a right leg front stance front punch.  The amount of power made in that movement is unreal.  It is as if your jab is pulling your body and then the front punch just drives into some like a steam roller.  We did not test this move with a partner but I would image it is powerful from what I could feel doing it in the air.

Another interesting move is the rear leg front crescent kick followed up with a reverse punch.  We spent a good amount of time working on this drill.  It wasn’t very hard but it certainly wasn’t easy, if that makes sense.

We finished up with kata.  We did parts of each kata and Sensei told us how wants us to do Tekki Shodan.  The first few moves where step over and then bring up the right leg, he wants us to do an ax kick with that leg.  It’s is something that I am going to have to work on and have him look at in the future because even though I think I know what he wants, I want to be sure that I am doing it right and not wasting my time doing the wrong movement.

Stretching:

Bent over splits – 75 seconds
Seiza – None tonight.  It just didn’t feel right.
Hamstring stretch – 75 seconds

Side leg raises – 2×15
Slow side thrust kicks – 15

I wasn’t going to stretch because I felt really run down but I feel better now that I did it.

Morning workout:

Side leg raises – 3×15
Slow side thrust kick – 15

Class:

My wife and I received our exam results tonight and we were both promoted to 4th Kyu!

Class was hard. We spent most of the time sparring and I really need to spend a lot of time working on my techniques and shifting. I need to move much faster and much smoother if I am going to improve. I did throw some nice right leg roundhouse kicks and I am sure that my wife will feel them tomorrow. We switched partners a few times and I want against my friend Robert. He moved like lighting and always tries to sweep me but I pay extra attention to his sweeping movements.

It was a good class but I know I am going to feel it in the morning.