Excellent class!

Because we have not tested, our Sensei broke us up into groups. The only people in that class who have not tested is my wife and I so we effectively got a private lesson from one of our Sensei’s.

I asked if we could work on some basics and he obliged. He had us do inward block, elbow strike, backfist both forward and backward. He gave me some good pointers such as reaching more when moving in to the horse stance doing the elbow strike. Also, he told me shift from the front stance into the horse stance which really makes the move much more effective. Also, when moving backward, my stance we way too narrow but once he told me, I was able to really widen it up just by moving my back foot out on an angle instead of just backward like I was doing.

We then worked on some double front snap kicks. I got an “impressive” from my Sensei because my kicks were higher than ever before. He tried to help me with my roundhouse kick but for some reason, I stop after each kick when doing double roundhouse. I cannot collect my balance fast enough to keep the moves fluid like they should be. I need to do some more work on those. He also noticed that my side thrust kicks are weak when over belt level so he had me kick him low while he held the pad. Needless to say, my kicks easily knocked him over when low but once they went higher they are weak until after the forth or fifth kick. It seems to take my hips at least 4 or 5 kicks before the power comes in up high so he wants me to figure out a way to warm up my hips the same way on my test day so that I can put some authority behind them.

We finished up with some kata work. He helped me get my stance wider when moving from the double block into the groin strike. Just moving my leg and pivoting seems to have fixed my issue of my stance being too narrow.

I am kinda sad that I test in three weeks because I really like the personal instruction that we are getting now. 😉

Great class on Friday.

We started with a lot of kicking drills.   My kicks are starting to get better and finally higher.  We did some different moves.  One interesting combination was shuffle up, jab, front leg front snap kick and then rear leg front snap kick.  We did a few more drills like those and then did some roundhouse kicks in place of the front snap kicks.  Then into a horse stance, shuffle up and side thrust kick.  Then the same thing but spin around and side thrust kick with the opposite leg.  It was hard for me to get coordinated with that move.

Then we split up and worked on some more kicking drills.  My balance was awful for some reason.  We did front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse and front snap kick.  Five moves without touching the ground.  I could do the first front snap kick well but then it seemed that all my balance was gone.

Next we worked on kata.  I did a really strong kata and really nailed the jump but I hurt my left foot.  I came down too hard and think I might have a slight break or a little fracture.  The pad of the ball of my foot is very swollen but I am sure I will live.  I have to spend more time working on getting my hips around for the groin strike and also my back stances.

One each of Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Tekki Shodan. (6 total)

Good class!

The warm up was kinda rough with lots of low walks but then we worked on kata. We did a bunch of speed work, making our moves faster. We did the first part of Heian Godan many times to get our speed up. Then we worked on Jion and Bassai Dai.

Good stuff.