Today was one of those classes that really made me appreciate how great an instructor my Sensei is.  All Karate classes with Sensei Noia are excellent but there are some that really blow the roof off the dojo. Today, we did a little of everything as far as training and it really pushed me to my physical and mental limits.

The warm up

The warm was a good workout in itself and even though it only lasted about 10 minutes, it set the tone for what was coming next.

• Jog back and forth across the dojo the short way
• Walk across with front leg raises talking a couple steps in between each
• Across and back with karaoke’s in both directions
• Half way across with high knees and jog the other half
• Half way across with butt kickers and jog the other half
• Stationary side leg raises both left and right
• Jog across then back leg raises
• There were also some push ups, sit ups and mountain climbers after some of the above too
• Shift forward across the dojo with the left leg and back, then repeat with the right leg

Down to business

This is where we did many different Karate drills.  I might have left a few out or my mind was forcing me to forget them but there was a lot done in what felt like a short time.

• Horse stance with single, double, triple punches and rising block
• Horse stance, start with left hand in front, front snap kick with right leg, back to horse stance with right hand punch and then the other side
• Horse stance, single punch, front snap kick and back to horse stance with double punch and then the other side
• Moving forward with the block of our choice with a slight pause and reverse punch
• Moving forward with front punch
• Moving forward with front snap kick front punch
• Moving forward with block of our choice and reverse punch

The next drill was for the hips and the idea is to do it smooth and start the action from the hips not the upper body.

From a ready stance, with the left hand out in front, pivot counter clockwise 180 degrees on the right heel and punch with the right hand then pivot 180 degrees clockwise and punch with the left hand.

We followed this with some back stance work, moving forward in a back stance with a knife hand block.  After that, we did another back stance drill.  From a left foot forward back stance, we turned clockwise 180 degrees into a back stance with a knife hand block.  This is similar to the back stance moves in Gankaku but we did it with a knife hand block.  We did the same drill again but this time with the mange uke (high outward block and downward block).

Following those techniques, we did side thrust kicks all in a horse stance but a few different leg movements when stepping from horse stance to horse stance.

• Start in a horse stance, step behind with a long step and side thrust kick
• Start in a horse stance, shuffle up and side thrust kick
• Start in a horse stance, step across in front and side thrust kick

End with some kata

We finished up class with some.  The first two times, we did the kata of our choice but with no rhythm. The means, do each move with full power but totally settle the body before moving to the next technique.  We did the same kata, with the normal rhythm and then two more of the same or different kata to finish the class.

Class summary:

• Good warm up
• Many different techniques and move
• End with kata

This was another week of kicks but this time, it was crescent kicks.  The last three classes have been focused on kicks and today was another day of many kicks, along with some other good stuff.

Warm up with kicks and knee strikes

We found a partner and did alternating shuffle up with front leg front snap kick, shuffle up with front leg side thrust kick and stationary back leg front snap kick to our partners stomach.  This is a really good drill to get the hips warmed up to prepare for more punishment, I mean training.

After that, our partner held two pads and we did knee strikes to our partners stomach.  We put both hands on our partners left shoulder, pulled them down and did a knee strike with our right leg.  We did the same with the opposite leg for a total of 30 to 40 knee strikes.

Crescent kicks with both legs

Normally, in the Shotokan katas, whenever we execute a crescent kick, we use our right leg.  I don’t recall any kata with a left leg crescent kick and the following drills made me realize how out of balance my right leg crescent kick is compared to my left leg.

Next, our partner, in a cat stance, held a pad and we did crescent kicks with both the right leg and then the left leg.  We started facing our partner doing many crescent kicks and then we did the drill again starting in a horse, standing at a 90 degree angle from our partner.  We do not do many drills were we hit something with a crescent kick but this was an eye opener for me, seeing how powerful this kick can be.

More kicks and some kata moves

After we finished with crescent kicks, we did some kihon.  We did a handful of moves from Jion where you bring your knee up, drop into a horse stance and do a dropping strike.  The idea here was to bring the knee up fast and strong, much like how we did the knee strikes earlier. After that, we worked on the knee strike near the end of Heian Yondan, focusing on bringing the knee up fast and strong.  We also worked on the low side thrust kick from Bassai Dai focusing on, you guessed it, bringing the knee up fast and strong.  We did these two drills for a good amount of reps before moving on to kata.

Class finished with three katas.  For the students who are testing, they did their rank kata three times and for the rest, we picked the katas of our choice.  For the last two katas, we had our partner stand across from us and watch our kata, giving us a score of one to five based on our power and intensity.  The main point that Sensei Noia made about this was even though we sometimes think we are giving everything we have in our mind, we might not be doing so unless someone tells us.  I thought the first kata my partner watched was strong but after I talked with her, my second kata was even stronger.  I almost fell over because my legs were so tired but it was much stronger than the first.

Class summary:

• Warm up with three kicks and knee strikes
• Many crescent kicks
• Strong kata and then stronger kata