Sensei Cieplik had us work on many details today.  He also made the point about making our own kata out of groups of kihon movements like we did below.

Clean kihon….

After the warm up, we did front snap kick with front punch but slowly.  We did the kick, held out knee up after the kick, balance, then step down with control and then punch.

Next, we worked on stepping forward with reverse punch.  We did it moving once, twice, three and four times.  Sensei had us work to make it smooth but mine certainly didn’t feel too smooth.

For the next drill we did combinations.  Rising, downward and inward block with reverse punch both forward and backward.  The key to this was to make sure that our head does not move closer or to the front when moving backward.  You don’t want to give your opponent a closer target.

Get a partner….

Sensei had us get partner.  For the first drill, our partner stood in front of us with their front hand out.  From there we grabbed their front hand, pulled hard, stepped in and punched them to the body.  The idea here was to get the feeling of using the pull hand.

Next, we did some pad drills.  Our partner held the pad and we worked on “rock on a rope” hammer fist to the pad.  The idea was to have our arm act as a rope attached to the shoulder and our hand act as a rock attached to the rope which would allow us to hit the pad with a whipping motion.   When using the hips to turn the body and letting the arm and hand whip, it is an extremely powerful movement.

Kata with rock on a rope….

Sensei had us work on Heian Shodan but he had us do the downward blocks with the feeling of the rock on a rope.  This made the kata feel much more dynamic and flowing compared to grrrrrr downward block, grrrrrr punch.

Another detail that Sensei gave us was the 3/4 stance in Heian Sandan and Jion.  When going from the front stance with spear hand into the horse stance with back fist, Sensei had us move the back leg 180 degrees around from the front stance.  From that point, we turned on the heels and end up in a straight line horse stance.

This also applies to the turn from the movement before the first outward block in Jion.  This allows the hips to turn extremely fast and strong.

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Sensei Noia tired me out with the warm up.  He had start by jogging back and forth across the dojo.  After I cannot remember how many times we jogged back and forth, Sensei had us do kicks across the dojo.  We could do any kicks we wanted to do but with three kicks for each step forward.  After the kicks came low walks back and forth across the dojo.

Use your lats not your shoulders….

We got a partner and both of us stood in a horse stance.  From there one partner would punch jodan, then chudan and gedan.  After each partner went once, one partner would punch and the other would block using rising, inward and downward blocks.

Next, we got in to a front stance in front of our partner.  As above, one partner attacked and the other did the same blocks as above moving forward and back.  The key to the this drill was to use the lats to do the block and not the arms and shoulders.

Get your pads…

We spent the rest of the class working on free sparring but with many different partners.