This is that last class of 2009 with Sensei Cieplik.  He pulled out some really good drills for us to work on today.

Homework….

We spent a lot of time doing knee strikes with front snap kick.  Sensei gave me a homework drill to work on.  I need to bring my foot up from the floor, like a knee strike but as high as possible.  I also need to do a knee strike, drop the knee, then bring the knee back up and kick.  I keep dropping my knee and not bringing it back up after the knee strike.

Get a partner…..

Sensei had us get a partner and work on the drill from above where one partner holds their hand up in front of the other, we did a knee strike and then a front snap kick making sure that our knee touches their hand for both movements.

The next drill was a side by side, side thrust kick.  For this, we stood next to our parnter, both facing forward.  From their one partner held on to the other partners shoulder and did a side thrust kick across their partners body.  It was good drill but certainly not easy for me.

Next, our partner held a pad, we stood in a front stance and did a roundhouse kick.  The twist on this drill was that we had to kick downward.  For example, we brought the back leg around, kept the knee up and then roundhouse kicked at a downward angle over the pad.

We then did a cutting kick.  From a front stance, we sneak the back foot forward almost even with the stationary foot and then, front the floor, we front snap kick into the lower part of the abdomen.  If your hand is out in front of you, chance are the person you are kicking will not see the kick coming because of the angle of the kick.  We also did this drill with a roundhouse kick.

The next drill was a self defense drill.  For this drill, we stood upright and our partner was in a front stance.  Our partner stepped forward and front punched while we stepped back into a square stance and blocked their punch with our elbow and jabbed our fingers in their eyes.  The elbow deflected their punch off center and made them miss.  The key to this movement is to jab the fingers to the center of their face and use the elbow to deflect the punch.  If the movement is off center, you will have to use your muscles to block the punch instead of just deflecting it easily.

Last kata of the year, in this class….

Sensei had us do Heian Shodan to cool and then Kanku Dai to finish out the class.  Sensei mentioned that this was the last kata of this class for the year but hopefully not the last kata we will do for the year.

After exams are over, most of my Sensei’s have us work on some different drills or other fun stuff that we don’t often work on.  Today Sensei Noia had us work on one of my favorite classes were we hit stuff hard!

Get a willing partner and pad….

We got one or two foam pads and started hitting each other.  I always try to use only one pad to help toughen up my abs and my partner we certainly giving me a workout.  There were a couple of times that I thought my partner was going to loosen some of my teeth.

We did standing straight punch, reverse punch, elbow strike, knife hand strike, kage zuki (like a hook punch) and one of my personal favorites, the backfist.  I never really felt how much power the back fist could generate until today.  Twisting the hip and letting that fist fly was an awesome feeling.

This was an excellent class, even though I was really afterward.

Sensei Brien had us work on preparing for our rank exams but as of yesterday all exams are over for this session.  With that said, Sensei said the best time to start to prepare for our exams is now.  Don’t wait for three, four or five months to start preparing, start preparing now.

Getting to the core….

Sensei spent a lot of time give us tips on how we can work our core to improve our Karate.

We started with simple sit ups.  After that, Sensei had us put our knees down to the side and we did more sit ups.

Next came standing drills to help us engage the proper muscles when punching.  We started with our hands out in front in a fist with the palms facing forward, we then turned the palms over and tightened our butt muscles while pushing our hips forward.

Next, we worked on a simple punching drill.  From standing, we put one hand out in front and the other on our side.  We slowly punched and then pushed our hips forward and tightened our butt muscles and upper back muscles as the punch finished.

The next drill was lying leg raises.  We laid on our back with our legs straight up in the air and we pushed our feet up bringing our lower body and lower back off the ground.

Simple tips and drills to help us improve…

When moving forward and backward, try keep the stationary ankle straight.  When stepping into a front stance, keeping the both the back foot and front foot straight ahead will improve all basic movements.

For the next drill, we stood with both feet on a low pad.  We then leaned forward like we were skiing to stretch our calves.  The next drill was standing in a front stance with our back foot up on pad, trying to push our heel down.  This was a really good stretch.

Next came a drill for the hips.  With one foot on the pad and the other on the floor, we evened our hips by picking the foot up from the floor.  This is a mobility drill to help the hips.

Last but not least, Sensei suggested the we ring our feet out each day.  This movement is much like ringing out a wet towel.

It was good class with some good food for thought and some things to work on over the holiday break.