Now that exams are over for most of us, Sensei Cieplik had us working on some things that he wants us to correct for future exams.

Working the bugs out…

After our warm up, we moved into knee strike with front snap kick.  Then came moving forward and  back with rising block, downward block, inward block and outward block all with reverse punch.  Sensei also had us do outward block with a twist.  We did the outward block with our draw hand under our blocking arm instead of over.

Next, we worked on moving forward and back in a back stance with knife hand block.  Sensei then added a little twist and had us the same movement but with a squat between each.  For example, move forward with knife hand block, then squats, move forward again and squat.  This was tough.

We then did back stance, front snap kick and spear hand strike.

Work those kicks….

We did double front snap kick, double roundhouse kick, and shuffle up with front leg roundhouse kick finishing with reverse punch.

Next came horse stance with step across, side thrust kick, then side snap kick and then both of them with one step.

We also worked on a similar movement where we stepped across with the lead leg behind and then we did a kick.  What a strong kick and it can be done from a lazy front or horse stance.

All kata’s….

Sensei had us do all kata’s from H1 to H5, then Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  We did Jion and Bassai Dai more than a few times.

For Tekki Shodan, I had asked a question about the arm movements after the step across outward block.  The first movement is an upper block in front of the face with a gedan strike, the next move is much like a rising block with a chudan strike and the last move is a jodan strike with the palm of the fist turned torward the body.

Sensei had me work on a special drill for the yama zuki in Bassai Dai.  He had one of us hold a pad on the wall while the other punched, driving the bottom hand with the hip.  The top hand stays loose and the bottom hand strikes with power coming the hips.  Hitting objects makes the moves so much more understandable.

Sensei also gave me drill to help me improve my horse stance.  He had me start in a wide stance with my toes turned out, then he had me squats as low as I could.  After that, he had me push my knees out then straighten up, turn my toes in, and then tuck my butt under.  I have an uphill battle with these messed up hips of mine but anything is possible.

Sensei Noia gave us another excellent class today.  He was giving everyone who needs to test some last minute tips and tricks.

Warm up that caused cramps…

Sensei Noia had us start out with a couple of laps around the dojo.  Next, he had the black belts on the front line doing push ups, the 1st and 2nd Kyu’s on the middle line and the third Kyu’s on the back line.  For 30 seconds or more, the first line did push ups, the middle did sit ups or crunches and the back line did mountain climbers.  After the time was up, we switched lines so that we all did all three different movements.  By the time I got to my 40th crunch my abs were cramped like crazy.  I was certainly warmed up though.

Kata, kihon, kata, kihon and so on….

After the warm up, we started with Heian Nidan.  After that we did Heian Shodan, then Heian Sandan, then Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and then Tekki Shodan.  Doing all these kata’s in a row is always a good workout and today was no different.

Next, Sensei had us work on some kihon drills.  We did four movements, moving forward or backward, in a different stance each time with a block or punch.  For example, we did front stance with front punch, then back stance with knife hand, then horse stance with double outward block followed with cross-leg stance with low knife hand block.  We then followed that up with the same drill but we added a punch to each movement that had a block.

The next drill was moving forward, two step, with a different block and punch combination each time we stepped.  For example, moving forward with downward block and reverse punch along with rising block with reverse punch.  Another was moving forward with inward block with reverse punch and then outward block with reverse punch.  This was a really cool drill.

The last kihon drill that I recall was moving forward two steps with a block punch combination then turning with a downward block and reverse punch combination.  It was very hard to keep my stance from going to wide while doing this drill for some reason.

Back to more kata.  We did Jion as Sensei counted.  Even though this kata is all basics, it is still really hard.  After that, we did Bassai Dai as a group while Sensei counted out each move.  After that, we did a kata of our choice.  I did Heian Sandan since I want to work on that kata again and one final kata, I did Heian Godan to totally exhaust myself.

Sensei Brien spent the class today, giving the rest of the students who need to test some last minute polish.

Lots of kihon…..

We worked on a lot of basic kihon drills.  We started in a horse stance doing punches and blocks.  Next we did kihon drills, moving forward with front punch, triple punch and various block and punch combinations.  We also worked on moving forward and backward with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand.

Sensei then had us work even harder.  We did movements such as moving forward with front snap kick across the entire dojo and back.  I counted the movements and it turned out being over 50 movements.  We also did back stance with knife hand block.  One of the hardest drills was moving forward and backward doing roundhouse kicks while we held our hands on our heads.  This was an extreme core exercise and my abs felt like they were being squeezed.

It was a great class but one that I should have sat out of since I hadn’t recovered from my exam yesterday.