Sensei Noia packed a lot of work into this class today.  I can hardly remember all of the drills that we worked on but I will do my best.  We started our warm ups running and shuffling from one line to another.

Horse stance with your partner and then the band came in….

We started out in a horse stance across from our partner and did many punches and blocks.  Then we switched to a square stance and did more punches and blocks.

Next, we worked on some elastic band drills.  Both partners stood facing each other with one holding the handles and the other with the band around their waist.  We both stepped back into a front stance and held it while the partner with handles pulled them back to their sides.  If you weren’t gripping the floor with your feet and squeezing with your leg muscles, you were falling over.

We then did another drill where our partner faced away from us, while we held the band, they stepped into a front stance and did a punch or a block while we kept tension on the band.  The drills with the bands are always really hard but effective.  Walking after those was not too easy.

One-step, more basics and kata….

After the band drills, we worked on some more basics.  We worked on moving forward and back into back stance with knife hand block.  The idea was to move faster then our partner.

For one-step sparring we did, front punch to face, front punch to stomach, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.

After that, we finished up class with some kata.

Sensei Brien had us start out in a horse stance with many punches and blocks to get warmed up.

Functional kata basics….

I cannot really describe this any better way than I did above.  Sensei had us do various moves from various kata’s.  For example, we worked on:

• Back stance with front snap kick and spear hand.
• Front stance with side snap kick and come down into back stance with knife hand block.
• Standing with side snap kick, then come down with elbow strike.
• Horse stance with crescent kick and elbow strike.
• Same move as above but stop a inch short of the elbow strike to engage our core better.

Some kicking and more kata parts….

After a short water break, we got a partner and worked on a really cool kicking drill.  We stood next to our partner and gabbed hands.  From there, one partner did a side snap kick under our partners arm, then a side thrust kick and then a hook kick.  This really worked the hips.

For our next drills, we did parts of our kata.  We stayed with our partner and did yama zuki (u-punch) across the floor.  We also worked on the low sweeping block after the third yama zuki.  Another drill was from the double inward scissor strike and shift with front punch.   We finished up with an entire kata.

I really enjoy these functional classes and hope that we continue to do them even after examinations are over.

I lost track of how many times I have said this in the past but I keep saying it so that, maybe one day, I will not be so surprised.  After all this time, I finally understand something that I have been doing wrong for over five years.

Keep those hands at your side….

Sensei Cieplik today me something today that I have been told many times but not in this way.  He said that when we are kicking pretend that you are holding a 10 pound dumbbell in each hand, 25 pound dumbbells for us big boys, and keeping our hands at our sides as we kick.  Maybe this came easily to others but just hearing it explained this way made a huge difference.  Now the key to this is my hips are pointed forward instead of one hip, the kicking leg hip, pointing at the ground.

Sensei also mentioned that a good drill is to actually do this movement with dumbbells to help get the feeling of keeping your center and pushing your hips forward.

Back stance on the heel….

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on our back with extra attention to turning on our heels.  We spent a good amount of time trying to keep our heels in the right position as we moved forward and backward.  One thing I found from these drills is that I really need to spend more time on stretching my heels.

Kata specific….

Sensei had us start with Heian Shodan through Heian Godan, then Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.

Sensei watched each group of us work on our belt specific kata.  I had some one on one instruction from Sensei on areas that I need to work on in Bassai Dai.

• After doing the tate shuto, I need to use my hips to throw the standing front punch.  Don’t twist the hips, engage the core and squeeze the hips up with the punch.
• On the last block of the movement above, hold the left arm strong and then move into the back stance with knife hand block as if someone is putting pressure on that arm from the outside.  The key is to keep that movement strong and slide in with the back stance knife hand block.
• When doing my back stances, especially after the side thrust kick, focus on the back hand (elbow strike) and make sure that my weight is behind me.
• The movement right before the side thrust kick is a block and grab.

Lots of stuff for me to work on but all good stuff.