I can honestly say that the classes with Sensei Cieplik are always excellent but tonight was above and beyond.

It’s electric…

The entire class felt electric.  Every part of class felt just right even though it was a really hard class overall.

Sensei Cieplik had us start with an extended kicking warm up because the dojo was very cold.  He then gave us a hard combination kicking drill with front snap kick, side thrust kick to the side, back kick, roundhouse kick, hook kick, front snap kick and side thrust kick to the side.  All the hip movement was a killer but I was more than well warmed up.

Kumite drills…

Next came some kumite drills.  We started in high stances and did shift, stop and then jab.  Next was shift twice and jab and then shift three times and jab.

Next, Sensei gave us a little brain workout.  We did step forward with reverse punch and then step backward with reverse punch.  After that came step forward two times and three times with reverse punch on each step.

Horse stance with attention to the foot work…

Sensei had us get into a horse stance and step sideways into another horse stance while trying to keep out moving toes on the floor.  The idea is to keep contact with the floor while transitioning from one foot to the other.  We also did the same movements with both side thrust kick and side snap kick.

Stance drills with a twist…

This was an interesting drill.  We did a back stance with an outward block and from the position a downward punch

The next drill was fron stance, pivot on heal, turn into cat stance an push forward back into a front stance.  The reason again was to make sure that our stances were grounded and for us to attack with our legs.

Mucho kata…

Sensei had us do a lot of kata.  We started with Heian Shodan and went up from there.  We did all of the Heian katas, Tekki Shodon, Jion, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai.

It was a great class.

This was an excellent class.  Sensei Brien covered all basics and I really enjoyed it.

Basic and Kumite kihon…

This was a good drill.  We started with moving forward reverse punch in a low stance and making sure that we were grounded.  Next, we did the kumite version using a shorter stance and not paying extra attention to being grounded.

We also worked on some kicking drills with the same concept.  Moving forward with low stances and full basic roundhouse kicks.  After that, we did roundhouse kicks starting from a high stance and not brining our leg around, like when doing basic roundhouse kicks.

Not being in the low stances while doing the kumite drills makes the movements much faster but with less power, at least as far as I could tell.

Kata with bunkai…

We spent the next part of the class working on kata with bunkai.  Sensei Brien wanted us to imagine that we were fighting an actual opponent and figure out how the attacks would be executed on an attacker.

One of the more interesting applications was for Heian Yondan.  Near the end of the kata, the move with the reach and the head grab:  Instead of picturing the opponent facing you, look at them as if their back is to you.  From this point, you grab their head and knee them in the back, attacking the spine.  This is not a nice movement but I am sure that it is effective and hopefully one that none of us will need to use.

kumite drills….

We finished up with some kumite drills.  One drill was reverse punch followed with a roundhouse kick and another reverse punch.  This was a bit of a complex combination but it felt effective when the timing was right.  Next, came hit front hand of your opponent to move it out of the way and  step in with reverse punch.  It seems, just hitting the hand of your opponent takes their focus away for a split second, enough to create and opening for the reverse punch.

The final drill had our opponent shifting in with an attack and as they come in, you shift back and sweep their front leg and then step in with a reverse punch.  This is a really effective move and totally takes away your opponents drive to attack.