I never realized how many drills you can do when you start from a horse stance.  You can stay in a horse stance and do many arm techniques, you can move to into other stances or you can pivot on your heels and turn those horse stances into front stances and back again.

You can do a lot in a horse stance

After starting out in a horse stance, we did the following:

• Bring the right leg to left with the feet together
• Step forward into a front stance with the right leg
• Step back with right leg into a back stance
• Bring the right leg back to the left and step back into horse stance

We did the same as above but stepping forward with the left leg to work the other side of the body.  We then added some hand techniques doing the following:

• Front punch when stepping into the front stance
• Manji uke when stepping into the back stance
• Double punch at the end when we moved back in to horse stance.

The next drill is a good hip opener.  Start in a horse stance:

• Reach to the left with your left hand
• Pivot on both heels into a front stance with a head level reverse punch
• Pivot to the right with a stomach level reverse punch
• Pivot to the left with a below belt level reverse punch

Come back to horse stance and repeat the same but the time starting with a right hand reaching.

The last horse stance drill was done moving forward in, you guessed it, a horse stance.

• Start out in a left leg to the front horse stance with a downward block
• Step into a right leg forward horse stance with a palm heel strike
• Step into a left foot forward horse stance with the dropping block from Jion

We did that combination of moves a few times and moved on to kata.

Kanku Dai details

We spent a good amount of time working on Kanku Dai and many of the little details that are often ignored. The little details can make a decent kata into a great kata.

The first section was near the start of the kata, where you do the standing punch block, moving to the side snap kick with back fist and into the back stance with knife hand block.  A key points is, shuffle the back leg halfway up to the front leg before the side snap kick with back fist.  This is the same footwork as in Heian Nidan and it is the only time that we the foot movement in this kata.

The next part we worked on is to pull both hands to our side quickly before the last side snap kick near the end of the kata.  The idea here is to get your hands to your side very fast and collect your balance and then execute the side thrust kick and back fist.

The last part we worked on was after the high x-block when you pull the hands down in front and close the fists.  The idea is to make sure that you loosen up the hands before the double front snap kick.  If the hands are too tight, your shoulders will rise up and and the kicks will be forced.

We finished up doing an entire Kanku Dai and then a kata of our choice, twice.

Today, Sensei Noia had us spend a lot of time working on stance training.  I don’t know about you but I can never get enough stance training no matter how much I train and classes like these always help.

We can stance if we want to

We started out jogging back and forth across the dojo for our warm up.  After that, we did different stances including front, back, horse, cat and cross-leg stances from one end of the dojo to the middle.  Once at the middle, we turned 180 degrees and did the same back to the start of the dojo.  We did the same thing again but this time we added any hand technique we wanted to the mix of stances.

Next, Sensei stepped it up a notch and had us do a left leg front stance with a downward block to the front and then turn 180 degrees behind into a front stance with a downward block.  We did the same starting with the right leg forward with a downward block.  We did the same drill again but this time we added a reverse punch after each downward block.  We did the same once again but this time we did a double punch after the downward blocks.  The key to this entire drill was to turn from the hips when making those turns.  It’s easy to just move the back leg and let the shoulders take over to make the turn but that’s not the way to do it.

For the next drill, we started by stepping into a left leg forward front stance with a reverse punch, then we pulled back into a cat stance with outward block and then we moved into a back stance with double arm block manji uke ( two armed high outward block and downward block).

In my previous posts, it seems I have been spelling manji as mange which is wrong. My bad, 50 push ups for me and now I have to watch the first Karate kid movie without popcorn.

For the next drill, we stepped into a front stance with a triple punch, then stepped back into cat stance with low knife hand block and then we stepped into a back stance with manji uke (high outward and downward block).  Hey look, I spelled it right this time. Although, I did have to correct the spelling again.

Hit them with your butt

We spent the rest of the class working on some kata bunkai from Gojushiho Sho.  We started with the moves after the first kiai in the kata.  The first part is, someone is grabbing you from behind with their arms around your upper body and you bend forward while hitting them hard with your butt.  The second part is, you hit them with both hands behind you, using your knuckles to strike their ribs.  The third part is, if they are still holding on to you, which I don’t think the will be, you turn to your left and throw them down.

Next, we worked on the third and second from the last moves of the kata.  The first move is blocking their grabbing attack with both hands using a bent wrist, ridge hand moving your arms in an upward motion.  The second move is to step in and hit them in the area where their shoulder meets with their chest on both arms.  This is a painful place to get hit and I am pretty sure that it will buy some to time to run from your attacker or hit them with something else to end the attack.

We finished up class doing a kata of our choice four times.  Since we worked on the bunkai from Gojushiho Sho, I thought that doing it would make for a good end to a great class.

Today, Sensei Noia had us work on parts of the Heian katas and some bunkai for high belt katas.

Warm up with kata parts

Sensei Noia has us start class working on the first few moves of each of the Heian katas. We did the first six moves of Heian Shodan, the first seven of Heian Nidan, the first seven of Heian Sandan, the first three of Heian Yondan and the first seven of Heian Godan.

After that, we did the same amount of moves for each kata but his time in mirror image which gets the brain working.  I really like working on kata as a warm up for class because it gives us more time working on kata even if it is only parts of the katas.

Black belt kata bunkai

We spent the rest of the class working on various applications (bunkai) from Kanku Dai and Hangetsu.  We started by doing a full Kanku Dai.  The first moves that we worked on was from near the end of Kanku Dai where you do the spear hand strike, after the side snap kick and back stance.  Someone has grabbed your hand and you turn counter clockwise, giving them a backfist to the face and then taking them down over your leg while in a horse stance.

It has taken me a long time to realize this but many of these techniques are all about timing and placement of the body and not about power.

We did a full Kanku Dai again and then worked on the upward x-block, near the end of the kata.  You catch the attackers hand, bring it up over your head, turn your body with their arm over your shoulder and then pull it down until the arm breaks.

We moved on to Hangetsu starting with a full kata.  We did the movement from the first kiai where you do an open handed outward block and then grab the attackers hand.  After grabbing the attackers hand, you can do the next move and either strike their elbow or the nerve near it or you can turn it into a face first takedown.

Also, be sure to take it slow when working with a partner, because they are a training partner, not an attacker and gone partners do not grow on trees.

We ended class with a kata of our choice and then lined up.

Learning the application of your kata can help you

Up until about two years ago, I was never really interested in the application of the kata moves but since then I have spent more and more time learning how these techniques work.  It not only helps me understand the katas better but it helps me explain the katas much better when I share them with other students.  Telling a student what they are doing in their kata always improves their performance and they seem to retain it better.