Very hard class but good!

We spent almost the entire class doing kihon and a lot of it.

We started out with a horse stance doing punches and blocks.  Then moving forward with front punch and then triple punch.  After that came moving forward and backward, rising block, downward block, inward block and outward block.

Next came the kicks;

Moving forward, front snap kick, then double front snap kick, then roundhouse kick and double roundhouse kick.   We also did front snap kick with side thrust kick to the front.  Then came front snap kick, side thrust kick to the side, back kick and then roundhouse kick.

Then back to a horse stance and stepping sideways, side thrust kick, then side snap kick.

After all the kicks, we moved into a back stance.  Moving forward and backward with knife hand block.  Next, we did the same move but with a front snap kick and ending in a nukite.

Next came, outward block, move into horse stance, elbow strike and finish with a backfist.

Once all of the basics were done, we did kata.  At the point, Sensei Noia had us do Heian Shodan but I was having a really hard time.  Both my body and my mind were spent and I could not concentrate after all the kihon.  We did it a second time and then we did our own belt kata.  My Jion felt better than Heian Shodan for some reason.  Maybe I was just on autopilot at that moment.

That was one of the first classes where my mind and body seemed to be exhausted.  Oddly enough, after class, I didn’t feel too bad overall.

Sensei Gatch had us spend the entire class working on Kihon and Kata.

I always enjoy classes like these and today was no exception.  We started with some simple combinations.  Moving forward and backward doing downward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch and inward block with reverse punch.

Sensei Gatch spent a good amount of time explaining hip rotation and how important it is for our upcoming examination.  We then did a drill where we stood with our body facing to the right and then stepped out to the left and threw a reverse punch.  Sensei then had us put more weight on our back leg and drive off it.  Again, the idea was to get a lot of hip rotation and it worked.  My hips were screaming.

Next, we worked on back stance with knife hand block.  The time that I spent working on back stances in my Thursday class really helped today.  Moving both forward and back felt almost effortless.  Sensei also explained that our knife hand block should be as strong as our reverse punch.  He said that our punches are strong but our knife hand block were much less powerful.

We then moved into kata.  We started with Heian Shodan and then we did our own belt rank kata.  One of our assistant Sensei’s gave me some really good advice.  When doing Jion, the move where I go from the right hand middle block into the outward block followed by the step with front punch, I am using my shoulders, throwing my back leg (straight) around instead of drawing it in and bringing my knees together.  I realized that if I do that movement like I when going from the rising block (move 9) into the downward block (move 10) in Heian Shodan, the move is much smoother.

It was a good class and I have a few things to work on outside of class too.

Sensie Noia spent most of the class working on sparring drills with us.

There are times when I really don’t like to spar. It’s not that I am afraid but I often feel that I am not improving at the same rate as I do with kihon and kata. I was talking with my chiropractor, Dr. Thomas Pusateri, about sparring since he is also into Karate for many years and I made the comment that when I fight, I am used to getting hit and then hitting back and that is why I am do not enjoy sparring.

When I was younger, my mother always told me, first to ignore bad people but if I had to fight, I should not throw the first punch. I have gone through life with that in mind and I have a very hard time punching someone if they have not hit me first. Even if they do hit me first, I still would rather not hit them back when sparring but I do try.

The good part about this is that after talking to Dr. Pusateri, I realized that my problem or whatever it is. With that in mind, I had one of the better sparring sessions that I remember. I was able to score the first point more than once with different opponents. I am certainly no superman but just realizing what I was doing seems to have helped.

We started with some simple partner back and forth drills. My partner would attack and I would block, we then reset and my partner would block and I would attack. We did that drill a few times and then moved on to drills were we both attacked and blocked. We then did the same type of drill but worked on blocks and counters.

We then did the same drill but moved to a new partner. We ended up working with at least 12 different people while moving down the line.

We finished class with our back against that wall.  Sensei had us get into a front stance and put our back foot against the wall.  From that position, our partner had 30 seconds to throw as many attacks as possible.  To the head and body, the punches were flying and both my partner and I did get hit.  The idea was to keep focus, even after getting hit and continue to block without giving up.  We did this two time but the second time, we were able to use kicks.  When time came for me to be attacked, Sensei Gatch came over to throw kick after kick at me.  It was pretty funny but I certainly did not give up.

It was a great class and hopefully it is a positive turning point for my sparring abilities.