What a great class. I learned a lot in this class that will help make my kihon better.

Where to start, there was just so much, I will try to remember all of it.

Sensei Cieplik told us that during the winter months, he likes to have us warm up with more kicks than punches since it gets the blood flowing better then just punches which restrict blood flow to the heart and upper body organs during the cold months.

We did our normal front kicks, side kicks and back kicks, along with some roundhouse kicks to warm up but then we did something a little different.

Note: Sensei told me to turn my foot in a few degrees when doing my front snap kicks. By moving the position of my foot, just a small amount, my kick was so much more accurate. When I would kick without turning my foot in, my kicks were going to the outside or on an angle away from center. I was told this before but until now, it never clicked. It also made my front stance much more solid.

Sensei had us stand on one foot while pushing our hip forward. From that point, with our foot out in front of the opposite leg knee, we did a slow side thrust kick. Sensei sees some of us doing our side thrust kicks with the kicking foot too far behind the stabilizing leg. While doing the kick like this, it forces the foot to travel in the correct position to it’s target, it allows a greats choice of targets for the kick to hit. He had us do this to three different heights all while not letting the kicking foot touch the ground. This drills lasted for about 2 minutes and 30 seconds for each leg. I had better balance with my left leg than my right for some reason. I have noticed a problem with my balance when standing on my right leg for some reason.

We then worked on some stances. Sensei had us get into a horse stance and work on moving sideways. Instead of stepping across and falling into the stance, he had us pull with the forward leg and squeeze our leg muscles into the stance. It is hard to describe but it made the movement and stances so much more stable. We then added the side thrust kicks and side snap kicks to the movements.

We also worked on back stances moving both forward and backward.  Sensei told us a tip that he had mentioned before but I never really applied until today.  He said, when moving forward, turn the front out to the outside.  It shuts off the muscles in the front leg and allows the back leg to move easily to the front.  This also helps keep the heels in good alignment.  Moving backward is not so easy for me and on most of those moves, my heels came out of alignment.  I am using less shoulders when moving which is an improvement for me.

Sensei made a comment about Think, Action, Display.  The analogy that he used was screaming at a glass of water.  Your mind (think) starts the scream, the scream (action) causes the water to vibrate and you see it (display).

We finished up class with some kata.  We did the first nine moves of Heian Shodan and Sensei had us stand up and then take three steps back.  He watched how everyone took the three steps back and made that comment that even some of the higher belts did not remain alert when moving back.  The idea is that even if you won your battle or match, you need to keep your mind on the situation.  Even though the kata is over, you need to keep your mind there until Sensei says relax.  It’s the same with sparring.  If you score a point and the judge says to stop, you still need to keep your mind on the moment and your opponent.  If you turn your back or stop paying attention, you are open to an opponents mistake or if on the street, another attack.

Sensei also made a couple more points while we were doing Heian Shodan.  He said that kata should be seen as poetry without words.  It means just what it says.

He also made another great point about, when doing kata, anger can be killed but spirit cannot be killed.  This really hit home for me.  I often do my kata with an intensity that I would call anger.  The part is that the anger makes my kata much more mechanical and choppy.  When I concentrate on doing my kata with spirit, it feels much different and almost flows.  The key is getting my mind to do it without the anger and always do it with spirit.  Easy to type but harder to execute.  I am not an angry person but for some reason, my kata often comes out that way.  Hopefully, I will be able to break that habit.

I am sure that I missed some points since Sensei when over so many things but the ones that I remember will go a long way is making my Karate better.

Sensei Noia had us working on kicks and basics for our upcoming rank examinations.

We started with our normal warm up and then moved right into kicks. We were working on more of the advanced kicking combinations that we will have on our test. Front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick combination. Front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the front combination is one of the harder combinations for me. We also did single kicks, from a horse stance moving sideways which included side snap kick and side thrust kick.

After the kicks, we moved on to back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite. I have to pay extra attention to make sure that I pivot on my heel when I move from the back stance to front stance. My ankles are so inflexible, it is really hard to do and sometimes really painful but I just keep trying until I correct it.

We then moved into front stance with inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and back fist. This movement feels a little better for me now. I used to have a hard time coordinating my feet but they seem to be cooperating much better now.

Another move, that I don’t recall doing before is where we stood on a line, in a back stance with knife hand block, into a front stance with nukite, then backward into a back stance again with the other foot forward and then back into a nukite.

We finished up the class with some kata.  Sensei told us to do our kata as if it was at our exam.  Since we spent almost an hour doing basics, it was no easy task but I did it.  I could have had a little more power on my moves during the second half of the kata but overall it didn’t feel too bad.

I made the comment in the title about no fooling around because, myself and my 2nd Kyu friend, Robert, had to do all of the kihon movements in front of the rest of the class.  Being on the spot made me push myself to limit.  I always give my best in all of my classes but being on display seems to have made me push it even harder.  I could hardly walk after class but it that’s ok, I am sure it will heal up in no time.

We had a special guest today, Sensei Noia taught our class today.

We started with the normal warm up and then moved into some sparring drills. Sensei had us get into groups of four. One of us stood with our back heel touching the wall behind us and the other three attacked us. We could block but not move our feet. We were pretty much a heavy bag but with the ability to block.

After that, we paired up and worked on some free sparring drills. My legs felt loose for some reason and my front leg, front snap kick was flying easily.

Next, we took of the pads and worked on hitting some pads. Two Sensei’s and I lined up and we worked on various drills. One pad was for elbow and knee strikes, another pad was for front snap kicks and side thrust kicks and the last pad was for punches only. After everyone had a turn, Sensei made two lines and I was able to get into the line up. For this drill, we were able to use any moves that we wanted to use. I threw a few elbow strikes but my main goal was to use my hips to throw my punches and those seemed to be effective. I also threw some front snap kicks and roundhouse or two.

I really like working and the pads and it is a great change from punching that air.