Sensei Cieplik showed us so many things in class, I am sure that I am not remembering everything.

We spent a good amount of time warming up with our normals kicking other movements.

After our warm up, Sensei had us work on moving forward with our hands on our hips. He told us to squeeze the floor and be sure to bring our knees in, to protect the groin area, when moving forward. He had us do something that we have worked on before but I never really understood it until tonight. When moving forward, he had us move into a cat stance and then kick our lower leg forward into a front stance. This gave an entirely different feeling to the movement. It also made the movement feel much faster and stronger than before. I really need to work in this at home. We then added the punch to this movement and the hand just came out, almost be itself. Doing the movement “with the body” or focusing on the leg movements made the punch fly out almost as if it was natural.

We then moved on to knee strikes and front snap kicks. Again, paying attention to squeezing the floor, the legs fly out with much more power and speed. Doing the knee strikes, while squeezing the floor almost makes the lower leg extension into a front snap almost automatic. Sensei also had us pay attention to when we come done from the kicks. We would kick, come down almost into a cat stance an then kick our leg forward.

During class, Sensei talked about what I think were the five elements or things that body can do.  Moving up, down, body rotation, body shock and body vibration.

We then worked on some partner drills.  For the first drill, Sensei had us stand in a knee to knee front stance with our partner.  Our partners knee was on the inside and ours was on the outside.  Our partner would push their knee outward against ours and we would throw a slow reverse punch at their abdomen, and if we applied the proper pressure with our legs, we would push them back.  If the punching person did not apply the correct pressure or squeeze with the legs, there was no way to move our partner.  Sensei said to make the hips look at each other.  He also said, when squeezing the floor, try to pull the front leg back and pull the back leg forward while gripping the floor with our feet to get the correct pressure.  Making the hips look at each other is something really helped me visualize what my legs should be doing when I squeeze.

We then did a similar drill where we would get into a front stance and our partner would apply a light pressure to leg by pulling our knee to the outside.  This forced us to squeeze but it also made us kick directly to the center.  There was a much different feeling, the kicks were much faster, stronger and dead center.

It was another excellent class and I am sure what I learned tonight will go a long way in help improve both my stances and the way I move.

I am not sure if you have the same thing but are there times when you have a great class but really wish your body worked better? Today was one of the those days.

Sensei Noia led the class with an excellent warm up. We did a lot of dynamic stretching and some static stretches like holding a low lunge and twisting. Those movements really made me feel more loose that usual.

After that came some stance training. Sensei had us get into a horse stance and had us do 40 or so punches. After that, he had us shuffle up and throw a side thrust kick. I was warmed up well at that point.

Next, we got a partner. We got into a horse stance, put our hands in a cup at about belt level and our partner put their foot on our cupped hands. Sensei would then count and have the person raise their foot and then pull it back as fast as possible. This is were the bad body comes in to play for me. I was so frustrated. I could get my leg up but holding it and raising it was a totally different story. I really need to do drills like these at home.

We finished up with some kata. Sensei Noia had us split up into groups and we did our respected kata. My Jion felt pretty good tonight and I am now working on trying to perfect the movements and make them more fluid. I remember all the movement without a problem now but I need to make it look good.

Even though I am frustrated with my kicking ability, class was excellent.

Another great class.

Sensei Gatch split the class up into groups. He took the green belts and Sensei Plocharczyk took the purple belts and brown belts.

Sensei Plocharczyk had us start with kata. The gym was extremely cold for some reason so doing the kata was a good warm up. We all started with Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan and the he had my wife and I move in front to do Jion since we were the only brown belts in the class. Sensei gave me some good advice and said that I need to keep my draw hand tight and when I move into the first horse stance right before the end of the kata, I need to show more power.

After that warmup, Sensei had us put on our pads and get a partner. He wanted to teach us some ground based self defense movements since we do not work on them too often. We started with some moves from various positions. We started standing and our partner would put us in a choke from behind. We then had to break out of the hold, turn around and attack before they had a chance to attack. We did that from a couple of different positions such as kneeling and on our backs.

Next, we started out on backs trying to keep our partner from scoring on us by using our legs or by getting up to our feet. We also worked on some movements where we would use our legs as scissors to take our partner down. Sensei Plocharczyk also talked about safe distances being both far distance and “ground” zero where you are pretty much hip to hip with someone.

It was a really good class and I feel that I learned a lot from it.