What an excellent class!

There are some days when I have good classes and some days when they are just excellent. I felt really good in class even though I didn’t sleep very well last night. My legs felt strong and loose even though I started lifting weights again yesterday.

We started with some Kihon. Sensei Gatch took us through downward block, rising, inward and outward block with reverse punch. He doesn’t give any rest and has us do the moves both forward and backward. It really tests my endurance but it seems better now than ever. Next, he had us do moving forward and backward with knife hand block, front kick and nukite.

Sensei Noia then broke us up into groups. He took all the purple, brown and black belts. He had us do a bunch of kicking drills. I used to never like doing kicks but since my hips are working better, I don’t mind them and even enjoy them when I feel good. We did moving forward front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the side. After that came front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the front. I have some balance issues with the side thrust kick to the front but it is improving.

Next, Sensei Noia had three of “big guys” hold a pad so that the others could side thrust kick a target. We did that for about 10 minutes and then Sensei Noia let the three of us kick the pad while he held it. I was kicking hard but using the ball of my foot instead of my heel. Sensei helped me correct that it made the kick feel much more powerful and driven.

After that, Sensei had us pair up for one-step sparring. I really felt good and was able to easily clear my partners foot when moving out of the way and blocking. I need to work a little on making sure that I don’t lean when I counter but other than that it felt great.

We finished up with a kata. One kata but it had to be our best. My kata felt good and my horse stance was lower than usual.

Sensei Noia was satisfied with everyones performance and said that we all looked good.

Before class, I did:

10 – Tekki Shodan and one each of Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan.

Good class again!

I really enjoy the classes that we do before before our rank examinations. I like the other classes too but I really enjoy kihon and kata and I have been getting a lot of enjoyment lately.

We started in a horse stance, doing some basics to get warm up well. Some punches, blocks and kicks really get the blood flowing and the dojo was cold so that extra warm up was really needed.

We then moved right into kata. Mr. Noia had us do our kata up to the first kiai. Doing Tekki Shodan makes that easy since the first kiai is the first half of the kata. We did that at least five times and then Mr. Noia had us do the second half at least five times too. We then did our entire with full speed and power to finish up with kata.

Next came kihon. We did our normal blocks, kicks and punches moving back and forth across the dojo.

One thing that I have to note; Sensei Gatch made a comment when I was doing my kihon about leaning my shoulders and upper body back when I am in a front stance. It makes it look as if I am sitting on my back leg which makes my stance look better and lower.

Next we did one-step sparring without a partner. We went through all the attacks and blocks with counters. My one-step feels so much better than before. I am not sure if my hips are what is making the difference but I can shift so much farther than before.

After that, Sensei Noia took the kids off to the side for a conditioning game and the adults went to the side to do more kata and stretch. Mr. Gatch came over by us and my wife asked him a couple questions about Jion. I know that we don’t have to know it yet but that is one kata that I really like. Mr. Gatch took us through the whole kata and gave us some pointers.

Class was good!

Sensei Noia asked who wanted to spar or do kata. I picked kata since my test isn’t too far away. Sensei Gatch took all the kata people to one side of the room and we started with some kihon to get warmed up.

My kihon feels much better than before. It just feels right for some reason. My hips seem to be working much better and my movements feel more fluid. We did downward block, inward block, rising block and outward block with reverse punch. We then did some backstance, knife hand block, front snap kick with nukite moves. Doing the front kick in that movement is still hard for me. Kicking to the front while having my back foot turned really stresses my knee. I need to find a better position when I do that move.

Next we moved into kata. Lots of kata. Since the group was made up of 5th, 4th, 2nd and 1st kyu, we started Heian Godan. Mr. Gatch took us through each and every move, correcting everyone along the way. Now that I don’t have to do Heian Godan as my main kata, I like it much more now and can do it without the pressure of having to do it at my exam even though it might come back on one of my exams in the future. Being able to move my hips has made a huge difference in that kata for me.

We then moved into Tekki Shodan. Being that I have done this kata so many times now, I am afraid that I have ingrained some mistakes that I need to correct. Mr. Gatch made a comment about all three of us that were doing the kata. We all do the moves but we have very little power behind them. I have always been able to power my way through my kata from Heian Shodan all the way up to Heian Godan but I feel weak when I do Tekki Shodan. The first kiai move and the last move in the kata feels strong but all the moves in between feel weak since I can’t put my hips behind them. Mr. Gatch suggested that I work on the twisting block parts since I put almost nothing behind them when doing those moves.

After that, we worked on Bassai Dai. This is one kata that I don’t have a knack for yet. It feels very awkward to me, maybe just because I don’t know it. Doing Jion feels right at home but this kata has some motions that I don’t feel comfortable with. It seems to be a fluid kata that I can’t just muscle my way through like the others. I am sure it will come to me when the time comes.

We finished up class after and there was one great point that Sensei Gatch gave me that I don’t want to forget. When I am doing Tekki Shodan he said to put my head back just a couple of inches. This seems to force me straighten my back and it keeps me from leaning forward. This made a difference in my stances or at least the appearance and I am going to practice doing this going forward.