Today was one of the best classes that I have had!

Sensei Noia took all of the 4th Kyu’s and had us work on our kata for the entire class.  He took us through each and every move, telling us not only how to do it but how to make it great.  We started in the first move with our feet together with one hand over the other, then slowly stepped over our right foot with our left, making sure that our pinky toes were touching, we then brought our right leg up and set it down and moved in to a horse stance.  The emphasis here was to make sure that our feel we lined up when we moved in to the horse stance.  Sensei had us stance on a line on the floor all the time we were doing this kata to make sure that we stayed lined up.  I would guess that we spent at least 20 minutes working on our leg movements and keeping our feet lined up.  We also worked on the blocks using our legs from the horse stance making sure that we still were keeping our feet aligned.

After that, Sensei explictly explanced and showed us each hand movement.  He counted each move and told us what to do.  His explaining the kata like that really made it seem simple and I now have a much better understanding of what I am supposed to do.  He also explained  some of the bunkai for the downward block hook punch.

We spent the rest of the class putting it all together.  We did the kata very slowly at first making sure that our feet were in the right places.  We then did the kata a little faster and then a third time at full speed.  Afer that, we started adding more power.  We then finsihed with two more at full speed and power.

The amount of time and detail that Sensei gave us was excellent and I am almost certain that because of this, Tekki Shodan will be my best kata yet.

Sensei Noia did notice that I was a little tense today.  With the gym being so cold last night, my stances were not as low and solid as they were the last few weeks, since I have been seeing my chiropracor, because I was so stiff and sore.

We started class with a quick warm up.  The gym was really cold for some reason and I was having a very hard time getting any sweat going even though I was really moving around.

Sensei Noia split us up in to groups.  He took the brown and black belts and Sensei Gatch took the rest of the belts which consisted of mostly 4th and 5th kyu along with one 7th kyu.

We went through our kata and Sensei watched our moves and also told about some of the bunkai for certain moves in each kata.  One question that he asked of me was “what are three applications of the fist move in Heian Shodan?”  My response was, a block, a throw and a strike, which was correct.  He then went through a few more applied to Heian Godoan, Heian Yondan and Heian Nidan.

After that, we finished up with two slow motion kata’s.  He wanted us to take at least two minutes to do our kata.  The first time, I did Tekki Shodan it took me about a minute and a half but the second time, it took me closer to three minutes.  Everyone else around me was screaming because I took so long to do it but that is exactly what Sensei was looking for.  Walking to line up after that was no easy task but I made it.

We went through a lot of things in this class.

We started with the normal warm up of kicks and then got in to it.

Sensei had us work on front snap kicks but with extra attention to putting the rear leg down. He had us put the rear leg down fast and hard, without slamming the floor, and then lock it out so that it was in the guarded position. This made the move a little slower for me but I felt much better grounded after each kick.

We then worked on a litte different movement. We did a reverse punch, then brought our front leg up almost like a front snap kick but used it as a block and then came back down and threw another reverse punch. I was a little confused at first but I seemed to have picked it up after a few tries.

We then partnered up and worked on some kicking and punching drills. We started out with our partner doing moving forward doing a jodan oi zuki and we would immediately move forward and do a chudan mai geri. This stopped our partner from finishing the front punch. After about 10 each side we moved on to our partner moving forward doing a oi zuki again but we would block with one hand and counter with the other hand to the ribs. In more detail, our partner started with left foot forward, stepping in to right foot forward and throwing the oi zuki, then we would block with the right hand and counter with the left all at the same moment like we did with the kicks. The idea was to move our partner off balance with the block and strike the ribs with the punch. Both of these moves were all about timing more than anything else.

We finished up class with kata. We did Heian Sandan a few times, Heian Godan and then we moved in to Tekki Shodan. Sensei said that my kata had a lot of power and form was good but I need more mind extension. My moves are ending at the ends of my fists instead of projecting out past them.

Sensei Cieplik make a very good point about kata that is something that I will not forget. One of his Sensei’s told him that if someone was sincere and took the time to teach you a kata, it is your duty to practice and at least remember how to do it. The reason he mentioned this is someone in class, either a 4th or 5th kyu had a hard time remembering Heian Sandan, a lower rank kata. He also mentioned that at the Shodan examination it is not unusual for the examiners to ask those testing to do a lower rank kata. Just because we passed the test and did the kata in the past doesn’t mean that it may not be required in the future. I only forgot a couple of moves from my lower rank kata’s one time and I made sure from that time forward that I practice them at least once a week to keep them fresh in my mind.

Next week, Sensei said that he is going to split us up and give us some intensive training on Tekki Shodan.