This was an awesome class.  We did some drills in this class that I need to outside of class too.  These particular drills focused more on internal tension and activating the muscles at the correct time.

We started in a horse stance doing very slow punches, making sure to squeeze and create tension at the end of the punch.  The key is to tighten all of the muscles in our body at the exact end of the punch.  It is hard to not be tense all the way through the movement but after a times, it was possible.

Next, we got a partner and one of us moved into a horse stance and did slow punches with the other partner checked to make sure that our stance was solid and that we had the correct body tension.  We then did the same but this time we stood in a front stance.

After working with a partner, we worked on some basics.  Moving forward with front punch, triple punch, front snap kick with front punch and front snap kick with reverse punch.

Next, we worked on a move from Bassai Dai where we start with our left hand reaching out, then punch with the right hand and then twist the hips and block with the same hand, then punch with the left hand and twist the hips and block with the left hand.  Sensei wanted us to do the moves both turning on our heels and then turning on the balls of our feet.

Next, we worked on Jion up to first kiai but with the same tension as in the partner drills above.  We then started from the first kiai to the end of kata the same way.  We then finished up class with our own kata doing it with the extra tension.

Today, we did a lot of Karate in a short time.  We moved from one technique to the next and most of those we combination drills.

Get your basics done…

We started class moving forward and back in a front stance doing rising block, inward block, outward block and downward block all with reverse punch.  From there we did a back stance with knife hand block and then the same but we added spear hand in a front stance to that technique.

We followed those with outward block, jab and reverse punch.  Next came the best of the worst techniques, we did outward block in a front stance, elbow strike in a horse stance with back fist. We then did more kihon with our standard four blocks all with reverse punch both forward and back on our own.

Do some kicks…

We started our kicking drills with front snap kick and front punch and front snap kick with triple punch but making sure that we kept our hips straight and kicking to the center under our punching hand.  We then did front snap kick and side thrust kick, followed up with front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick.  We then did front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse kick and reverse punch.  We finished up the kicks with front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick but doing two of each kick as we moved through the drill.

Now do some kata…

We ended class working one some kata.  We did Jion, Bassai Dail, Kanku Dai, Hangetsu, Empi, and Bassai Sho as a group and then two katas of our choice (Gojushiho Sho and Sochin for me) to finish up.

We started this class moving forward in a front stance, cross leg stance and back stance all the way across the dojo to get the legs warmed up.  We didn’t do any hand movements because Sensei Noia wanted us to concentrate on our lower body.

Warm the hips…

For the next drill, we moved into a horse stance and did punches and double punches.  Still in horse stance we pivoted to left and punched, then we pivoted to right and punched.  This drill really opens up the hips and forces us to turn from our heels.

Time for kicks…

Now that our hips are warmed up, it was time to do some kicks.  We started in a ready stance and  alternating front snap kicks.  Still standing, we did front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side band back kick to the rear.  We then did the same three kicks but we added a roundhouse kick at the end.  We spinning back kick to end of those four kicks next.

Next, we started in a horse stance, stepped across and did a shuffle up side thrust kick.  Still in a horse stance, we did step behind with side thrust kick.

The kicking torture, I mean techniques, continued as we moved to the wall of pain.  We stood next to the wall at a 90 degree angle and placed one hand on the wall. From there we brought the leg, away from the wall up into the start position of a side snap kick then tilted our hips up and down and after two times we did a side snap kick.  The idea behind the double tilt was to get the hip motion needed to execute the kick correctly.  We did those a few times and then we did single side snap kicks starting with our kicking foot on the floor.

 We finished class doing some kata, We started with Jion and Bassai Dai and then we picked the kata of our choice where i did Sochin and Gojushiho Sho.