Today’s class has a lots of kicking drills and Sensei Noia came up with some drills that I have never done before.

We started with a partner doing alternating front snap kicks to warm up. The next drill was different, we both started in a front stance, one partner did a front snap kick and put the foot down behind and the other moved into a cat stance and the kicking partner did a side thrust kick.  The reason for the cat stance was to make the distance so that our partner could throw the side thrust kick.

The next three drills were without a partner.  We did spinning back kick, moving forward with front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick and then moving forward with the above plus roundhouse kick, hook kick and another side thrust kick

We followed those with front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick but we had to do the number of kicks that Sense counted without putting our foot down.  For example, if Sensei counted 4 we did four of each kicks all while trying to keep our balance.

We finished up our kicking drills with spinning back kick, double roundhouse kick, hook kick, roundhouse again and side thrust kick.  I am not sure how many kicks we did but it was a lot.

We finished up class doing the kata of our choice three time, (Gojushiho Sho for me) and then we worked on some one step sparring where we used a move from the kata that we did as a counter attack.

Sensei Cieplik had spend the first half of the class working on roundhouse kicks today.  This included Sensei’s patented eight point roundhouse kick.  For those of you who tried to forget that drill it is, leg up to the rear horizontal to the floor, pivot to the front, extend lower leg, retract lower leg, pull back to the side, pivot to front and extend again, retract again, then pull back to the rear and set it down.

After that drill, my legs were already roasted pretty well and then we did a partner drill where our partner held a pad, we did a slow roundhouse kick at the pad and then we pulled the knee back very fast from the extended point.

I can see the next drill helping with roundhouse kicks and hip mobility in general.  Get into a stance with one foot in front like blocking cat stance, turn the hip over like a roundhouse kick and pull back from the hips very fast into a cat stance.  This drill is to get the hips to do the work instead of the shoulders.  The upper body should stay totally upright and all motion should come only from the hips.

Kata details…

We did Heian Shodan through Heian Godan and Tekki Shodan with Sensei giving us tips on various parts of the kata.

One very important tip, that applies to most katas is, when pulling into ready stance drop down on the back leg and pull front leg back. They key to this is keeping the upper body upright when moving back into the ready stance.  Many people do a good kata and then lean forward to move back to the ready stance and end up spoiling the good kata they did.

When doing the side snap kick in Heian Nidan, drop on the front leg, bring back leg halfway to the front leg and keep upright posture for the backfist and side snap kick.

In Heian Sandan, when doing the three moves in horse stance with back fist, when moving into the back stance position, reach with the front foot and pivot on the back heel.  The hips need to do the action when moving into the horse stance.

In Heian Yondan, all movements should be fluid and flow into the next.

In Heian Godan, when moving from the cross leg stance with x-block, stay low and reach with the right foot into the front stance while bringing the hips around.  The idea is to stay low and use the hips to execute the assisted outward block.

From a front stance do a front snap kick and hold, then drop the body down on to the stationary leg then put kicking foot down into blocking leg stance and push forward from the hips into a front stance.

Sensei felt that our kicks needed some help so we did some squat kicks.  This drill starts out standing, you squat down, then come back up and kick with one leg, then squat back down again and kick with the other leg until Sensei says stop.  I am not sure how long we did this drill but there were at least 25 kicks with each leg.  The kicking part is easy and the squatting part is not.

We moved on to rising block, inward block, outward block and downward block all with reverse punch.  After that drill, Sensei wanted us to push more from the hips and he had us start in a front stance, turn 180 degrees into a cat stance and then push forward from the hips into a front stance again.  When doing the turn, the idea was to turn using the hips, not the shoulders, and then move into the front stance again, using the hips.

This drill was different, like many of the drills Sensei Cieplik has been sharing with us lately.  We worked on loose arm punches but we let our arm swing all the way behind us and when it was loose, we punched.  The idea was to keep the arm straight when swinging it and then let it fly into our partner and then tighten up at the point of impact.  These loose power moves are more powerful than any tensed moves that I have done in the past.  One important note when doing these loose power movements is, you should hit something otherwise you might hyper-extend your elbows like I do.

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We did Heian Shodan using the loose power punch on all punching movements.

We also did Heian 1 three more times, Heian 2, 3, 4, and 5 twice each.  We then finished up class taking a Kyu rank on the side to help them with their kata.  I took my friend Tom through Heian 5 a few times, sharing what Sensei shared with me over the years and class was over.