We started this class with my favorite warm up.  We we told to start at the first kata we know and continue until we did every kata we know.  I started with Ttaikyoku Shodan, all the Heian katas, Tekki Shodan, Jion, Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Hangetsu, Empi and Gojushiho Sho for me.  I also started doing Sochin but forgot it for some reason.

I am not sure how good or bad all these katas look when we do them but I certainly feel that they do to improve as we warm up.  It feels like I am doing the first three or four katas in sand but they start to move better and my stances feel lower as I go up the line.

Last of the exam basics…

With testing coming to an end, we started moving forward and backward doing each of the following:

• Downward block with reverse punch
• Rising block with reverse punch
• Inward block with reverse punch
• Outward block, jab with reverse punch
• Inward block, elbow strike and backfist

Then came the kicks:

• Double front snap kick
• Roundhouse kick
• Double roundhouse kick – two steps with two kicks, one kick low and the other kick high
• Front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side and back kick to the rear
• Same as above but add roundhouse kick to the front and reverse punch as we step down

We finished class doing kata.  For those that knew the kata, we did Jion, Bassai Dai, Tekki Shodan and Gojushiho Sho.

I am always sad to see exam time come to an end.  Doing kihon and kata is something that I enjoy most.

We started class with the normal kicking drills and then we moved into basics.

Stance within a stance, salad bowls and relax….

Basics included the usual blocks, inward, outward, downward and rising, all with reverse punch.  We then moved into the meat of the basics and the all time crowd favorite, insert sarcasm here, inward block with elbow strike and backfist.

We spent a lot of time working on this drill because it is the one that both examiners and students dislike most.  The reason is, this block requires a front stance for the inward block and a horse stance for the elbow strike and backfist and most student, me included, move too fast and make the stance look like a jumbled up front horse stance.

The key to this drill is to do a complete inward block, then shift into the horse stance, dropping down in the stance, while using the front leg, top of your thigh, to get under and hit the hamstring of your opponent while driving your elbow into their ribs.  The idea of salad bowl movement, that Sensei Cieplik should trademark, is used when doing this because you drop the body to get under the hamstring and then use the spring or upward motion to take their balance away from them.

The hand motion when moving into the horse stance is to grab their arm to stretch them out as you drive your elbow into their ribs.  I am not certain of why the backfist is needed at that point except to give them a little something else to think about, like maybe a broken nose to have fixed along with their ribs.

Moving backward is where this movement really falls apart but if you insert a cat since, when moving from the horse stance into the front stance, the move cleans up very nicely.

Key takeaways are, make your stances look like that stances they should look like, use the body and the power of the hips to take your opponents balance, insert a stance in between the stance and slow down.

Learn to relax and your kata will improve…

We spent the rest of the class working with partner and watching them do their kata to help them improve. One big thing that I have found over the years is that, myself included, everyone needs to to relax.  This is the one thing that I have seen across the board.  Most adults keep a lot of stress with them, especially in the neck and shoulders and it shows up when doing kata.  If there is a single bit of advice that I can share, it is try to learn to relax.  Sensei says that it takes 10 years to learn to relax, I still have a year to go, but if you can speed up this process your kata will improve.

Today’s class started out with some free sparring for a warm up and then we did kihon and lots of kata.

Get your balance before you kick…

We started our kihon drills doing some kicks.  Front kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side, back kick to the rear and roundhouse kick to the front.  One thing that I often do, when doing groups of kicks like these, is to try my best to hurry through them.  I am sure that this is certainly an ugly sight to behold but I know that my power and accuracy is way down when I hurry.  Sensei Noia told everyone, get your balance before you do the next kick.  This simple sentence made so much sense but for some reason it never really sunk into my thick skull until tonight.  Slowing down and gathering my balance before each kick made a huge mental difference to me.  I am not sure if my kicks looked better but they certainly felt better.  You would think this would be common sense by now but sometimes the nail has to be hammered into the wood more than once.

We did the same kicking drill, as above, but we added reverse punch to the end of the group of kicks.

For our next kihon drills we moved forward and back doing the following:

• Rising block with reverse punch
• Outward block, jab with reverse punch
• Inward block with reverse punch
• Downward block with reverse punch
• Inward block, elbow strike and backfist
• Back stance with knife hand block, front leg front snap kick, step down into a front stance with spear hand strike.

Best and worst kata…

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We started out with Bassai Dai and then Kanku Dai.  After that, Sensei told us to pick a kata of our choice.  Myself and a few others did Gojushiho Sho twice.  After that Sensei had us do Heian Yondan, then back to the kata of our choice again.  He then had us pick our least favorite kata, which is Tekki Shodan for me and do it once.  It’s not that I don’t like Tekki Shodan, I just don’t feel that it is my best kata.  We finished up doing the kata of our choice twice and class ended.