Lots of kicks and kata was the lesson for today and what a combination it was…

We started with in a horse stance doing punches. Next came horse stance with punches, then pivot to the left and reverse punch, then back to center, then pivot to the right and reverse punch.  For all of the drills where we pivot, we are turning, or supposed to, turn on our heels and use our hips not our shoulders to change direction.

For the next drill, we stepped forward with reverse punch, then pivoted to the left behind, then back to front, and then the same on right side.  For the next drill, we stepped left with either a downward block or outward block then we turned to right with the same block and then to the left again.

We started working on kicks next.  The following drill was really tough and I can’t even guess how many kicks we did because Sensei said keep going until he said stop more than a couple times.

From a standing position we did a front snap kick and a side thrust to front then to the 2 o’clock, 3 o’clock, 4 o’clock and  6 o’clock position without putting down the kicking leg.  We did the same with both side thrust kick and roundhouse kick together.  Next we did side thrust kick, roundhouse kick, hook kick and back kick.  I’m almost sure that walking is going to be an issue tomorrow.

Kata…

We finished up class working on some kata.  We did Jion and Bassai Dai with the brown belts and then we moved on to Kanku Dai with the Shodans and above.  After that, Sensei Noia told us to work on the kata of our choice doing parts that we feel we need to improve as he came over to each of us to offer advice or corrections on the parts we were working on.  The part that I spent the most time on was moving backward from a front stance into a horse stance.  This is move that gets away from me and keeps me from setting up the next move correctly but Sensei said that it looked good.

We started warming up with a partner, facing each other in a horse stance up.  From there we did front punch, double punch, and triple punch at our partner. After that, we moved into a cross leg stance and did double punch, then we moved into a cat stance with a single punch, then back stance with outward block and punch

After the stance and punching drills, we moved into kicks.  We front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the side.  Next was front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side, back kick to the back  and roundhouse kick to the front.  We did the same kicks as above with the addition of hook kick to the front, side thrust kick to front then step down with reverse punch.

The more kata, the better….

One of the things that I have enjoyed most lately is the time that Sensei Noia has been spending on kata with us.  We spend almost half the class working on kata and it has been awesome.

We started out doing Jion with the third kyu’s, then Bassai Dai with the second & first kyu’s and then we split up.  From there we spent the rest of the class working on Kanku Dai and Gojushiho Sho while Sensei gave us tips and details on what we needed to improve in our kata.

We started out with our normal front snap kick to the front.  After that came front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to the front.  Next, we did front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side, back kick to the rear, roundhouse kick to the front, hook kick to the front and front snap kick.  We finished up our warm up with knee strike, front snap kick, knee strike and front snap kick all on one count.

Back stance…..

For a good amount of time, Sensei had us work on our back stances.  We started with our feet together facing left, we then turned our left foot out to the side or front now, drop down, reach to the front with right leg toes and ball of foot not heels.  We worked on doing the same foot movements but using our hand now too.  When moving forward in a back stance, you should not hear the heel of the front foot hitting the floor.  The front foot should be silent because you are reaching with your toes not stomping with your heel.  Most of your weight should be on your back leg and your front foot should be very light, light enough so that you could throw a front snap kick with the front foot if needed.

Your weapon was lost or broken…

After the back stance drills, Sensei brought up the point why our stances are so long and the way that we move from a ready stance into a horse stance.  One of the reasons that our stances are so long and low is because we have to cover a lot of ground when moving into or away from an attack because we do not have a weapon.  For example, if you have an extra 30 inches of reach when holding a katana, you do not have to cover as much ground when moving.  Also, when moving into a horse stance from a ready stance, we move to the right because if we had a katana on our side, it on the left.

The reason we are fighting without a weapon is because we lost it, it was broken or someone took it.  Using our hands should be a last resort.  If someone is threatening your life and you have access to any weapon, a chair for example, use it.

Do kata as if someone is trying to kill you….

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We did all of the Heian katas, Tekki Shodan, Jion, and Bassai Dai.

When doing Heian Shodan, Sensei told us to imagine that someone is trying to kill us.  This certainly changed to feeling of the kata for me. Thinking that someone is trying to kill you makes you wrap your mind around each move in a different way.