Karate class today was full of fundamental drills.  Sensei Cieplik had us spend more time on our front snap kicks again and also making sure that we are moving from our hips.  Sensei also shared a really good self defense punch that will make most people gasp for air.

The warm up, then the kicks…

We started out with the usual warm up doing 20 front snap kicks with each, 20 knee strikes with front snap kick, another knee strike and another front snap kick.  After that, we did front snap kick with back, then front snap kick with side thrust kick to finish up the warm up.

The next drill is one of my favorites.  We started in a front stance, from there we did a front snap kick, from there we kept the front knee up after the kick and then turned 180 degrees, using the hips to turn and then put the kicking leg back down behind us. Dropping the knee down after the kicks allows the hips to be used to turn the body. Turning from the upper body is not the correct way to do it.

We did the same drill again but this time, when making the turn, an inward block is executed and brought toward the kicking leg knee to engage the core muscles, then after the turn, the kicking foot is put down behind while doing a reverse punch. The timing of putting the kicking foot down with the reverse punch creates a lot of power.

Step by step….

The next drills were for sparring.  We stepped forward twice will throwing a reverse punch with each step.  The move is almost a march or even think of chasing someone with reverse punches.  The forward movement makes these very strong movements.  The next drill was the same but with three steps and three reverse punches.  I am not not most coordinated in this drill because I kept ending up with a front punch on the last step for some reason.

Time for kihon….

We did moving forward and backward with rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, outward block with jab and reverse punch.

After those came some back stance stance work. We started in a back stance with left leg forward, we then moved the right foot next to the left foot, turned the left foot 90 degrees to the side and then moved the right foot out in front, into a back stance.  This ensures that the groin is protected when moving the legs and it helps keep the feet in the proper alignment.  After working on the footwork, we did moving forward and back with knife hand block, front snap kick step down, move into front stance with spear hand strike.

For the last kihon drill, we did moving to the side in  a horse stance.  The key is to keep the feet in the same line after stepping sideways and making sure that the stepping foot does not turn out to the side. We finished up doing step across with side thrust kick in a horse stance.

Shodans, Kyu ranks and a punch with a twist….

Sensei had the Shodans partner up with a Kyu rank to work on a very specific punching drill.  The idea behind this drill was to punch your partner in the solar plexus area but with a twist.  The twist was a real twist of the fist where the punching hand did not twist all the way at the end of the punch.

Picture your punching fist at the end of a punch.  The index knuckle and pinky knuckle normally ends up at the 9 and 3 o’clock position.  When doing this drill, the fist ends up near the 2 and 8 o’clock position.  This position of the fist fits almost perfectly into the xiphoid process and getting hit there will at least knock the wind out of you, even with a light punch.  My partner hit me a few times in that exact spot and it was not pleasant. There is no way to tighten that area because there is no muscle around it.

Keep in mind, the idea of this drill was to work on our aim and not have our partners falling to the floor gasping for air.

We finished up working on kata with the Kyu ranks.  I was lucky to work with a purple belt doing Heian Godan, who has been out of class for a while.  Her kata looked really good and after just a few small corrections, it looked very good..

Time went by much too fast and before I knew it a really great class was over.

During the session after Karate exams Sensei Noia brings out the sparring drills and today was a good example.  Sensei spent almost the entire class working on sparring from slow motion drills to three man tag team action.

Tough warm up…

For the warm up, Sensei had us start running in place, from there we ran to the quarter line and did mountain climbers.  At the half line, we did burpees also known as squat thrusts. At the three quarter line was jumping jack and at the end line we started with running in place again.  We did this four times and if you weren’t warm by then, chances are you were sitting on the side.

Sparring and more...

We started with one partner and did slow motion sparring, slow speed with no ego, and then switched partners until we worked with five different people.

After that, everyone put their sparring gear on and worked on three person drills where one person was in the middle, facing one partner who attacked and the middle person blocked and counter, then switched direction facing the other partner and then repeated.

After that, everyone moved into groups of two for free sparring.

Kata for me…

I have not been doing the sparring drills so I went off to the side to work on kata. I did all of the katas that I know and end up doing a couple of them twice for a total of 20.

Sensei ended class with a leg building drill.  One low walk, squat, low walk other leg, squat and repeat across the entire dojo.

Today was the start of the new session with Sensei Cieplik and as always, the first day back, after close to a month off, is challenging to say the least.  I am not sure how many kicks we did today and now that I think about it, I am not sure if I really want to know.

Special kicking drills….

We started with our normal warm up of stationary rear leg front snap kick.  After a few minutes of Sensei watching us, the special kicking drills came out.

We started in a left foot forward front stance, from there we put our left hand across our body above our right hip.  From that position we brought our right knee up to the outstretched left hand and then put it back down behind us.  The key is to put the hand in a place where your can reach it with your knee and not to move the hand down to reach your knee.  Same thing on the right side too.

We did the same drill as above but this time, we touched our hand with our knee once and then touched our hand again but with a front snap kick.  The key here, on the kick, was to keep the knee in contact with the hand when kicking.

Next, we started in a left foot forward front stance and curls the toes on our right foot up while keeping our foot flat on the floor.  From there, we did a right leg front snap kick, keeping the toes up throughout the movement.

The next drill is always tough on me.  We started standing upright, from there we bring our knee up to the front and then place our index fingers from each hand on both sides of our knee.  We then kick without dropping the knee.  It’s not really that hard of a drill but when you do it many times, it gets tough.
For the next drill we did front leg front snap kicks.  After seeing this drill, Sensei had us stand in a front stance and bring the front leg up so that we could hug our knee.  My legs do not want to cooperate with this drill for some reason.  This is one that I need to work on outside of class too.

We then followed the above drill with front leg front snap kick.  Front leg front snap kick with rear leg front snap kick was next followed up with front leg front snap kick with rear leg front snap kick and triple punch.  That was the end of the kicking clinic for today.

Relax….

After all the kicks were over, we worked on trying to relax our body before moving on.  Sensei had us bend forward at the hips with our arms hanging down at our sides moving them in slow circles.  The idea is to feel the weight of your thumbs while doing this so that your arms and upper body can relax.

We also did another drill where we stand in a one to two tile wide stance (one to two feet wide) bring out hands up above our head and go up on our tiptoes and then drop down while letting our hands fall.  The key is to allow the weight of your body and your hands dropping to create a loose power if your hand were to strike something.

We then moved into a light front stance and threw  reverse punches with the same feeling of heavy hands but loose arms and upper body.  For the next drill, we pulled our body weight on to our back leg and then drove the loose punch from the hips using the momentum of the body forward to give power to the punch.

We also did drill where we stood with our feet apart and straight ahead and moved our body from side to side while keeping our feet planted.  This drill is to open the hips up and it does put some stress on the knees but the hips do get a good workout.

Get a partner….

We stood across from our partner in a horse stance.  From there, we both out our left hands and as Sensei counted we did front punches at each others face.  Next, we did double front punches to the stomach and then triple punches to face, stomach, stomach.  This had to be timed pretty well or you end up punching your partners hand.

The next drill had one partner in a front stance, the attacking partner front snap kicked while the defending partner pulled the front foot back in line with the back foot and threw a front snap kick with what was the back leg.

The last drill of the night was both partners in front stance, the attacking partner steps in with a front punch while the defending partner redirects the front punch past them and counters with a reverse punch that the attacking partner walks into.