The dojo floor was a little (lot) slippery today.  There is not a lot of air movement and with 40 people doing kihon and kata, it was a little wet to say the least.

Sensei Cieplik had us work on a lot of kicks again. We did the normal kicking warmup and then came the following:

• Front snap kick 20 times
• Knee strike with front snap kick 20 times
• Front leg front snap kick with rear leg front snap kicks 10 times
• Roundhouse kick 10 times
• Front leg roundhouse kick with rear leg roundhouse kicks 5 times

We followed those up with moving forward and backward with reverse punch.  We then did moving forward and backward with double reverse punch.

Next came stepping across in a horse stance,.  Then we did side thrust kick and side snap kick from a horse stance and then a combination of both kicks from a horse stance.partner, wrist

Break away…

We paired up and did a drill where our partner grabs our wrist and we break away by relaxing our body.  The idea is, if we tighten up our body, our attacker is using our own strength against us but if we relax, we can easily slip out of their grip/

Slippery kata….

We spent the rest of our class working on kata and trying not to end up on the floor.  We did Heian 1 to Heian 5, then Tekki Shodan, Jion, and bassai Dai.  We also did Kanku Dai three times trying to keep our stances in a straight line.

The wet floor brings our Karate movements to a whole different level, sometimes at floor level.

Sensei Noia had us work on blocking combination moves like those found found in some of the higher belt katas.

Blocking combination based on kata…..

For a little mind warm up, we started in a front stance, moving forward with rising block and reverse punch.  We followed that with inward block and reverse punch.

We worked on combination movements for almost the entire class doing the following:

Moving forward in front stance with rising block and reverse rising block.
Moving forward with downward block and reverse downward block
Moving forward with inward and reverse inward block.
Moving forward with outward block and reverse outward block.

For the next drill, all from a front stance, we did inward block, reverse punch and outward block.  Next, we did outward block, inward block and outward block.

We did the next drills from a back stance, moving forward with knife hand block, move into a front stance with spear hand.  We followed that with back stance and low knife hand.

We moved into a front stance with outward block and ridge hand and then outward block with shuto to the neck.  Still in a front stance, we did outward block, back fist and reverse punch.

Then came, what seemed like 10 minutes in a horse stance, side thrust kick and reverse punch.  For example, we stood in a horse stance looking to the left, trying not to rise up, we did a side thrust kick to the left and a reverse punch to the left.  After many kicks on the left, we worked the right side.  This is a drill for the kata, Nijushiho.

For the final drill, we moved into a back stance with a knife hand block, then into a front stance with a low groin strike, and then back into a back stance with the upward and downward block that we do in Heian Godan and other katas.

I am sure that I left out some drills that we did but a full hour of kihon not only exhausts the body, it exhausts the mind too.

I really enjoy exam time,  Not because I am testing but because Sensei Noia has us work on stances and kata for almost three solid months.  This is the time that my Karate improves a great deal and if I could have classes like these all year around, I would not complain.

We started out with the tough warm up again by, jogging twice across the dojo, low walks across and back, butt kickers where we put our hands behind us and try to hit them with out heels, shuffle sideways across and back and dynamic leg raises to the front and side.

Sensei followed that up with a really good stretch, which really helps me loosen up and then we got down to business.

Let the stances begin…

We started facing the side with our feet together and moving into a front stance with reverse punch.  The idea was to move from the hips and push from the back heel.  We did the same with different blocks and punches and then moved forward doing the same.

Next, we did back stance with knife hand block move into front stance with knife hand strike to the front.  We followed that with rising open hand block and the same knife hand strike (from Kanku Dai).  Still in a back stance, we did the downward and high outward block and then moved into front stance with spear hand strike to solar plexus level.

For the next drill, we moved from stance to stance as follows.  We started doing downward block and reverse punch in a horse stance, then moving into back stance  and then into front stance.  We changed stances after each count and then we did all three stance with one count.

Kata parts and all…

We picked a kata (Gojushiho Sho for me) doing only stances.  Then we did it to the first kiai twice and we finished up from the kiai to the end of the kata.