I know I have said this in the past but there are some days where I am already tired after only the warm up.  Of course, after the tough warm up, Sensei Noia had is spend a lot of time on our kicks today.

Warm up….

Jog to the far end of the dojo and back four times.  Then, to the far end and back once with each of the following: high knees up in front, butt kickers, front leg raise and low walks.

Advanced one step….

Sensei had us partner up and do some one-step drills.  For those who are not testing, we could do our one-step block and counter any way we liked.  Instead of the standard outward blocks and reverse punch, we were allowed to use knife hand blocks, elbow strikes, open hand techniques, and even knee strikes.  Using those techniques always makes one step a little more challenging and realistic compared to the standard moves.

Put your hand on the wall and kick….

Next, we all found a place on the wall, stood close to it and put our left hand on it.  From there, we did side snap kicks with side thrust kicks for each count with a total of 10 for each side.

Next, we did a kata of our choice (Heian Sandan for me) with no hands very slowly.

Back to the wall but this time we did three side snap kicks for each count on both side.

We then did kata again with no hands but full power legs and hips.

Back to the wall for side snap kick, high roundhouse kick and low side thrust kick for each count.

We did the kata again with hands this time to the first kiai.

Back to the wall with side snap kick, roundhouse kick and hook kick.

Now kata from where we left off at the first kiai to the end.

Back to the wall on last time but now what ever number Sensei said, we did that many kicks.  Our choice of kicks were, side snap kick, roundhouse, hook kick and side thrust kick.  I cannot remember for certain but I would guess we did over 50 kicks for each leg on this one drill.

We finished up class with one last full speed and power kata.

This class went by very fast for some reason.  Sensei Cieplik had us spend a lot of time working on shin clashes and knee take-downs.

Get your daily basics in…

After our warm up, we did moving forward and backward downward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, outward block with jab and reverse punch and from a front stance, inward block into horse stance with elbow strike and backfist.

Next, moving forward and back we did back stance with knife hand block.  Then back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and then shift into front stance with spear hand strike.

We finished up our basics in a horse stance stepping across only.  Then we did stepping across with side thrust kick.  Then came side snap kick and we finished up with side snap kick and side thrust kick, one step with two kicks.

Hit their shin, twist their knee and drop them….

For our partner drills, we worked on shin clash and knee take-down.  One partner was in a front stance and the other was standing ready.  The standing partner stepped into a front stance, striking the shin of our partner with our foot on the outside and our knee on the inside of their leg.  From there, the partner that stepped in twisted their knee from the inside to the outside of our partners knee.  This motion makes them want to follow their knee down to the ground.

We did a good amount of kata before class ended.  The kata’s in included Heain Shodan twice, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan three times, Jion twice, Bassai Dai and lastly Kanku Dai.

Sensei Noia had us work on our stance training again today and we even got to belt our partner.  More about that below.

After the warm up we started out in a horse stance and then moved into a front stance with punch.  We then moved from a horse stance into a back stance with a knife hand block.  Next, we moved from a horse stance into a horse stance sideways with a double block.  We then did the same moves but one after the other in a group.

We also worked on a lot of kicks too.  We started with:

1. Stationary front snap kick.
2. Stationary side thrust kick to the front
3. Stationary standing front snap kick with back kick
4. Stationary standing front snap kick, back kick, side thrust kick
5. Stationary standing front snap kick, three times at different levels, back kick, front snap kick, side thrust kick.

Belt your partner….

We found a partner and put our belt around around their waist.  From there, they stepped forward in a front stance and we pulled on the belt to make it hard for them to move.  We did the same moving forward in a back stance and also moving sideways in a horse stance.  The idea is to do this drill making your partner work and keep good form but not making it impossible for them to move.

We finished up doing Jion three time.  The first time Sensei counted the moves out, the second time was slow but with good form on our own and the last one was full power and full speed.