I really enjoy a good warm up, especially when it involves kata.  The was no disappointment to today when Sensei Noia had us start by doing all Heian kata and Tekki Shodan for a warm up.  When I do this warm up, I am pretty sure that my first katas look, less then great, but as the blood gets moving and the joints warm up, the katas improve.

Stance basics….

After my favorite warm up, we moved in to basics.  We stated in a horse stance and did 60 or punches and blocks.  After that, we did cross leg stance and cat stance for many punches and blocks too.

Next, we started moving forward and back with outward block, jab and reverse punch.  Then came,  what is most Sensei’s favorite movement said with heavy sarcasm, front stance with inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and back fist and front stance with reverse punch.

For the next drill, we did stationary front snap kick.  Then we did stationary front snap kick with punch while in a cat stance.  we finished up our kihon with moving forward front leg front snap kick and rear leg front snap kick for each one count.

More kata….

What’s better than warming up with kata, doing more kata during class.  We worked on Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan, Jion, Bassai Dai, and our own belt kata.  We did our own kata (Kanku Dai for me) three times but just up to the first kiai.  We then did one more kata full out at 100% to finish things up.

We didn’t do a lot of different movements in class today but Sensei Cieplik made sure that we did the few drills and movements the correct way.

Get the basics done….

After our normal kicking warm up we did moving forward and backward three times with downward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch and inward block with reverse punch.

Next we did front leg roundhouse kick, rear leg roundhouse kick and reverse punch.  We followed that, starting in a horse, then moved across with side snap kick and then side thrust kick.  As always, the idea is to keep the moving foot in contact with the floor and making sure to move from our hips and not our shoulders.

For the next drill we did a roundhouse kick, then pulled the hip all the way to the back and then brought the kicking back to the front and stepped down in to a front stance and did a reverse punch.  The idea here is to recover your balance from the kick and then do the reverse punch while driving the hips forward.

Hit them with your leg….

Because of the last drill, we moved in to groups of three.  One partner held a pad on their stomach and other other held a pad at shin height.  When stepping in to punch, the idea was to hit the low pad the shin and punch the pad.  The idea is to throw your leg at them and once it hits the pad, let the punch fly.  Throwing that leg forces us to use our hips when moving forward and throwing those punches.  The punch just goes out because the body has stopped moving and the extension of the arm happens as the body stops.

Kata at the end….

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We started with the black belts and Kanku Dai.  We then did Heian Shodan trying to punch the same way that we did when doing the pad drills.  Next we did Heian 2 – Heian 5, Jion and Bassai Dai finished it up.

Sensei Noia had us spend a lot of time basics today but he had us put extra attention on our stances.  I can’t speak for anyone else but since we have been spending more time on stances, my stances have improved a lot.  I can hold a stance much longer than before and I am able to keep my knee from moving side to side.

Stance, stance, stance, stance….

After our warm up, we moved in to a horse stance and did punches.  We did singles punches, double punches and triple punches while holding our stances.

Next, we turned our toes out toward the corners and squatted down until the top of our legs were parallel to the floor.  I should say that many people were able to get in to that position but I was not one of them.  These old hips of mine are story for another day.  From that stance, we did rising blocks and outward blocks.

For the next drill, we lined up, side by side, the long way across the dojo and did stances only across the floor.  By stances only, I mean with no hand techniques.  We did front stance, back stance, horse stance, cross leg stance and cat stances back and forth.  After that, we did the same stances but with different blocking techniques and all with a reverse punch.  You really need to focus when doing a block or reverse punch from a cross leg stance or cat stance.  I have found that if you drop down, even just a tiny amount, when doing the arm techniques, it centers my balance and makes the move powerful.  Just grounding myself and dropping my center of gravity, even a half inch, made a big difference.

It didn’t get any easier.  Next came back stance with knife hand block and reverse punch.  After that we did rising block with reverse punch.  Again, dropping down when throwing the reverse punch makes a big difference.

The next back stance drill had us doing ridge hand, followed with same hand knife hand block and reverse punch.  I have a picture in my mind of how this drill could be applied to real life but I will leave that up to you to imagine.  Or leave a comment below and tell me how you would use it.

The next drill was done in a moving horse stance.  We did a jodan knife hand strike that is the same one used in Ji’in.

Kata and one-step sparring….

We finished up with some kata.  We did Taikyoku Shokan, then Heian Shodan then Taikyoku Shodan again.  Next came Jion where Sensei counted out each move for us.

We then did one-step sparring but we could not counter attack with punches or kicks.  We could use elbows, hammer fist, back fist or other counters.  This really made the old mind work hard after 50 minutes of hard work.

We finished up class with out own belt rank kata (Kanku Dai for me).  The first kata as slow but perfect and the second one was all out, 100% power and speed.   My 100% was 100% for that moment in time though which I guess is still 100% no matter how I look at it.