Sensei Cieplik is still working on our kicks. One of the key points that he made today, while we were kicking, was to keep our posture upright to make our kicks better.

Make those roundhouse kicks better and keep your posture…..

After our warm up Sensei had us work on moving forward with front snap kick and front punch.

Next came moving forward with roundhouse kick.  When doing the roundhouse kick, keep your hands at your sides.  The thumb of the side that the front leg is on should be behind the middle side of your leg.  By keeping your hand in that position, it keeps you from using your shoulders when kicking and it allows you to kick  with the body.

For the next drill, we turned sideways and started with our knee pointing to the front (our side) like the start of a roundhouse kick.  From there , we held our knee out to the side and pivoted from heel to the ball of the foot across the floor.

The next drill was a stationary roundhouse kick where we held our leg to the side, roundhouse kicked and snapped it back faster than you throw it.  Just like a front snap kick, the kick should be about 30% speed and the retraction should be about 70% of the speed.

The last roundhouse kick drill was moving forward with jab, reverse punch and roundhouse kick.  The key to this, and almost everything in Karate, is keeping your posture upright.  Once you start to lean over, your kicks come from the shoulders and balance and most of the technique goes downhill from there.

Kihon, partner drills and continuous kata….

After all the roundhouse kicks, we did moving forward and backward downward block, inward block, rising block and all with reverse punch.  Sensei said to keep our arms in close to our body when doing the kihon.  He also said that a good way to practice is to do basics in a dark roon with a candle behind you.  This will allow you to see if your arms are staying in close to your body in the shadows.  Just be careful not to start your house or yourself on fire.

Next we did stepping across in a, horse stance, then the same with side thrust kick, then the same with side snap kick and finally both kicks.

We then got a partner.  From there, the idea was to keep center but take center away from your partner.  From a fighting stance, one partner was moving in a circle, both clockwise and counter clockwise  around the other partner while the other partner was turning and pointing at the center of the moving partner.  We then did the same drill but instead of pointing at our partners center, we could use a reverse punch.

Next came kata.  Sensei had us Heian Shodan all the way through Heian Godan in one continuous group.  The next part about this is that it takes under five minutes to do all five katas.  From there we did Heian Godan followed by Bassai Dai three times in a row.  The last kata we did was Tekki Shodan where Sensei counted out each move for the students who just too their new rank and are now doing that kata.

Some more words of wisdom from Sensei.  The technique will rise when you challenge your balance.  I take this to mean, if you have to fight your balance in your stance, your technique will look much better and be more effective.  It also, helps you keep better posture.  For example, a good back stance, that fights your balance, makes the knife hand block in Bassai Dai or any kata better.

Sensei Noia  had us start out with a light jog back and forth across the dojo about five times.  The dojo is a basket ball court to give a frame of reference on the size of it.  The next few times across, we jogged to the third court line, then sprinted to the other side third court line and jogged to the end.  Next, we shuffled sideways back and forth and then we did walking front leg raises across and back.

One person kicks, one person squats and hope you don’t get kicked….

We stood in front of our partner and did front leg roundhouse kick both high and low followed up with rear leg roundhouse kick high and low to get our kicks going.  We did this in alternating fashion where one partners did the first front leg kick and then the other did their front leg kick and so on.

For the next drill, we did a movement that I do not remember doing before.  We started out facing our partner, one partner then squats down very low and puts their hands over their head.  From there, the other partner does an outside in crescent kick over the squatting partner.

After that, We stood back up and did front leg roundhouse low, roundhouse high and hook kick with the same leg and not touching the ground between kicks.  We finished doing a 10 different kicks without touching our leg to the ground between each kick.  I am it too about number six and I was ready to fall down.

For the last kicking drill partner kicking drill, we got a pad and did spinning back kicks, many times.  I am really starting to enjoy this kick for some reason.  It just feels natural for some reason.

Lights out….

We were just getting ready to do some more kicking drills and suddenly the lights went out.  There was a strong storm outside and the power dropped out just long enough for the lights to go off.  There were still lights in the hallway outside the dojo and Sensei took advantage of the darkness and had us do some slow motion kata.  We did two katas of our choice while the lights were coming back on.

Somewhere during the class we did two sets of 25 push ups.  I don’t remember doing push ups for some time now but they felt easier than in the past.

More kicks…..

We finished up class with some more kicks.  Sensei had us stand next to a wall and put one hand on it.  From there, we brought up one knee to the side and did roundhouse kicks for a total of 50 for each leg.

For the last drill, we brought up our knee to the front and did side thrust kicks.  We only did 30 for each leg but there was a long hold in between each kick.

Lots of work, sore legs equals great Karate class!