Sensei Brien gave us another hard class tonight.

Warm up with kihon….

We started in a horse stance with single, double and triple punches.  Next came rising, downward and inward blocks.

For the next drill we started in a horse stance, then stepped left and forward into front stance with a block and reverse punch, then back to horse stance with front punch, then we stepped right with block and reverse punch.

Next came some back stance drills.  we started in a horse stance with our hands at our sided, moved left into back stance with a knife hand block, then back to horse stance, then we moved right into back stance with knife hand block again.

After that we started in a fighting stance, jabbed fast then reverse punched and held it with focus.  It’s so hard to hold the reverse punch at the end when I am so used to pulling that hand back from free sparring.

Next we did a killer kicking drill.  We started with a very slow front snap kick and then we snapped it back as fast as I could and then set it down behind me as fast a I could.

Next came drills across the dojo.  Moving forward and back with rising block and reverse punch, same with downward block, inward and outward blocks.   After that we did back stance with front snap kick and knife hand block.

Finish up with kata….

We did Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Heian Godan.  Sensei explained the feeling that we should have when doing our kata.  Instead of doing each move and then really pushing hard on the kiai, he wants us to feel that each move it a kiai and have us keep that kind of intensity for every move, not just the kiai movements.

It was a very hard class and I didn’t have much of anything left at the end of class.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

I cannot even remember how many moves we did in Sensei Noia’s class today.  If I had to guess, I would bet that we did more moves than we do in the Kicks for Cures event.

Basics…

We started in a horse stance with front punch, then double punch, then rising, inward, outward and downward blocks.  From the same horse stance, we would pivot to left into a front stance, reverse punch, pivot back to a horse stance and double punch, then pivot to right in a front stance and reverse punch.

This was a really neat drill.  We started in a horse stance, we then bring knees together, step out to the left into a front stance and front punch.  Then back to horse stance with front punch and step to right and repeat.  Another drill, much like the previous where we bring our knees together between each move, was start in a horse stance, step into front stance with front punch, move back to horse stance with two punches then step back into back stance with knife hand block.

Kicks….

Next, we worked on kicking drills.  We started with single front snap kick moving forward and back, then double front snap kick followed by roundhouse kicks.  For the next drill we did three kicks, front snap kick, low side thrust kick and back kick.  We spent a lot of time on this drills and raised the height and power as we progressed.

I am sure that I left out some of the moves we did but it is just my subconscious trying to make me forget them.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

Sensei Brien made some excellent points in class today.

You are a black belt because…

Sensei said something that really stuck out today.  “You don’t perform that well because you are a black belt, you are a black belt because you perform that well.”  What an awesome comment.  You get to wear that black belt because of what you can do, you cannot do it just because you wear that black belt.

Kihon….

Sensei had us start this session off with a bang.  We started with kihon in a horse stance.  From there, we did punches, double punches, triple punches, blocks and then kicks.

Next came, moving forward and back with punches and blocks both in front stance and back stance.  We then did stationary kicking drills with front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick.  We also did roundhouse kicks with slow extension but very fast retraction.

Sparring drills…

We finished up working on sparring drills.  Our partner attacked with a reverse punch, we moved back just out of their reach and then jabbed back.  We also worked on a drill where we switched our front foot with our back foot to make our partner miss again and then counter jab at them.

Another point that Sensei made today we for us to do our moves with purpose.  It’s easy to go through the moves and do the motion but instead, Sensei said that we should have intensity and purpose behind every move.  Don’t just do the moves to do the moves, do the moves and make each on effective.

It was a great first class back.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.