I guess the title is a little deceiving.  What we did in class is what I would normally call painful but because of my ribs, it was.

We started our normal warm up and Sensei noticed right away that my kicks were off.  My foot was not too sore but bad enought to throw off my warm ups and my kicks at the start of class.  After a while, when I was warmed up, my foot started to feel better though.

My ribs are worse than they were yesterday and it made for a bunch of really painful kihon movements.  Any combination where I have to twist my hips was very painful.

One of the points that Sensei Cieplik, that really stuck in my mind, was to RELAX.  He made the comment that we are too stressed and that if we want our Karate to be better, we should relax.  Just let is go as he often says when we are doing our basics.  He has told us this many times before but for some reason, it stuck in my mind tonight.

Sensei has often told us this in the past but it is starting to become more important to my training.  He often says, when we are doing our kiohn, we need to; Practice, Persistence, GENTLE, Patience.  Practice our Karate as often as we can.  Be persistent and strive to do it correctly even if we don’t get it right away.  Be GENTLE, typed in caps to express the importance here, to our bodies and do what is within our physical abilities.  And have patience when trying to master our moves or ranks in Karate.

There is a lot of good advice in those four simple words and I am starting to understand them more as I gain more experience.  When I started Karate, I was so focused on getting my black belt as fast I could but as I am learning more, I realized that I still have a long way to go and that I need to follow those four simple words above.  Since I received my third Kyu, I am more interested in learning more details that I am about getting my Shodan.  I still want to get my black belt one day but my goal of only doing that has changed along the way.  It’s not like I am going to quit Karate after I get my black belt so I am going to take my time and enjoy myself and learn everything I can along the way.  When my black belt comes, it will but I am no longer worried about the destination and am more interested in the journey.

Another great point from Sensei, while we were doing some basics in a back stance is to think from behind.  The children often only think with the muscles in front such as abs, chest, quads, arms and shoulders where the adults can think from their back, rear shoulders, hamstrings  and lower back.  Children normally only think from the muscles they see where adults can use the muscles they cannot see behind them.

While doing some work with Tekki Shodan, Sensei mentioned that we should try to punch with our eye behind our elbow when doing the hook punch type movement.  If I understand this correctly, the idea is that if we drive from our elbow the movement will have power but if we use our fist, it will not be as strong.

Another excellent point that I should have been doing for ages is to squeeze my heels together in horse stance.   I know that Sensei has said this in the past but it didn’t sink in until tonight.  Squeezing the heels and tightening the butt and hamstrings makes the stance a whole different thing to me.  It puts my hips and legs in correct position and helps me keep my back upright instead of leaning forward.I spent some time after class talking to Sensei about what happened with my ribs on Tuesday and he gave me some good advice.  “Don’t get hit” he said.  At first, I was wasn’t sure what to think but then he explained something to me about one of his students that takes his Iai-Tate Do class and said that he keeps his elbows at his sides at all times.  Keeping the elbows in protects the ribs and he can block any body attacks with his hands.  If someone attacks his head, he just moves back.  In essence, the idea is to stay in close to the opponent and worry about blocking only the torso with the hands.  I am not going to be sparring until my ribs are fully healed but I plan on trying this advice then.

Even though I was really sore, it was still and excellent class as always.

Sensei Cieplik has us do the normal warmup with our kicks and other movements. Sensei told me to do one of my combination kicks a little differently. Instead of doing each move of the front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick as separate movements, he said to use the rebound of the back kick as the start of the roundhouse kick. That move felt so different to me, in a good way. I was able to bring my hips around and execute my roundhouse with power. The rebound made my hips come around faster then I ever felt in the past.

We moved into a front snap kick but instead of just snapping the kick, Sensei had us use our hips to throw the kick. This created more power then I ever felt in any kick that I have done in the past. My back leg actually moved forward a couple of inches after the kick was extended. It was a feeling of total commitment to the kick. The other part is that squeezing the floor and using the hamstrings was an important part of making this kick effective.

We then did the same movement but with a knee strike. This movement was similar to the front kick and when executed, the motion was forward and not up. Again, the back foot moved when executed. Sensei had us add some walking front punches after the knee strikes. The idea was to use the full power on the knee strikes but then come down gently and move forward with front punches.

The idea behind many of these pull power movements is using the entire body to create motion and make power. Sensei often speaks of doing our movements “with the body” and these moves certainly get the entire body into them.

We then partnered up and worked on a different movement. Sensei had us put our hands near our partners side at a little higher than hips level. He then had us use our hips to push forward but draw our power from the ground. This is hard to explain in text but the idea was to use the motion of the hips and core to forcefully push our partner with little upper body or arm power. This was a hard move to master but it deserves some a lot of practice because I can see the amount of power that it can create.

We applied some of these ideas above to Bassai Dai. The movement where you stand upright with both hands on one side, reach and then punch. Since you are standing upright, the power for the punches need to be generated from moving the body. The idea is to draw the power from the floor and have our hips and core generate the power for the punch. Even though, I am not working on Bassai Dai as my current kata, when doing just that sequence of movements, I could feel the power generated as compared to when doing it with just the upper body. Sensei described this motion as “wave motion.” He also told us to try and think of parts of our kata where we can apply this motion.

Sensei made some comments during class and one that really stuck with me was “Prepare, display and Retreat.” The prepare part is the start of the kata in the ready stance or yoi position. The display part is say a kata or kihon move or movements. The retreat is when we pull our front leg back and get back into our ready stance.

Another comment was “base, retreat, attack.” I understand this as one-step or three step sparring. You start in the ready stance, when your partner attacks, you retreat and move backward with a block and then you finish with a counter attack.

Another important point that Sensei made was for us to do what your body will allow us to do. If we have some problem or even disability, we should only do movements that are within our capabilities. I am often guilty of trying to do some movements that my body just doesn’t want me to do.

It was an excellent class.

Again, class was filled with a lot of good information.

We did a lot of kihon with our normal kicks but then we did something a little different.  Sensei Cieplik had us get into a front stance and then throw a front snap kick, then pivot a half turn to the left and throw a reverse punch, then repeat for a total of four times.  We then did the same movements but in the opposite direction.  The object of this drill was for us to regain our balance after the kick and then throw the punch.

When doing our normal warm kicks, with front kick and front punch Sensei stressed the importance of kicking and punching to the middle.

Sensei had us work on moving sideways in a horse stance, normally we kick with this drill, but paying attention to our feet and he had us reach with the leading leg then settle into the stance in a salad bowl motion.  The salad bowl analogy is the way the body should be moving.  Sensei made a very important comment that really struck me about the horse stance.  He said to try and squeeze your heels together when in a horse stance.  Just doing this made my stance so much strong and I was able to get lower than in the past.  It just goes to show, even after close to four years of studying Karate, there is always something to learn.

We spent some time working on kata.  We did a couple each of Heian Shodan and Heian Nidan and three Tekki Shodan and one of each up to the first ki-ai of Jion and Bassai Dai.  Sensei asked how do you improve your kata if you cannot move any faster or stronger?  His point is that if you reach your limit for speed and power how can you still improve your kata.  His answer was very simple yet I certainly did not expect it.  He said that if you reach the limit on speed and power, you need to practice to be stiller.  The more still that you are means that your movements will look stronger and faster if you start, or I guess end also, from a motionless state.

Sensei has also made a comment that I might have mentioned before.  He says to make kata your own.  If you try too hard to look or move like someone else, your kata will never be yours.  This point really hit home.  I have always tried to make my kata look like others who are younger and much faster than me but I have never did a kata the way that I wanted too.  When I try to move too fast, the quality of my technique really falls off.  This doesn’t mean to do kata without the basic fundamentals but it means to do the kata within your ability and don’t worry about looking like someone else when doing it, look like yourself.