I only took one class since I didn’t want to push my hips too much after my chiropractic session with Dr. Pusateri earlier today.

I did end up doing one of the drills in the earlier class where our partner would hold a pad at belt level, we did a very slow side thrust kick and rested our foot on the pad and then Sensei told us to pull our foot back to the starting position very fast. I was able to retract my leg faster than ever and I didn’t have any problems getting my foot on the pad. Sensei did tell me to take it easy since he knew that the Doc told me not to go ballistic.

In my class we spent a lot of time working on stances. This was great for me since my stances were low and solid. Since my gluteus is working, I was able to lock my back leg when throwing a front punch and I was able to open my hips when when doing my blocks. It was a totally different feeling that I have not had since I started taking Karate.

When then partnered up. Sensei gave us the elastic exercise bands and had our partner place them around our hips while standing behind us. We then got in to a low stance, our partner would hold the bands and we would move forward while staying in our low stances. I was able to lock my back leg and it made my stances so much more solid. There was no bounce at all. We did a lot of repetitions going forward and then we did the same thing moving backward while paying attention to keeping our back foot planted when moving.

I was able to spend a little time with my Sensei after class and he had me do a couple of front stances with some blocks and punches so that he could see my hips working again.  I also threw a high side thrust kick while holding on to the wall and even though I was leaning a bit too much, my kick was about chest height and I was able to hold it up.

We spent most of the class working on sparring drills again but this was a little different than most of our sparring classes.

We partnered up right away and started doing kicking drills. With our arms down at our sides, each of us would throw a front snap kick at our partner and then switch legs and do the same. The idea behind this drill was to help us with our balance.

Then we moved on to punching drills. I would throw a jab to jodan and then my partner would do that same, then to chudan and then gedan. The idea was to punch hard with control and also move in and out of the way after the attack.

We went back to some kicking drills where we would throw a rear leg roundhouse kick, then our partner would do the same, then a front leg shuffle up roundhouse kick. We then switched legs and did the same. I didn’t have too much trouble with my right leg kicks but my left leg is really far behind when it comes to height and power. We also worked on some other drills with some sweeps and kicks.

We finished up with a kata. Sensei Noia told us to pick any kata that we wanted to do and for some reason Heian Nidan was on my mind. I used my new breathing technique and it really made my kata very fast but I need to video tape myself to see if I am going too fast and to make sure that I still have good kime.

Today was the first time that I tried to practice my kata without taking in the extra breath before each move. I was a little hard to concentrate on my breathing at first but it started to come more natural after the first few moves. When doing Heian Godan, I noticed that I was short of breath right around the jump and it really slowed my kata down a great deal.

I did one each of:

• Heian Shodan
• Heian Nidan
• Heian Sandan
• Heian Yondan
• Heian Godan
• Jion – I did the first group of moves up to the first kiai.

I also did three Tekki Shodan. I am starting to correct my mistakes and the kata felt better than it has but I am moving at a slower pace until I get the moves totally correct. I do need a lot more work on my horse stance though.