Classes were hard!

We started the first class with kata for a warmup.  We  did all of the Heian kata and we did our own kata twice so I did Tekki Shodan.

We spent a lot of time working on sparring drills.  We did anchor man drills which gave everyone a chance to score against each other.

The second class got interesting, we did a lot of sparring drills again but then we worked on throws.  We threw a roundhouse kick at our partner then they would grab out leg, pull it around and take us down.  We ended up doing about five different take downs.  Even though it was a good workout, it was painful hitting the floor so many times.

I spent about 30 minutes warming up before class. I did my usual stretches and it did seem to help my kicks.

Class started with the normal warm up kicks. After that, we did our basics but instead of doing them in the normal five moves with the left leg forward and then five moves with the right leg forward we did left leg rising block, step back and then right leg rising block. It was the same moves but different because I had to think to keep my feet in the place.

We did something new, we did a rear leg front snap kick, then put it back behind, and then a front leg front snap kick followed by a rear leg front snap kick. The moves felt really powerful with throwing the front leg kick and then steping forward with the rear leg kick. We also did the same type of move but with a roundhouse kick.

From horse stance we did, side thrust kick, then like a side snap kick but pointing the knee to the front and then normal side snap kick. Pointing the knee to the front felt much different.

We also did some close stance moves. We started with a front snap kick but we had to keep both feet withing the width of a floor tile when landing.

The class was great but I was so sore. My right hip felt like it was hit with a hammer. I could not fall asleep until finally, something felt like it popped and all the pain went away.

I did a quick workout.  My hips were sore from stretching for a long time before class yesterday and from all the kicks that we did in class.

Side leg raises – 15
Slow side thrust kicks – 15
Bent side leg raise – 15

The bent side leg raise was suggestion from my Sensei.  He told me get into the start of a roundhouse kick and raise my leg up and down.