If there is one thing that I can say about every class that I have had with Sensei Cieplik, it is that I learn something in each and every class.  I can do a movement that I have done 1000’s of times and he will share one little tip that makes it all clear.  It is as if I had a pair of dirty glasses on and he comes along and cleans the lens so I can see.  Today’s class was certainly no different and I walked away with something that I never understood until now.

Tuck your tailbone under….

For the longest time, I have been told to tuck my tailbone under or push my belt forward in order to move from my hips.  This is something that I have been told from the first couple of Karate classes that I took over five years ago.  The problem is that I could never tuck my tailbone under.  If I tried to do that, I ended up arching my back.  The thing that I never understood is that when the tailbone is not tucked, my hips point toward the floor not forward.  If my stance is taller, I can sit on my legs instead of fighting my balance and leaning forward.

Here is where the breakthrough came.  Sensei Cieplik said that if you have to, make your stance shorter and taller, as short and as tall as you need to tuck your tailbone under.  For all this time, I have been trying to tuck my tailbone under when in a low, long stance and it was impossible for me.  But, making my stance taller and shorter allowed me to tuck the tailbone, move from the hips and kick, punch and block with almost an effortless feelings but with what I felt was perfect timing.  When I would try to tuck my tailbone and move forward with a front punch, my feet and hands never had the correct timing but when I was able to tuck my tailbone, my lower body did the work and my hands moved automatically.

So, how does this help me do this when in a lower stance, you are wondering.  Sensei said to work on getting the body to move and function that way it should then work on making the stances lower and longer.  Since I never did movements in a short, tall stance, I never felt what it was like to do the movement correctly.  Sometimes, the harder the problem, the easier the solution is and that is true for me today.

Sensei Cieplik’s kata…

We all started with Heian Shodan and did it three times.  We then did H2, H3 twice, H4, H5 and Tekki Shodan.  We also did the Jion up to the first kiai.

After that, Sensei had everyone but the black belts go off to the side and he worked on Kanku dai with them.  He had them do the kata with their feet in line.

Next, Sensei had the black belts go off to the side he had us do Heian Shodan with him.  This is his way of doing Heian Shodan where, after every move, we squat down and touch the floor while trying to keep our back straight.  This was really intense and something that I am going to work on outside of class with my kata.

Some extra tips from Sensei:

If your stance is narrower, your hips will normally be more forward.  If you stance is too wide, chances are your hips will point down.

If you are in a narrow stance, gaze to the side but turn the hips and head forward while keeping your gaze to the side and your balance and stability will be very solid.

I really think Sensei Noia has a playbook on how to make our Karate really good.  Today’s class was another one of those that make you wonder how hard can you train before you fall down.

Anchorman…

We started class with anchorman again.  Today, we spent more time, close to 20+ minutes working on our anchorman drills.  I am no super kumite fighter but I do feel more at home even against the young guys now.  I got hit my fair share of times but I also gave it back too.

Kihon for testing….

Sensei Noia had us get a partner that would make us work hard.  I partnered up with my friend Ted, who always works really hard.  We started with simple drills moving forward across the dojo.  We did moving forward with front punch, triple punch, front snap kick with front punch, rising block, downward block, inward block and outward block.

Next, Sensei had us work on some odd combination’s.  Moving forward with inward block, outward block, downward block and reverse punch.  We also did outward block, jab, reverse punch and front punch.  We also worked on moving forward with knife hand block along with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand strike.

Your partner makes you better….

For the next drill, Sensei had us move forward in a front stance.  After each move, our partner would push or pull on various areas of our body, like the hips, shoulders or knees for example and make sure that we were holding ground in our stance.  This is one of my favorite drills but also one of the hardest.

Next, we did the same drill but we were able to add blocks or strikes strikes while our partner pushed or pulled on us like above.

Short time for kata….

Sensei Noia had us spread out and he had us do four kata’s in five minutes.  We could pick any four kata’s and I did Bassai Dai, Jion, Heian Nidan and Heian Yondan.

It was an awesome class but my lower body is wrecked.  I am more sore today than I have been in a while.  I keep saying that this or that class is the hardest ever but Sensei Noia keeps doing them one better.

Sensei Cieplik was very profound tonight.  He said that the key to Karate is basics (kihon).  This comment was very simple but very hard to grasp.

Working on the fundamentals…

Sensei has us work on our kihon fundamentals, specifically our kicks, punches and stances.  This was a very enlightening class, at least for me.  I didn’t realize how many details I haven’t thought about for some while and how I have stopped doing them.

Sensei had us work on our front kicks but with a twist.  He had us stand in a front stance and curl our toes on our back leg up toward the ceiling.  From that position, he had us throw a front snap kick.  This keeps us from peeling our feet off the flow when kicking.

We need to move from the hips not from the shoulders or chest.  We started in a cat stance with our right leg in front.  From there, we reached to the front with our left hand, then stepped back with our right leg into a front stance and threw a reverse punch.  We then moved our right leg back into a cat stance again and repeated the drills.  Again, the key to this movement was for us to move with our legs and not our hips.  We did this movement stationary, then stepped forward and did a blocking movement.

Another good bit of advice was for us to do the blocks with more hand motion and less arm motion.  Instead of reaching way out to the side with our hand for say, an inward block, move the hand in a smaller, more linear path.

Sensei also said that we should place our draw hand on our hipbone.  He said that many people put their wrist on their on their hipbone where as, the hand needs to be on the hipbone.  He said to pull the draw hand back about two inches father than the wrist and it should be in the correct position.  Also, when we punch, our draw hand elbow should be pointing down not out to the side.  If the elbow is pointing down, we can pull our shoulder back and elbow down farther on our draw hand.

Another stance drill that we worked on was, start in a left foot forward front stance, move into a right foot forward cat stance, then turn the left foot out to the side about 45 degrees and stance in a blocking cat stance.  From there, put the right leg behind, into a front stance, and turn the foot back in.  The key to this drill is to turn on the heel not the ball of the foot and keep the weight loaded on the front leg.

The next drill was very similar but Sensei added back stance.  We did the same as above but after the blocking stance with the left foot at 45 degrees, we turned our left foot 90 degrees out to side, same as a back stance and then pushed our front leg out farther.  The idea of this drill was to move the front leg back and turn the support leg at the same time.

Another back stance drill was to start in a shorter back stance and from there, wiggle our foot from side to side out in front as far as we could go while keeping the back leg loaded, then point our toes up and pull our heel back in without using our shoulders.

Another point that Sensei made was if we turn on the ball of our foot when moving in a back stance, it will make the toes of the back leg turn in about five or 10 degrees.  This will allow us to throw a kick easier than if our back foot was at 90 degrees out.

Weak in the knees….

Sensei gave us a little drill to help make our knees stronger.  From seiza, you raise up on your knee about five inches while keeping your upper body totally upright.

Kata…

We started with Heian Shodan.  Sensei asked us to apply what we worked on in the kihon drills to our kata.  When those things are fresh in my mind, it always make my kata feel much better.

We then did Heian Sandan.  For the last two moves of the kata, Sensei said to make sure that our fist is not turned over.  If our fist is turned over or up, it engages the bicep and doesn’t allow for the full range of motion.

We also did Jion and Bassai Dai.  Sensei asked what Jion meant and the answer was temple sound.  One point that Sensei made about kata really stuck in my mind.  He said do your kata as if your opponent is within arms length.  I often do my kata imagining my opponent father away and I am looking forward to spending some time working with this idea.

So much great stuff packed into one class!  I am sure there is more that I missed but there is a good amount here to work on.