Sensei Cieplik had us work on many of our usual kihon movements for the first half of the class and then we moved into kata.

Everybody was one-step sparring….

Sensei had us get a partner and do one-step sparring.  We worked on the normal six attacks.  Front punch to jodan and chudan, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.  I am glad that we worked on one-step since I never feel that I do it enough.  I like to think of my one-step as one punch – one kill.  I know that sounds extreme but if I ever had to use the skills that I am learning in Karate, I would not bounch around trying to spar a mugger, I would want my counter attack or even my block to stop the attacker in their tracks.

A lot of kata…..

We started with the Heian katas.  We worked on Heian Shodan to warm up, then we did Heian Nidan twice, followed by Heian Sandan twice, Heian Yondan twice, Heian Godan twice and then Jion three times.  Next, we worked on Bassai Dai.  We did Bassai Dai at least 10 times and the point that Sensei was trying to get us to understand was that if we were tired, we would relax when doing the kata and perform it the correct way.

After about the sixth kata, I thought I was going to fall down but some how, I was able to dig deeper and finish every kata that Sensei asked us to do with the most power and speed that I had.  It felt good!

Sensei DiPasquale gave us a class full of test preparation.

A lot of Kihon….

Sensei often starts us out with simple basic movements and works up from there.  We started with some slow motion stationary front punches to make sure that we engage our core.  Next came moving forward and back with front punch.  After that came combination’s and a drill that I don’t remember doing before.  Sensei had us do a stationary reverse punch, then we switched feet and did another reverse punch.  It was very similar to the double reverse punch that I have worked on in my other classes.

Sparring drills….

Next came sparring drills.  We started out with very simple drills again.  One partner moved in and jabbed to the face twice very slow and on the third jab full speed and power.  Next, we did the same drill but all three attacks were full spend and full power but on one of the attacks, our partner could block and counter with a reverse punch.  After that, we did the same drill but used reverse punch instead.  We followed that with either attack but we switched partners.

For the next drill, Sensei had us work on covering a lot of ground when attacking our partner.  We could throw any two hand attacks but we had to at least score with one on our partner.  I found that doing this drill doing a shift and full step allowed me to cover enough ground to score.  For example, I would shift in and throw a jab and then step forward and jab with the opposite hand.  Even though my partner was much faster, shifting back twice covered much less ground than a shift and a full step.

Finish up with kata….

Sensei had us finish up with some kata.  We did the Heian katas and then we worked on Bassai Dai.  Sensei had us work on parts of Bassai Dai up to the groin strike.  We ended up doing that section of the kata over and over at least five times because of me.  I was not doing the strike in the center and after I fixed that, it was not low enough.  I finally got it right and we moved on to the rest of the kata.

We covered a lot of good material in this class.

Sensei Noia had us spend the entire class working on our kihon and Japanese.

Sensei says….

Sensei had us do our kihon in Japanese.  He would say a move in Japanese and we would do it, hopefully getting the move correct without having to look at others around us.  Sensei called off the moves at a really fast pace.  For example, moving forward in zenkutsu dachi (front stance) with age uke (rising block) and gyaku zuki (reverse punch) into kokutsu dachi  (back stance) with morote uke (assited block) and then from there, the moves kept going for at least half the class.  We must have done at 75 moves if not more.

Next came Japanese questions.  We all gathered around Sensei and he would point at one of us and say a movement in Japanese and we would do it.  Sensei was saying some terms that I never heard of and I am going to have to add those to www.shotokanmaster.com when I have a chance.

We finished up with some kata.