Sensei Cieplik helped us with balance today.

We started with a drill where we moved with a forward front punch then switched our feet and did another front punch.  For example,  we started in a front stance, we stepped forward and did the front punch, we then stepped back and did the front punch with the other hand.  We also did this drill moving backward.  It sounds simple but doing was not so simple to me.

Balance….

Sensei Cieplik had us work on some balance drills.  He had us stand upright and put our balance on the balls of our feet, then to the middle of our feet and then to heels.  This ties into base, retreat and attack that he and Doc Pusateri has shared with us before.  When you are standing in the middle of your feet, you are in base or ready.  When you are on the heels, you are in retreat.  When you are on the balls of your feet, you are in attack.  Just shifting your weight on to the three areas of your feet can put your body in the proper mode.

Bassai Dai details part 2….

We continued our Bassai Dai training from last week.  Sensei said, hit hard for the first move and he wants to see it.  Sensei once told me to imagine that first move as if I was hitting a cinder block wall with a 10 pound sledge hammer.

Next, he said that we need to pivot on the heels for the second, third, forth and fifth moves.  When we pivot on the heels, it helps bring the hips around and keeps our stance consistant.

One tip that Sensei has also given us before is to slow the kata down.  I know that I often rush through my kata, when under pressure but over the last few months, I have really slowed it down and make sure that I complete each movement.

When doing the crescent kick, retract the leg, much like the position of a front stance and get your balance then drive the hips into the elbow strike.  I was doing this move without the retraction since I started doing this kata and never realized it was wrong until now.  The retraction make the elbow strike much more powerful.

More kata…

Sensei had us also work on some of the Heian katas.  We started with Heian sandan and in the third move from the last, make sure that you get into a full horse stance.  I always did a half horse stance when doing that transitional movement but doing the full stance helps my embusen a great deal.  I was able to start and finish the kata within a foot of where I started it.

In Heian Yondan, Sensei stressed on of the moves that he told me to do a long time ago.  When doing the double hand grab with knee strike he said to hold after the head smach and then turn and look, then switch hands and step down into the back stance.

Another general tip that should apply in all katas and kihon is to make sure that we do an elbow strike with the draw hand when doing knife hand blocks.  Sensei said that a lot of students just place their draw hand instead of using it as an attack.  He also said that the draw hand should be pointed at our opponent and ready to do if needed as a strike.

The theme that Sensei Noia set for this class was “move faster”.

Kihon….

We did a lot of kihon drills with an increasing amount of speed.

• Downward block, move forward and front punch.
• Rising block, move forward and front punch.
• Downward block, horse stance with palm strike.
• Back stance with knife hand block forward and back.
• Back stance with double block, shift into horse stance with kage tsuki, then into back stance the other way with double block and shift into horse stance with keage tsuki.
• Outward block, step into front punch, turn outward block and step into front punch.

Sensei would clap to help us get the speed and rhythm of each combination.  This class really taxed my cardio system like few others since we spent almost an entire hour working on these drills.

Sensei Plocharczyk and Sensei Gatch covered a lot of material in class today.

Anchorman…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us put on our pads right away.  He had us start with anchorman drills.  We had three lines with a black belt at the front of each.  We each attack and when everyone in the line went, the first person that attacked switched places at the head of line and became the anchorman.  I shouldn’t have pushed it as much as I did with my neck but luckily I didn’t take any hard hits to the head.  Having the problem with my neck really made me block much better than before.

Free sparring….

Sensei had us work on more sparring drills during some free sparring matches.  We had one drill where would could only attack with punches and another where we could only sore with roundhouse kicks.

After we did those sparring drills, Sensei had us do a kata.  Doing my kata with all those pads on is no easy task.

Block your head….

The last drill that we worked on was the block your head or get hit drill.  Sensei had us put our back to a wall and a person stood in front of us and threw non-stop punhes to our head and body. No matter how fast you are, you are going to get hit since your partner can throw multiple hand movements at the same time.  This drill helps people deal with getting hit and their blocking techniques.  We didn’t get hit hard but we did get hit.