Sensei Cieplik had us work on some old and new drills today.

Basics…

We did the normal warm up and common kihon drills and then we got in to some new drills.  We stood in a front stance, did a front leg front snap kick followed with a rear leg knee strike and front snap kick.  The reason for this drill is to get the hips to retract correctly between movements.

Sparring drills…

Sensei had us work on some sparring drills next.  The first drill was shift forward with a jab.  Next came two shifts and two jabs.  This was a warm up for the next drill.  Next we did shift forward with jab, then half step with reverse punch and follow up with a rear leg front snap kick.  It took a little time to wrap my brain around this drill but once I got it, it felt fairly smooth.

Bunkai…

Sensei had us work on some kata bunkai next.  We started with Heian Nidan.  Our partner attacked with a hiato, we did the first move of the kata, stepped back into a back stance with the rising/outward block, our partner then threw a front punch with we blocked with the second move of the kata, we then grabbed their punching hand, pulled them in and strike their ribs with the third move from the kata.

Here is one of my favorite applications from Heian Shodan.  We started with move three, the downward block from a front snap kick attack.  Next, the attacker kicks again and we strip the kick and pull them toward us and then land the hammer fist.  Who would have thought that such a simple group of movements could be so effective.

We worked on some kihon bunkai too.  Inward block, elbow strike backfist.  We have worked on this drill before but today, Sensei said to get in behind our attacker and pull their knee back.  For example,  our partner attacks with a front punch, we block with a left hand inward block, we then grab their hand with our right hand, get our left leg behind then in a horse stance and backfist them in the face.  The reason to get behind them with the horse stance is to pull the leg back and make then learn forward as we are doing the backfist.  It’s a bit rough on the knees but effective.

Kata…

We spent the rest of the class working on some kata.  We started with Heian Shodan and did each Heian kata after, then Tekki Shodan, then Jion and Bassai Dai.  We then worked on Kanku Dai but I couldn’t remember more than the first few moves.

* After class, Sensei gave me a tip to sit back when I am in my sparring stance.  This allows me to move from my lower  body instead of my shoulders like I have been doing for so long.  Sitting back in my fighting stance  lowers my center of gravity.

It was an awesome class as always.

Excellent class.  This type of class is one of my favorites and I would be happy doing these more often.

Kata…

For our warm up, Sensei noia had us start with Heian Shodan and work our way up to our own belt level kata.  He had us keep doing our kata until the black belts finished all of their katas too.  I ended up doing a total of 14 or 15 katas.  Even though I was really breathing hard, I still had something left.  I am hoping that this is a sign that my cold is gone.

Anchorman…

Sensei had us get in line behind one of our black belts and go through anchor man drills.  I had a really good time and felt better than even with my sparring for some reason.  For one of the first times, I had a different type of confidence.  Normally I am hesitant about going in and attacking but today was different.  I just need to find out why it was different and how I can stay in that place whenever I spar.

Circle of doom…

This is a neat drill.  Sensei Noia has everyone get in a circle and one person stands in the middle.  He then gives each of the people in the circle a number and then calls it out and that person attacks the person in the center.  It gets really interesting when the people behind the person in the middle has their number called.  If you are in the  middle, you need eyes in the back of your head but you learn pretty fast to pay attention and use all of your senses.

It was a hard class but really good.

For almost two weeks, I have been fighting a cold or flu of some sort.  Because of this, I haven’t been posting much here since I haven’t taken many classes.

Today was my first day back at class in a week and I could only make it half way through before I had to stop.  My lungs were on fire after only a half hour of some warm up kata.  It’s too bad since the class was really good with a lot of good sparring and self defense work.

Kata…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us start with our own kata.  I did Bassai Dai.  We then did Heian Sandan, then Heian Nidan, then Tekki Shodan, then Jion, then Heian Shodan and finally our own kata again.  Between a couple of the kata’s, Sensei had us do either pushups or situps and then sprint across the dojo and back.

I could normally do this without breathing too hard but I just could not catch my breath and had to sit off to the side.  It took me at least 15 minutes to get my breathing back to normal but it settled down and all was good.