Sensei Noia had us work on some focus mitt drills today.

Focus on the pad and don’t hit your partner…

We started with a focus mitt on each hand.  The drill was for us to put one pad in a punching position and the other pad in a kicking position.  For example, the first attack was a reverse punch to the stomach area and the second was a roundhouse kick to anywhere from low, side stomach to high to the side of the head.  As we did this drill, we needed to get progressively faster when moving from attack to the other.  After a while, we mixed up the movements from punches to double punches and kicks or double kicks.

Side by side hook kick…

This drill was different than any hook kick drill we have done before.  We stood facing forward, shoulder to shoulder next to our partner.  From this position, one of us threw a hook kick to our partners stomach.  I would have never thought that this drill was possible since I don’t recall ever seeing it before.  It seems that it would work well in close quarters self defense.

Sensei Brien had us spend the entire class working on kata but in a different way than we have before.

Make your kata perfect…

Sensei had us start wit Heian Shodan.  Each time he had us do the kata, he had us fix certain mistakes that he saw some of us make.  For example, the second time through he had us  make sure that we were turning on our heels.  The next time, he made sure that we were protecting our groin when moving.  We ended up Heian Shodan at least six times.

Next, we worked on Hiean Yondan with similar corrections as above.

For the final minutes of the class, Sensei had us work on our own kata but he wanted us to do it very, very slow and make each move perfect.  He wanted us to make our stances correct and lock our muscles on each move.  I have often done Bassai Dai very slowly in the past but I slowed it down even more.  It must have taken near five minutes to complete each kata at that pace.

Sensei Plocharczyk had us work on some kicking drills today.

Kick that pad…

We partnered up and one of us held the pad while the other kicked.  We started with front snap kick.  We started with some light kicks for the first set of 10, a little more power on the second set of 10 and the last 10 were full power.  We then worked on some roundhouse kicks.  Between groups of kihon, Sensei had us run to opposite sides of the dojo and do a kata.

Make those muscles grow…

Partner push ups.  Sensei had us do push ups while our partner pushed down on our upper but Sensei Gatch thought I needed some extra resistance and put one of the 70 pound kids on my back while I did my push ups.  After that, Sensei had us hold our push up half way and he was kind enough to come and sit on my back.