I really enjoy class with Sensei Cieplik and always leave his class with something more than I came in with when I entered the dojo.  My only problem is that he shares so much with his students, it is almost impossible to remember everything that he covers even right after class.  I often wish that I could bring in a video camera or at least have a better memory.

Karate as a unit…

We spent a good amount of time working on our kihon drills and everyone was in the groove today.  There is one drill that Sensei has us do where we get into a left foot forward front stance and put our reverse hand out.  From that point, we do a front snap kick with our back leg, switch our hands, put our kicking leg back down behind us and do a reverse punch.

Over all, the movement itself is not hard after you do it a few thousand times but the main thing that Sensei looks for is how we the class does it as a unit.  There is a different feeling when the entire class of 40+ students does the same moves with the exact same timing and rhythm.  It’s not often that you see that many people of all different shapes, sizes and age, do something as a perfectly timed unit.

Because of this Karate-ka synchronization, Sensei had us move on to more advanced movements without a lot of kihon drills.  Sensei feels that if they group is doing good, don’t take any chances and move on.

Step into the punch…

Sensei had us work on some kata bunkai for Heian Yondan. We worked on the move just before the kiai with the rising block and knife hand but used a downward type block to our partners chudan punch.  In order for this movement to work the way Sensei wanted us to do was for us to step into our attackers punch.  Timing has to be good and the knife hand needs to strike in an upward motion right under the side of the jaw bone.  We did need to use caution when working on this drill since any power behind behind the knife hand would have hurt our partner.

Another excellent class.