As we were starting class and sitting in seiza, Sensei Cieplik gave told us of an exercise where, while in seize, you raise straight up from the knees.  This is good for strengthening the knees, especially if they are are sore from hard training.

Sensei Cieplik often comments on how many of us are too tight and we need to relax when we do our Karate training.  I couldn’t agree more and often feel that if I could just let go, my Karate and other things outside of Karate would improve.  I always try to relax during class and only focus on the task at hand but even doing my movements can stress me out.  Tonight was a little different because I was able to let things go a little better for at least a few of the movements that we did.

Sensei brought up an interesting story about how a young female kata competitor asked how to be better at kata.  Sensei told her that she needs to imagine that coming from her shoulders, her arms are ropes and her hands are rocks attached to the end of the ropes. She needs to swing her shoulders and not have any tension in her arms.  Once she gets the feeling, she needs to do the same thing when doing her kata and let her hands whip out like someone snapping a towel at a friend in a locker room.  She walked away, walked away thinking, ya right, that’s the key.  After some time, the world champion Italian Karate team was in and met with some of our instructors and members of our club and she asked them, how do I get better at kata? and they answered, swing your arms as if they are ropes with rocks attached to the end.  Sensei was able to explain it in fewer words then I could type but the idea is the same.  If you release the tension on your arms and let the power come from the ground up, through our feet, legs and hips, your arms will do what they need to do.  Use the hips to swing the arms, not the arm muscles.

Sensei made a point to talk about when we move forward and backward, we need to cover our groin.  This is one of the key things that he often stresses in our classes.  He had us do many of our combinations paying all attention to covering our groin and not to worry about the upper body.  For me, I felt that focusing on that part of the movement gives me more hip rotation.  I am not sure that is the case but it feels that way to me.

We did some of our normal movements but there was a new one that really worked the brain.  We did a front leg, front kick come down with a reverse punch.  This was hard to get a handle on since we are used to front kicks with front punches.

Another exercise that Sensei demonstrated was kneeling down on a pad with one knee and pulling that knee with the other leg.  This exercise it to help punch with the body and make the hips work correctly.

Sensei had us finish class with a lot of kata.  I really like doing kata with him and watching him do the moves is very impressive.  You can just see the power emanating from his body when he does the movements.  We worked on Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  I tried my best to focus more on using my legs and hips and less on my arms and upper body.  When I do things like this, I realize how much more I have to learn and how little I know.  I know that I will get there and I am satisfied that every class I take brings me a step closer.

What great classes. I know that I say that lot since almost all of the classes that I take are great but some days are greater.

First class:

We started class with a good warm up and then Sensei Noia called everyone over to go over exam results for the past weekend. My son tested on Sunday night and he was a 4th kyu with two black stripes. For those of you that are not familiar with my club, the kids work on a stripe system. The younger kids need six read stripes to move up to the next rank and the older kids, like my son, need four black stripes to move up. My son really pushed himself at the test on Sunday and I feel that his spirit was better than ever before. His examiners agreed and he ended up receiving three black stripes which moved him up to 3rd kyu, brown belt with one black stripe. I am extremely proud of him and hope that he continues to progress like he has over his past few tests. On a funny note, he is now a higher rank than my wife and I since he has one stripe on his belt and the adults move up half rank or full. He is excited to be able to line up ahead of us again.

After that came the hard work. Sensei Noia had doing kihon for most of the class. We did all of the movements for our examinations. Combination blocks and punches moving forward and backward, back stance, knife hand block, front snap kick with spear hand, inward block, into horse stance, elbow strike and backfist were just a few of the movements that we did. We also worked on our kicks, moving forward double front snap kick, roundhouse kick and combinations such as front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse kick and finish up with a reverse punch. That movement used to be so hard for me, it still is but less hard than before.

We finished up class with some kata. We did Heian Shodan and then moved into our own belt kata. Sensei Noia had us do Heian Shodan very slowly and then we did a full out kata of our own. I did Jion and felt strong up to the first kiai but did feel to well on last third of the kata, it wasn’t awful but it didn’t feel like my best either.

Second class:

I wasn’t going to take second class but my son had missed a class while he was out sick the week before so he wanted to take it. Since the last class is reserved for brown and above, he was now able to take it and he wanted to take advantage of his new rank. I was sitting on the side watching him and Sensei Noia split the class up into two lines. I noticed that they were on person short of 20 so I asked Sensei if he wanted me to help and even out the group. Sometimes, I always love to extra Karate whenever I can but I didn’t know what was coming when I offered to step in. Sensei Noia had us get into a low front stance, had our partner sit in the floor, hold are back foot in place with their leg and put their finger on our knee to keep us in the right stance. While were were holding this stance, he had us do three sets of ten block and punch combinations paying extra attention to our hip rotation. It was very hard. Holding that stance for that amount of time took more mental focus than physical but either way, it was tough. Next, we did the same thing with a different block and then again for a total of 180 combinations while holding a low front stance. This took close to 35 minutes to complete and my legs were screaming.

After that, we finished up class with some conditioning exercises. I couldn’t do all of the pushups because my ribs were still sore but I ended up doing over 20.

We then did some v-situps and Sensei called us all over to talk to us. He made some very good points and said that we should not hurry to get to black belt. We should spend as much time as we need, train hard and work toward that goal but don’t get caught up in moving up in ranks just to move up. I have been content in moving up a full rank each time I have tested since I taking taking Karate almost four years ago but once I made it to 3rd kyu, about six months ago, I am starting to realize that I really like to train. Even if I stay 3rd kyu for some time, I don’t see that as a bad thing any more. I enjoy Karate itself, training and assisting with class so no matter what rank I am, I am doing all the things that I set out to do and getting my black belt is still a goal but not the end all be all any more.

Good class.

We spent most of the class working on kihon and a lot of it.  We went through all of the moves that are required for our test.

One thing that I realyl enjoy is that Sensei Noia has us start with the most simple movements.  I feel that this is extremely important since the simple combinations are fundamental movements that need to be practiced no matter what rank you achieve.  I have always felt that I never spent enough time working on the combinations over the last few years and intend on adding them to my training outside the Dojo going forward.  If I had spent more time working on the kicking combinations, my kicks might be than they are today.

We did moving forward and backward, rising block, downward block and inward block with reverse punch.  We then did one of my favorite movements, outward block with jab and reverse punch.  I really like the feel of that movement since it makes my hips work like they should.  We also did inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and reverse punch.  I need some work on that movement but it has improved.   Next came back stance with knife hand block, then we added the nukite and then we added the front snap kick both forward and backward.  The movement with the front snap kick added has always been hard for me but I am starting to finally get the hang of it.

We then worked on our kicks.  We did double front snap kick, then double roundhouse kick, then front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick combinations.  After that came front snap kick to the front with a side thrust kick to the front.  Next came side thrust kick to the front and roundhouse to the front and then the same move but in reverse order.

We finished up class with some kata.  I did Jion first and both Sensei Noia and Sensei Plocharczyk said that I did the best front punch that they have ever seen me do at the point of the first kiai in Jion.  I will remember that compliment for some time.  Next, Sensei Noia had me do Tekki Shodan and another Jion since we might be asked for an additional kata at our exam.  Sensei Gatch said that my Tekki Shodan was really good so overall, the day turned out great.