I enjoyed this class a great deal.

I have always felt that my kihon could inprove and I really like when spend time working on fundamentals.  Sensei Noia has us start with downward block and reverse punch.  For the first 10 moves, he had us go slowly and told us to pay attention to our stances and hip rotation.  Hip rotation is not my strong point but doing the moves this way really made me focus more than usual.  After completing those 10 moves, we did full speed and power for six more moves.  After the sixth move, Sensei had us hold our stance for a 10 count and then step forward and hold for 10 more seconds with the other leg.  We did the same sequence of moves but substituted outward block, inward block and rising block each time.  I really like doing this an hope to do something similar on the days that I do not have class.

After the kihon, Sensei split us up into groups by rank for kata.  Sensei Gatch ended up with my wife and I and we worked on Jion for the rest of the class.  Sensei Gatch gave me some good things to work on.  First, I need to work on the back stance double block movement.  He wants me to start in a back stance, moving forward into another back stance and do the double block.  After a few times, he wants me to do the same thing but moving backwards.   Next, he wants me to work on the transition from the double block to the horse stance.  I need to focus on my shift from the back stance so he had my hold my hand on the same side as my back leg, pickup the front foot and shift.  It  certainly sounds easier than it is to me.  Next, he wants me to work on the three palm strikes because my legs are finishing after the hand movements.  It is a timing issue and I need to just practice them more.  Also, when doing the double outward blocks, I need to make the movements more circular instead of forward.  I am pushing my fists out in front instead of blocking to the sides.  I have a lot of work ahead of me.

Now for the incredible sight part.  I stuck around to watch the advanced class for while.  This was one of the most interesting classes that I have seen yet and I really wish I would have taken it.  Sensei Noia had everyone do all the katas up to their own belt rank and then down again.  I know that it doesn’t sound incredible but what I saw was incredible to me.  Sensei Plocharczyk did all eight of the kyu kata and at least four or five black belt katas and back down again.  From his first punch in Heian Shodan on the first kata to his last punch after 20 plus katas, I would not want to be hit by it.  His timing might have slowed a little and his form was a little relaxed after doing so many katas but I am certain that his strikes and kicks would still have done damage.  It was one of the most impressive displays of Karate that I have ever seen and hope that one day, I will be able to do something similar.

It has been some time since we worked on one-step sparring and I was glad that Sensei Plocharczyk choose that for our class today.

We started class with a horse stance and punches and kicks while hold it.  He had each person count to 10 and we did punches and blocks until we went through the entire class of people.  There had to be at least 25 people in class so we ended up holding that stance for a long time.

Next, we paired up and  spent a good amount of time doing just one-step.  For the first attack, jodan, Sensei had us do a back stance, knife hand block with roundhouse kick and reverse punch counter attack.  For the second attack, chudan, we did a pivot on the back leg with an inward block with reverse punch.  Blocking the front snap kick, we did downward block with reverse punch counter.  For the side thrust kick, we did a back leg pivot with a low block and then followed it up with the reverse punch.  It was different than the normal one-step drills that I am used to but it felt easy for some reason.  I used to have a hard time shifting out of the way but today, I didn’t have any problems with timing or distance.  I hope it stays that way.

We then spent the rest of the class working on kata.  Sensei had us break up into to groups by rank.  He then assigned a Sensei to each group and had us do kata.  After the kata, that Sensei would give us something to work on.  After each kata, a different Sensei would watch us and give us something to work on.  After my first kata, I was told to watch my right arm draw hand since it was a little loose.  The next Sensei said to watch how my toes are pointing when doing the back stance with double block.  The next two Sensei’s said that my kata was good but I think they were just being kind.

It was a really good class.

We spent the entire class working on sparring drills.

Sensei Noia had us pair up and work on different techniques than we normally work on.  We started out trading kicks and punches where one partner would shift in and attack while the other would stay stationary.  The idea was to make sure that our moves were accurate before moving on to the more technical work.

We then worked on some combination moves but after each attack, we would shift to the side and attack a new partner while they tried to evade.  This was was preparing us for what came next.

We did the same type of drill but this time, we had to score two points on our partner before we could move to the next partner.  This meant attacks to the back of the head or back of the body.  This was an incredibly hard drill and because I was on the end, I never got to see a new partner.

It was a good class but it also tells me that I need to do a lot more work on my sparring.