Over the years, I always have my best classes when we work on kata and kihon.  It’s in those classes that I really find my Karate.  There is something about doing a kata and knowing that each  move you are doing would stop someone in their tracks.  Today, Sensei Noia had us do enough kata to make it one of those excellent days.

Partner up to warm up….

We stood across from our partner with both of us in a horse stance.  From there, one partner punched to the face and other other to the stomach.  After that we switched targets.  From there, we moved into a front stance and did inward block, outward block and downward block with our partner.

From there, we ditched our partners and moved on to some basics.  From front stance, we moved our back foot forward into a cross leg stance with reverse punch then back.  After those, we did back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and move into front stance with spear hand strike.  The foot shuffle and switching motions really allow you to train in small space and still get good results.

Doing kata is good….

Wwe spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We started with parts of Bassai Dai.  We did the first move a few times, then the first, second and third and so on.  After working on various parts we did the entire kata to put everything back together.

I have found that breaking the kata into chunks or parts really helps me improve sticking points, in my kata faster, than if I work the entire kata from start to end.

We moved to Jion next and then the Shodan and Kyu ranks split up.

We then worked on Kanku Dai the same way we did Bassai Dai.  Parts at first then the entire kata after working on the parts.

We ended class with three different katas of our choice.  My choice today was Empi, Sochin and Hangetsu. Doing kata is good!

This week, hip extension during front snap kicks was our goal and Sensei Cieplik made sure we worked at it.

After the normal warm up we did knee strike, front snap kick, knee strike and front snap kick while keeping balance.  The idea here is to extend and retract the hip of the striking leg.

Next, we did front leg front snap kick followed by rear leg front snap kick.  We followed that with front leg front snap kick and rear leg angled back kick to the side.

The next drill was similar to the Unsu drill that we have done in the past.  We started in a front stance with a right leg front snap kick, after the kick, while holding our balance, we turned 45 degrees to the right or outside.  Normally when we do this drill we turn to the left or the inside.

For the next kicking drill, we did a ¾ back kick, a back kick that doesn’t extend all the way, and then we used the momentum of the back kick to turn the body to front to allow us to throw a roundhouse kick.

Next, the Shodan’s and above lined up on one side of the dojo and Sensei had a Kyu rank choose one of us for partner drills.  The first drill was having our partner pick up there knee as close to their chest as possible and then do short kicks moving just the lower leg and hitting our stomach.  The key was to keep the hip extended and have no knee movement while doing the short kicks.  To improve at this drill, Sensei suggested sitting on the floor and pulling your knee into your chest while watching TV or even when just sitting around.

The second drill was one partner standing in a horse stance while the other partner is in a front stance.  From there, the other partner steps in with a front snap kick and then steps down in between the partners legs who is standing in a horse stance.  The idea here is to kick, retract the hip, get your balance and then still drive forward when stepping in.

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We did Heian Shodan all the way to Heian Godan and then Tekki Shodan.  After that, we worked on the first moves of Jion and Bassai Dai.  I lost count of how many times we did the first move of Bassai Dai but it was many.

Today, Sensei Noia had us work on our kicks and some sparring drills.

We started class by jogging to the quarter line and back, then to middle, three quarter and full court and back four times.

We then found a partner and while standing across from them we did front snap kick then our choice of roundhouse kick or spinning back kick.  For the next drill we had a choice of hook kick to the head or spinning back kick to the body.

One partner grabbed a foam pad and we worked on reverse punch with shuffle up roundhouse kick combinations. The attacking partner shiffed in while the other partner moved back for each encounter.

For the next drill, one partner held the pad and chose a target for the attacking partner by placing the pad on their stomach, for reverse punch, or side for roundhouse kick.  The key was to move the pad fast so that the attacking side could work on thier reaction speed. We did the same drill but this time we were shifting back and forth, trying to keep the correct distance.

We finished with timed roundhouse kicks.  With a partner holding the pad, we did shuffle up front leg roundhouse kick for sets of 30 seconds, 30 seconds, 15 seconds and 15 seconds of constant kicking with each leg.