I was disappointed that I had to miss class last week but today’s class made up for it. Since exams are over, there is a little less kihon and more hitting of pads and people.
Kata as a warm up
Sensei Noia has us start class with the Kyu rank katas as a warm up every so often. Today was Heian 1 through Heian 5 along with Tekki Shodan. After completing all six katas, he had us do all the katas in mirror image.
I find a lot of value doing the katas in mirror image. I feel that it helps develop the other side of the body and I think we should, as Karate students, do it more often to make our training more complete. Most of the moves flow well when doing them in mirror image but the toughest for me is doing the crescent kick with the left leg instead of the right leg. We don’t do crescent kicks with the left leg too often and I noticed a big, not positive, difference in mobility and power doing the kick with my left leg.
Hit stuff hard
After the warm up, we found a partner and had them hold some foam pads for some striking drills.  Sensei had us start with closed hand drills which consisted of punches, hammer fists and back fists. We followed those with open hand drills using knife hand, ridge hand and back hand strikes. After that came elbow strikes to the front using the strike with our arm parallel to the ground along with strikes from our draw hand elbow. Next came basic knee strikes with us grabbing the shoulder of our partner and pulling them down while striking them with our knee.
We haven’t hid the pads for a while and it felt good to get some stress from the work day out on the pads.
More kata
To finish up class, Sensei had us pick a kata of our choice. After doing the kata, we went back to out partner an took one or a small group of techniques from the kata and used them against our partner who was attacking with the attack of our choice. I always enjoy working on kata application with a partner because it adds another dimension to my training. We did one more kata of our choice and bowed out.
Class summary:
- Kata warm up, both normal and mirror image
- Hit the pads with closed and open hands, elbows and knees
- More kata with application of one or a small group of techniques