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I ended up missing Thursday and Friday classes since I wasn’t feeling like myself.  I think it started on Tuesday when I couldn’t keep my focus and it seems to have stayed with me until today.  I helped out with the other classes on Friday but I didn’t feel up to training.

Sensei Gatch started our class with a warm up of suicides back and forth across the gym.

Time for kata…

Sensei had us start with Jion.  He had us do it slowly on his count.  After that, he had us do the same kata but in under 30 seconds.  Needless to say, it was not pretty.

Sensei Gatch then spent some time trying to find a way to motivate us to do our kata with more passion or heart.  He asked each of us to find something that makes us mad and focus on that while we did our kata.  I am not sure how my kata looked to everyone else but it did feel a little different.  I normally do not focus on being mad but it did feel more powerful than usual.  I am not sure about the form but my moves felt like they ended stronger than usual.

Take the hit…

Sensei had us put on our pads and work on some sparring drills.  Instead of working on the normal drills, he had us work on hitting and getting hit. For the first drill, he had us get a partner and then when he said go, we both shifted in as fast as possible and then hit each other with a reverse punch.  The goal was to hit our partner before we hit them but in the end, both of us got hit.

The next drill was for us to free spar and keep hitting each other without stopping.  In normal point sparring, we hit and then stop when we get our partner or they get us but this time, we were to keep going until Sensei said stop.  The idea was not to make your partner puke but it was to have them and us take many controlled but stonger than normal hits to the body and light hits to the face.  Even Sensei Gatch put on the pads and jumped in with us.  I ended up hitting him maybe three times for the 15 or 20 that he hit me but netier of us stopped after being hit.

I wish that we had more classes like this since I feel that I don’t get hit enough when we do the point sparring drills.  I was able to commit to my attacks and not hesitate like I do when I spar for points.

It was a good class.

I am having a hard time even describing this class.  I was lost in space and even though I could move fairly well, my head was somewhere in the clouds.

It was all downhill from the start…

Sensei Noia has us spend most of the class working on sparring distance drills.  We got a partner and started to work on simple movements like shift in, attack and shift out when our partner gets the right distance away from us.

We have done this drill many times in the past but for some reason, most of the class couldn’t get it.  We were starting too close and even doing simple things like spreading apart, so that we did not run into each other, was hard to do for most of us.

Kata with and without movement…

Kata went better than sparring, at least for me.  Sensei Noia had us do our kata without using our legs meaning we did only the hand movements.  That was kind of neat but we have done that before.

Next, Sensei had us close our eyes and we did the kata in our head without moving our bodies.  Even though we didn’t move, we had to breath as if we were doing our with moves.

The last kata drill was done sitting on the floor.  We were able to the hand movements but with no legs.

I am glad that the kata part of class went better than the sparring drills.

Sensei Brien gave us a little different class.  We normally work on kihon and kata but tonight he had us working on some sparring drills.

It’s all in the angles…

For this drill, we got a partner.  We both stood in a front stance, we then shifted straight in with reverse punch then shifted out, we then shifted in again but shifted out on the left angle, and then we shifted in again and out on the right angle.  Our parter had to counter the first and second attack with a back leg roundhouse kick and then the third attack with a front leg roundhouse kick based on the direction we shifted out on.

We then did the same move but our partner could add a single or double counter attack.

Keep that hand up and use it…

Next, we stood in a ready stance but with our left hand up in front of our face.  Our partner then shifted in and threw a jodan or chudan punch and we had to shift back and block it.  This was a really cool drill and almost any hand attack that our partners threw was easily blocked or at least redirected away.

Sensei Plocharczyk had us working on some different but similar kihon drills.

Kihon, the same but different…

The reason I said the same but different is because we have done these moves many times before but not in this order.

The first drill was right leg front snap kick to front, right leg side thrust kick to right corner, step back with right leg, throw a left hand back fist and right hand reverse punch.  Then wash, rinse and repeat, I mean, we did the same but started with the left leg.

Next, we did right leg front snap kick, right leg side thrust kick to corner, step backward with the right leg into front stance with and inward block, then move toward the left corner into a horse stance with and elbow strike and back fist then step into front stance with a reverse punch.  We alternated between left and right foot in front.

One-step sparring…

For this drill, Sensei Plocharczyk had us get a partner and work on one-step sparring but instead of doing the standard block and counter attacks, he had us other movements.  These could be movements from out kata or kihon moves that we normally do not do when doing one-step.  For example, when my partner would throw a front snap kick, I would shift out to the side and catch his leg with my arm and then lift up, like the move in Bassai Dai, and then sweep his stationary leg.  I didn’t complete the movement on my partner since we didn’t want to hurt each other but that movement in particular works just like it looks.

Do your push ups…

During class, Sensei had us do five sets of 10 push ups between our various drills.  At the end of class, Sensei had us do five more sets of 10 push ups but within a few minutes.  We did one set and then he had us rest for maybe 15 seconds and then we did 10 more until we did a total of 50.

It was a really good class.

This class was intense.

Sensei Noia had us warm up with a jog back and fourth across the gym five times.

It’s all about the band…

Next, Sensei Noia had us get a partner and one of us took an elastic band. Our partner held the band around our hips and we shifted across the gym.  Shifting with the bands around our hips really stresses the calf muscles in a different when shifting without resistance.

Next, one partner took one handle of the elastic band and I took the other.  We stood back to back and my partner had the handle in his left hand and my handle was in my right hand.   One of us would shift in and reverse punch, then our partner would do the same.

Next, my partner put the band through the back of my belt and I then had to double shift forward and throw a jab and reverse punch while he pulled against me.  My calves were screaming at this point and were just short of cramping.

Free sparring…

Next came a few mintues of free sparring.  After not having the band around my waist or hooked to my belt, I was able to shift in and out with more distance and spring than before.  I need to find some way to incorporate this training into my home training.