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Sensei Cieplik worked us hard today.  We spent a good amount of time working from our core.

Turn the body with the core, not the chest…

After our warm up, Sensei had us start in a left foot forward front stance.  From there, we did a rear leg front snap kick, we then blocked with the same leg we kicked with and turned 90 degrees to the left while standing on our stationary leg.  From there, we stepped back into a front stance.

We did the same move as above but added a reverse punch after we stepped back.  We then did the same move again but we brought our right hand to our left knee as we did the block to fully engage the core and to ensure that we weren’t using our shoulders to turn.

Do your kihon the correct way….

Next we spent some time working on our common kihon drills.  We did moving forward and back with the various block and punch combination.  After seeing a few of our movements, Sensei has us move backward into a blocking stance, reach forward with the front hand, put the soon to be blocking are arm under the other arm, then step back with outward block and reverse punch.  Keeping the head back and not leaning forward is an important part of the this movement.

downward, inward and rising block with reverse punch.

I really like Hangetsu….

After we finished up with our basic, we worked on kata.  Sensei had us start with the Black Belt kata, Hangetsu.  He counted out the moves of the kata so whoever wanted to try it was welcome to join in.  With my stiff joints and limited hip mobility, this slow moving kata felt awesome to me.  The tensing of the muscles and long, deep breath really made me feel at home.  I am sure that I have  to learn before I understand this kata but at first glance, I really like it.

After doing Hangestsu twice, we worked on Jion, Bassai Dai, and Heian 5, 4, and 3.

Sensei Cieplik spent a lot of time working on various kihon movements today.  If our kihon improves our kata will improve too.

Strike with the leg….

We finished the normal warm up and moved into knee strike follow with front snap kick.  After that, we did front snap kick with front punch.  Sensei noticed that many people were falling into the front punch instead of putting the kick foot down with control and pushing the front leg forward with the punch.  Because of that, Sensei had us do a double front snap kick followed by triple punch but after the kicks, we put our kicking foot down near our stationary leg and then pushe the front leg out and punched.  I don’t remember ever doing that particular drill before.  I remember single kick with triple punch but not double kicks.

Hips…

For our next drill, Sensei had us get in a light fighting stance.  From there, he had us switch our feet really fast.  The idea was to us the hips to switch the position of the front and back feet.  To explain this better, Sensei had us pull the front leg back really fast and throw a kick with the back leg that became the front leg.  This was extremely hard on the hips.

There is another drill that we worked on that I am having a really hard time explaining here.  We were in a stationary fighting stance, threw a reverse punch and then used the momentum of the hips to step us forward and throw an other reverse punch.   As the first reverse punch flies, the hips swing the back leg forward making us step and then throw the second reverse punch.

Break your kihon into parts….

Even though, I have done this before, the light bulb seems to have come on for me tonight.  When doing our kihon drills, Sensei had us add a move between the move.  For example, when doing a rising block, we stepped forward into a blocking leg stance block, reaching with the front hand as if it is a strike, then moving into the front stance and doing the rising block.  The addition of the move between the moves makes the kihon feel much different, more focused and more kime.  We also did this with downward and inward block.

Lots of kata…

We finished up class working on kata.  I was really spent by the time we started doing the kata and I felt that my kata’s were not my best.  I did a Jion that I hope I never do again and my Bassai Dai I am sure did not look much better.  I even felt like I had two left feet with the Heian kata’s too.

Even if my kata wasn’t what I wanted, it was a great class and I learned a lot, again.

Sensei Noia is getting us back into sparring mode.   He is having us work on our sparring basics since we haven’t done much sparring over the last few months.

Kicks or punches….

Sensei had us work on some different drills that I do not remember doing much in the past.  We started with one partner attacking with only hand movements and the other with only leg movements.  This makes us pay extra attention to distance when doing our attacks.  We also did some free sparring where we could use any attacks we wanted.  I really need to be less robotic when sparring.  I was much better at my exam but for some reason, I am really tight in class again.

Hit those pads….

After the sparring drills, Sensei had us each get a pad and a partner.  For the rest of class, we hit the pads, hard!  We were able to do back fist, knife hand, hammer fist, and punches.  I hope that we hit the pads more often.

Sensei Brien had gave us a serious core workout today.

Kick and turn….

After a good warm up, Sensei had us start working on improving our core.  We started in a horse stance across from a partner.  From there one partner punched and the other blocked.

Next, class got a lot harder.  We did a front snap kick, held our knee up after the kick, then turned 180 degrees and set the kicking foot down behind us.  We then did the same drill but added a another front snap kick after we turned to the other direction.  Then came the same drill but we did a reverse punch after the second kick.  The final drill was front snap kick to the front, turn 270 degrees and do a side thrust kick and set the kicking foot down behind us.

Get a partner for kicks….

Sensei had us get a partner and stand next to them.  Then we put a finger of tho closest hand in our partners hand.  From there we did front snap kick, then a side thrust kick and a back kick.  The reason for standing next to our partner was to help us keep our posture upright.

Next, we worked on some sparring drills.  The idea here was for the defender to keep their front foot on the same spot while the other partner did any attack.  The person with the foot in the same spot could turn and move to the side as long as the foot stayed in the same spot.  We finished up with a good cool down and some partner stretching.

It is great to be back to Thursday class since I had to miss to last weeks class because of the nasty snow storm.  Sensei Cieplik took us back to basic basics.  Just when you think you are doing the most simple movement perfectly, Sensei shows you otherwise.  At least, that is how it turned out for me today.

Start out with kicks…

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on our kicks today.  We did the normal warm up kicks but then we moved into more kicking drills.  We did stationary knee strike with front snap kick.  The key to this is to retract the hips after the knee strike but before the front snap kick.

Get your hips under those heels….

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on some simple drills that we have been doing since the first or second Karate class for most of us.  When we learned to step forward as beginners, we started in a front stance, we were told to step though and bring our feet together and then apart into a front stance.  The problem with that movement is it make us raise up when we bring our feet together.  Instead, Sensei wants us to bring our knees together to protect our groin but keep our feet apart about a foot apart.  This keeps us from raising up and down when moving and still protects the groin.

We also worked on the five parts of a front stance with front punch.  The five parts, are guarded back leg, shin clash, knee sweep, draw hand pull and the punch.

Next, we spent time working on the shin clash and throwing our front leg forward.  The idea is to throw that front leg forward, forcing the knee up and keeping our hips under our heels.  This keeps your tailbone tucked under and forward.  If the hips are pointing down, you cannot get your hips under your heels.

We also work on front kick with front punch.  This time, Sensei had us break the movement into parts.  We did the front snap kick and then set our foot down in a blocking leg stance, then we push the front leg forward and punched.  Sensei had us also pay extra attention to the draw hand instead of the punching hand.

Sensei said that if we practice these basic movements, he guarantees that our kata would improve.  He also said that great basics make great kata.

Get a partner….

For the next drill, we got a partner.  Our partner stood in a front stance, we stepped in did a skin clash with our foot on the outside of theirs and then we moved our knee to the outside and knee swept our partner.  The shin class almost looks like a sweeping movement at the start.  It’s a powerful movement but it can be rough on your partners knees.

Kata…

We finished up working on kata.  We did Heian 1 through Heian 5 and then Kanku Dai, Bassai Dai and Jion.  I was really disappointed in my Jion.  I guess the great basics part is something that I really need to work to improve my kata.

It was a great class but walking afterward was not easy.