Tuesday Karate class – 11/27/07 – Kihon, Kata and exercise is the best medicine.

I got to class not feeling too well but as soon as we got moving, I felt much better.  It amazes me that the body can feel so bad but then completely turn around and feel great with just a little movement and sweat.  I don’t think I was really sick with a cold or flu but my mind just felt off, yet my Karate felt on after only a few moments.

We spent a lot of time doing kihon for our upcoming exams but it was geared toward the more advanced moves again.

Lots of kicking drills.  Side thrust kick with roundhouse and reverse punch.  Then roundhouse kick with side thrust kick and reverse punch.  Then double front snap kick and double roundhouse kicks.  After that came front snap kick with front leg followed with rear leg front snap kick.  We also did roundhouse kicks the same way but I wasn’t too good at doing the front leg roundhouse.

We also did back stance, knife hand block, front snap kick with nukite and after that came front stance, outward block into horse stance with elbow strike and backfist.

We finished up doing kata.  We did, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan and Jion.  For the first time, I was able to do Jion with some confidence and without making a mistake.

Saturday Karate class – 11/24/07 – Kicks and some sparring drills.

Today was an interesting class.  We had a couple of visiting Sensei’s.  Sensei Wail and Sensei Patel came to torture, I mean train us with Sensei Noia and Sensei Gatch.

I really enjoy class when we do kicking drills and we spent about about half the class doing them so I enjoyed it a lot.  We started by holding on to the wall and doing side thrust kicks.  The part that made this drill really hard was because Sensei Noia made us hold a pad on our leg when it was extended.  Oddly, I didn’t have as hard of a time as usual so I am hoping that there is some improvement in my hips.

After that came more kicking drills such as roundhouse and side thrust kick over the pads standing on the floor and another move where we balance the pad on our knee before throwing a side thrust kick.

We then put on the pads and worked on some sparring.  Sensei Noia had us work stand in two lines facing each other.  He then had three people stand to the side while he gave the rest a number between one and three.  The three people had to go between the two lines of people and who had the number of the person given to them by Sensei Noia and they attacked them as they passed.  For example, if I had number two, I would attack the second person.

Good class overall but I really like the kicking drills the most.