We started out with a good warm up and then moved right into our kihon.
Small space drills…..
I like to call the following drills, small space drills because you can do a lot of work in a small area. I am not suggesting that you do these in an elevator or small bathroom but I will leave it up to your imagination.
The first drill was step into a left leg front stance with a downward block, then bring the right together with the the left front foot, from that position, step back with the left foot and downward block.
Start in a left foot forward front stance, step into a right leg forward back stance with block, move the right foot back to the left foot with block, then feet together again and step into right foot forward front stance with block and reverse punch.
For the next drill, we stepped forward with left leg front stance and downward block, then bring the right foot forward to the left foot, from feet together, step back into a right leg front stance with downward block and reverse punch, step forward into a back stance with double block (high outward and downward blocks from Heian Godan and Jion), shift into a horse stance and hook punch, then bring feet together again and repeat with the other leg forward.
Hold up the wall….
Whenever I hear Sensei Noia tell us to go by the wall, I cringe. I know that it means and my legs are normally sore for a couple days after. Don’t get me wrong, I know I need more help than most with my kicks but I also know that sometime the following day, I will be walking a little strange.
We started out with one side next to the wall and our hand holding the wall with the hand away from the wall up in a guarded position. We started with side snap kick from the floor. Each time Sensei counted, we could put our kicking leg back down on the floor. We did the other side and did the same with side thrust kicks.
Next, we did side snap kick, followed with side thrust kick and hold. We would hold in the extended position and then when Sensei counted, we would pull back fast and do both kicks again.
The next drill is the one that will cause me to trip for the next few days. We did two side thrust kicks from the floor and then held the kick at the end until Sensei counted. The idea was to do the kicks at different heights but also fully chamber and kick fast. Just when I thought we were done, Sensei said do the same but with three kicks at different heights. We finished those drills up with leg circles, where we keep our leg out at the end of the side thrust kick position and make 10 circles, clockwise and then counter clockwise, with our foot.
We finished up class with three katas. We could pick any kata of our choice but we had to do if three times. I did, stumbled, through Sochin three times.
I have to admit, my body was loose near the end of class because there weren’t many muscles in my legs that could actually fire if needed.
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