Elastic kumite drills – 9/19/08 – Friday Karate class
Sensei Noia gave us an interesting class.
Elastic band run…
Sensei Noia had us get a partner and an elastic band. He had one partner stand in front of the other with the elastic band around the hips of the person in front. The person in front had to run across the gym while the other person pulled on the elastic band. This was a real hard drill but a lot of fun too.
Elastic band shifting…
For the next drill, Sensei had us shift with the elastic band around our hips instead of running. The shifting drills were a bit harder than the running drills since the elastic bands added a lot of resistance against the shifting leg.
Sensei had us put the band down and shift without it. I was able to cover at least an extra six inches of ground with each shift.
Shift and run…
For the next drill, Sensei had us shift across the and when he said go, we had to run to the end of the gym. The idea was for us to be able to change movements as fast as possible.
We finished off our drills, shifting forward while holding our headgear in our front hand at nose level. This was to keep us from letting our hands fall when we were tired.
I am certainly no kumite expert but I do feel that my skills are starting to improve, slowly but surely.
Elastic band stance training – 9/12/08 – Friday Karate class
Sensei Noia is going all out to prepare us for our upcoming rank exams and tonight was no exception.
Warm up…
We got a partner and one of us ran suicides while the other partner did burpies.
They call me the rubberband man…
Sensei Noia pulled out the elastic exercise bands, he then had our partner put it around our hips. After that, we got into a low stationary front stance and our partner pulled the band, making us squeeze and hold the floor while we did front and reverse punches. We then switched legs and repeated.
Next, we started in modified cat stance with the band around our hips again, facing our partner. We then moved back into a back stance and did a knife hand block. The idea was to move back into the back stance while fighting the resistance from the band. We did this movement 30 + times with each leg.
Partner shifting…
Next, our partner put the band around our hips again. We then did a double shift with a jab and reverse punch while our partner tried to hold us back.
After that we did the double shift with attacks but with no bands. Without the resistance, I was able to cover a good amount of ground. I felt like I was floating, almost.
Walking low…
After our legs were totally exhaused, we finished up by doing a set of low walks forward and backward across the gym.
It was a great class.
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