Japanese kihon – 5/18/10 – Tuesday Karate class
Sensei Noia is still working on our exam preparation. These classes have been extremely hard and I am sure that it will make a difference for all of us testing this time.
Make those stances perfect….
Sensei had us start by moving across the floor in different stances. We could choose from front stance, back stance, horse stance, cat stance and cross leg stance with a different hand technique.
We followed the stance training with Heian Shodan but different. Instead of doing the stances like normal, stepping forward into a front stance, we would pivot on left foot and and put right foot behind instead of stepping forward. It was tough wrapping my head around the foot movements at first but after the fifth or sixth kata I started to get it.
After we finished the abnormal Heian Shodan, we did one step sparring. We did all six attacks with front punch to the head, front punch to the stomach, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.
Kata….
Next came slow motion Jion with good stances and form. Then we did a medium Jion with more power and then full speed with full power.
We did one step sparring again.
Next came slow motion Bassai dai, with good stances and form. As with Jion we did another at medium speed and then another with full speed and power.
Next, we each did our own kata for exam at full speed and power.
Japanese kihon….
This was a lot of fun. I often wish we could have all the moves spoken in Japanese. We did three moves of each of the following. downward block, rising block, inward block outward block in front stance. Back stance with knife hand block and outward with reverse punch. Standing with straight punch, tate or vertical punch, hammer fist, double punch. spear hand, single finger, double finger, knuckle punch, middle knuckle punch. We did different stances including cat stance, cross leg stance, front stance, back stance and horse stance.
Sensei packed a lot of stuff into this class but all of it was excellent.
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Good kihon makes good Karate – 2/26/10 – Friday Karate class
Sensei Brien, along with Sensei Cieplik, often say good kihon make good Karate. If your want good kata or good kumite, your kihon needs to be good. Sensei has mentioned before that without good kihon, your kata will never be much more than memorized movements much like a dance. He often said that he could teach any good athlete the moves for a kata but they would not be doing Karate because of they do not understand the kihon or basics.
Working toward good kihon….
Sensie had us spend most of the class working on kihon drills. We did blocks and strikes back and forth across the dojo. We started with simple movements such as moving forward with front punch or blocks, then we moved into combination movements with block and punches and then we spent a lot of time working on our kicks. We did front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick but with extra attention to the little details trying to make the movements perfect.
More kicks….
For the next drill, we got a partner and did front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick. We used our partner as a support and did all three kicks.
We also worked on a roundhouse drill where we kicked each other, trying to keep our heel to our butt until we point our knee at out target and then let the kick fly. The idea was to mask that the kick is coming until it is too late for the opponent to see it.
It was a really tough class with lots of hip and leg work.
This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.