Modified 3-step sparring – 2/10/09 – Tuesday Karate class
This was an interesting class. Sensei Noia had us work on some modified one-step and three-step sparring drills.
Many of the drills were fairly simple but complex. I know that sounds strange but it was just that.
We started with our partner facing us, they would step forward and throw a front punch and we would step back and block. The first block was rising block, followed with inward block and then downward block.
After a few times, back and forth, with the blocks, we moved to block and counter attack. This was straight forward but then Sensei Noia mixed it up a bit. He had us do the same drill but with a counter on only one move out of the three. We could counter on the first, second or third move to suprise our partner.
Block and punch…
We spent the rest of the class working on the block and punch drill. This is the drill where you block with the hand that you punched with. This is a drill that gets much harder as you do it faster. It normally ends up in one or both partners laughing too.
Ladders and one-step sparring – 11/17/08 – Monday Karate class
Today was our first Monday back after an unscheduled and scheduled day off. Because of the extra day off, we had a two hour class. Sensei Brien was out so Sensei Beth Noia and Sensei Sarah Plackett gave us an excellent class in his place.
We started out with some simple Kihon and combinations to get warmed up.
One-step with the entire class…
The was a little different, at least for me. We started one-step sparring with a partner and then switched partners until we did one move with the half of the class. Next, we all lined up in a square. One person would attack, then step into the line and we would move out and attack and keep going around the square until the entire class had a change to attack and defend with against everyone.
Ladders, focus mitts and kata…
This was a good drill. We started shifting in and out of the floor ladder with both feet together. After the ladder, we stood in front of one of the Sensei’s holding a focus mit on each hand and cross punched and backfisted each one. For example, with our left hand, we would punch his left hand, since he was facing us, and then backfist the mit on his right hand and we used the other hand. This was an excellent coordination drill and once I got the hang of it, I was able to move fairly fast. Next, we went through another ladder and shifted side to side but with really wide shifts. After that, we went off to the side and did our own kata.
Kata…
We spent the last part of class working on Kata. We started with Heian Shodan and went up to Heian Yondan. After we finished working on the Heian kata’s we spent the rest of the time working on both Jion and Bassai Dai. This was really good since both Sensei Beth and Sensei Sarah spent a lot of time correcting each of us individually when we were doing our kata.
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