Kicks, kicks and more kicks – 9/15/08 – Monday Karate class
We started with a fairly standard warm up. We jump in place for a few, then stretch out and do some light shifting.
Excellent hip warm up…
Sensei Brien had us get into a front stance. From that point we opened our hips like in a block and then closed then like in a punch. The idea of these hip rotation drills was to get our hips warmed well and to make sure that we all understand how to use our legs and hips when doing various strikes and blocks.
Basics…
Next we did our normal kihon drills, moving forward and back with rising block, downward block inward block all with reverse punch.
Sensei Brien explained something that I am sure I heard before but in a different way. He said that our hand techniques should end with our step. If we are moving forward or backward, when our knees come together, we prepare for the movement. When our foot lands and we finish the step, our hand technique finishes.
Next we worked on stationary back stance, hold the stance for about five minutes each leg and do knife hand blocks. After the stationary movements, we worked on moving forward and back but we aded the nulite in a front stance with at the end.
Kicks, kicks and more kicks…
Next, we got a partner and a pad. Our partner stood in a horse stance, holding the pad about belt level and we held a roundhouse kick position. Sensei then counted and we threw a slow roundhouse kick over pad. We then held in the extended position and then snapped it back when Sensei told us to. We did almost the same movement but Sensei had us snap the leg back as fast as possible.
Next came side thrust kicks. We did the kick over the pad and held it until Sensei said we could bring it back. For the first time ever, I was able to kick at close to or above belt level. I am not sure what changed but I sure hope it stays that way.
It was an excellent class!
Hand, not wrist, on your hip – 7/24/08 – Thursday Karate class.
Moving forward with reverse punch…
After our warm, Sensei Cieplik had us work on moving forward with reverse punch. Most of us are used to doing moving forward with front punch so this takes a little more mental focus than physical. He had us do the movement slowly at first, then we did four steps slowly, then faster and then two steps, pause and two more steps with the punch. We spent a good amount of time working on this movement and after a few it felt ok but no where near as natural as moving forward with front punch.
A revelation for me: Hand, not wrist, on your hip…
Sensei gave us one of the best pieces of advice tonight. He said “put your (draw) hand on your hip, not your wrist on your hip.” This allows the shoulder to stay down and elbow to go back farther. For the longest time, I have put my wrist on my side and not my hand. This made a huge difference in my posture and it allows me to engage my lats instead of my chest when punching or blocking. This also allows for a little more extension on the punch.
An exercise for better side thrust kicks…
Sensei had us do a front snap kick and bring it back, then grab behind knee with our hand, pull the knee upward and at the same time put the leg out to the side into a side thrust kick. Hold for 1-1000 and bring it back to the front again. Sensei said that this will make your arms really strong if you are not doing your side thrust kicks like this now.
Back stance with five degrees less…
We worked on moving forward and backward in a back stance with knife hand block. Sensei Cieplik said in order to engage the hips when throwing a kick with the front leg, we should have the back foot facing a small amount to the front not straight ahead. Instead of having the foot facing straight forward, turn it in about 5 degrees toward the front. I could feel a huge difference in the front snap kick from the back stance. I was able to snap the kick straight out in front instead of the weird thing that I was doing when my back foot was pointed straight to the side. It allows the kick to work with the body instead of against it.
Kata…
We did Heian Shodan. Sensei wanted us to pay attention to our back stances. I was so into keeping my hand, not my wrist, on my side, I made a mistake and started doing rising blocks instead of front punches near the end of the kata. It did feel much different.
Small blocks can be effective movements…
We got a partner and one of us stood with our hands out in front of us. Our parnter threw a front punch and from the pinkie finger we pivoted our hand into an outward type edge hand, turned our body and moved the punch past us. The movement itself was very small but large enough to move the punch away from my body.
We then did a similar move where we pivot from the thunb, close the hand and do an inward block. Again, this small movement deflected the punch past us and allowed for a counter movement.
The key to these movements is precise timing and moving to the inside or outside of the punch. The outward block with the edge hand was very similar to the knife disarms that Sensei Noia has been showing us recently.
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