Today, we focused on a lot of stance training both solo and with a Partner along with a three step and one step type training.
Stretches and stances
We started moving down the dojo with dynamic front leg raise for half the length of the dojo. We followed those with moving front Stances both with open and closed hips for the rest of the length of the dojo. Next, we did stationary side leg raises then moved across the dojo switching from horse stances to back stances with arm techniques. The final warm up drill was stationary back leg raises and then moving across the dojo with any stances of our choice adding any hand techniques.
Partner up and block
For the next drill, we found a partner and one of us attacked and other blocked. We started with a jodan punch while the other partner did a rising block, then a chudan attack with the other partner doing an inward block, then a gedan attack with the other partner doing a downward block. It was similar to three step sparring with no counter attacks and we did this for many attacks across the entire dojo. We did it one more time with one partner doing the same three attacks and other other using any blocking technique of their choice across the entire dojo again.
Block, grab and knife hand strike
For this drill, we stood close, facing our partner. One partner threw a jodan front punch and the other partner blocked with the left open hand to the inside of their partners arm, grabbed their partners wrist and executed a knife hand Strike to the neck. We kept these blocks to the inside of our partners arm for this drill. This is a simple drill until your partner gets a little too anxious and strikes your neck not once but four times really hard in the same place. I don’t believe it was on purpose but since my training partner is normally my wife, I am not too sure.
We did the same drill again with a jodan punch but this time, we blocked with the right open hand, grabbed the wrist with the left hand and did the same knife hand strike to the neck. Both this drill and the one before it work well in close quarter attacks.
We used the same blocks and attacks but we could chose to block to the inside or outside this time. Our partner executed a left hand punch and we blocked with the right hand to the outside, grabbed their wrist with the left hand and executed the same knife hand strike to the neck. The block to the outside takes the attackers other arm to out of the equation and turning their back toward you to follow up with other attacks if needed.
We finished up with some one step sparring but using either the drills we worked on earlier or any application from the kata of our choice.
Class summary
- Stretch then work stances
- Partner up and block
- Block, grab and knife hand strike
