Today’s class involved a lot of kicks again but this time, we were hitting things, such as our partner holding some pads. There was some kihon and Kata also but the kicks were the focal point today.
Warm up and get to work
We started with similar warm up from last week but Sensei had us add some shifting drills this time. We did shifting across the dojo and then job back a few times to get warm.
Next came stances only across the dojo and then stances with a single technique. After that we picked a single block to do across the dojo and after that, the same block with a reverse punch.
Kick your partner
We started in a horse stance, taking a long step behind with a side Thrust Kick across the dojo in both directions.
Next, we got a partner and some pads and started kicking. Side thrust kicks had a lot of focus and we did many of them with Sensei Noia giving each of us suggestions or corrections. When doing side thrust kicks, the leg you are standing is very important. If you do not use the stationary leg, chances are you will bounce off your target. Turning the stationary leg on the ball of the foot and pushing off as the kick is executed makes it very powerful and you get a little extra distance too.
For the next drill, we did front snap kick to the pad, side thrust kick to the side and front snap kick again from a front stance. Next, we did front snap kick to front, side thrust kick to the pad and back kick to the rear. I lost count of how many kicks we did but we did them for about 30 minutes.
Time for kata
Sensei had us start with Jion, counting out each move. The goal of this first kata was to finish each technique and settle before moving on to the next move. We often rush through a kata making the moves jumble together without putting maximum power into them. We did Jion again on our own and then moved to Bassai Dai.
After that, the students who are testing did they rank kata and everyone else had a choice to pick an advanced kata doing the same concept as above, completing each move and settling before exploding into the next move. We did another kata after that and class ended.
Class Summary:
- Warm up with shifting and stances
- side thrust kick a lot
- Kata with full power and speed but settle before moving on to the next technique
