Keep on keeping on

We have a grading comping up soon, plus a short demonstration to do at a charity even. Accordingly, our session yesterday was a mix of elements.   We started of with Core drills (including rolls and shrimping) followed by Stretches.

From there, we did Kata (Naihanchi Shodan), followed by fundamentals: punches, receiving techniques and kicks.  After that we went through the 10 kihon katas that we practise,  I only need the first two for my grading but we go through them all.  I can remember the first four:

1. Step, forehand punch, backhand punch, mai geri
2. Mai geri, step forehand punch, backhand punch
3  Step, forehand punch, backhand punch, feet together, front leg mawashi geri
4  Feet together, front leg mawashi geri, step forehand punch, backhand punch

Plus I now remember the last two:
.
9 -   Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, spinning kick
10 - Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, hisa geri

Next we repeated the Tai Sabaki (body management) exercises from the Monday session - with one Sensei trying to hit with a padded kendo style stick and the other with a Shinai.   The trick was to evade, first of all to a lunge by stepping away, followed by a head swipe followed by ducking.  After that, we had to evade a leg swipe by jumping, followed by a head / leg swipe combination by ducking then jumping.  Finally, we had to evade a lunge by swaying, followed by evading a lunge, head swipe, leg swipe, lunge combination by stepping, ducking, jumping and swaying.

From there we went on to flow drills, working at two variations:

Flow drill variant 1: Fence push, crash inside hook, ridge hands into clasp, push down and away (Naihanchi)
Flow drill variant 2: Fence push, crash inside hook, ridge hands into clasp, push down, attacker comes up then bear hug. Lift one shoulder, releasing arm which goes round the back, step back (zenkutzu dachi) and turn, throwing the opponent  (Naihanchi / Pinan)

Finally we did Kobudo, with Nunchaku - doing the Hamahiga kata.  On top of that, my son was presented with student of the month, so a really good and varied session 😊😊