Sunday, February 10, 2008

Private lesson 3 (Toes, turns and twists)

With my quad/knee slowly on the mend I thought I'd give beatings a try this weekend. We both skipped last week due to prior engagments and that was fine for me. Apparently more rest for my knee is better.

We started out with first kata to make sure everything I learned was still there since the last two weeks. Thankfully it was, but as this is prepratory to Brown Belt testing (it's not even a secret anymore - hello stress out) everything is picked apart for analysis. So if I set up in a poor stance I corrected immediately to which Teacher responded to with praise. I rather do it right the first time of course.

He had me work on side kicks for a while and taught me a litte trick. When I go into chamber with my foot - making sure it's really high of course - was too make sure I had my kicking foot in the 90 degree with my toes as far up as I can get them and the kick and my balance are almost perfect in execution. He had me watch myself in the mirror when my chamber was low. I had no idea how ineffectual the kick looks. I guess it could be at least somewhat of a shot, but it looks horrible as the line goes from the floor to the full extension.

As we worked through a couple of katas - done at the slowest speed - he pointed out something that's come up a few times. The body as a unit. When we do throws we have to land with the body as a complete unit. When I turn I have to make sure I do it as a complete unit. Not something I've been practicing.

Finally, how is my foot placed in the final part of the kick. It is not supposed to be horizontal, but pointed slightly down to make sure the heel is the striking point.

Practice, practice and to wonder what the test will entail and when.

6 comments:

frotoe said...

Sounds like a good session. I love to find out all the subtleties of the techniques. Of course, its a pain to re-learn everything, though, but the outcome is satisfying.

Meg said...

Good for you for practicing again!
I hope you're not too stressed out over the test. You are correcting your own mistakes, so you won't make horrible blunders when you go up in front of your testing Board.

BSM said...

Practicing again will make you feel good.

Interesting...

You are trained to hit with the heel of your foot on a side kick. We are trained to hit with the blade.

I guess that's karate vs. taekwondo.

:-)

Potatoe Fist said...

It is interesting because years ago they said with the blade as the point of contact, but now I'm instructed to use the heel as an aiming point. They could be saying this to me to improve some aspect of the kick. They've been known to introduce stuff to me that can be counter to previous instruction, but turned out to be helpful to my form/technique.

Colin Wee said...

Just to let everyone know that we're having a related conversaion on my blog. I've also featured a link from my original post here - something you may want to consider.

Calibrating the Side Kick

Colin

MARKS said...

Glad you mentioned about the 90degree position of the foot when performing the side kick. Ive been meaning to write an article about this on my website. I feel its so important in order to generate full power with this technique. Great articles by the way. Email me if you would like to exchange links

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