Tonights class, after kihon performed in two rings (inner and outer facing), focused on kumite techique. The head instructor was, of course, Ollie. The upper ranks worked on sanbon practice, primarily using uchi uke (inside forearm block) and tettsui uke (hammer fist block, previously outside forearm block). Working with Mark, we also did some irimi (evasion of an attack by slipping just along the side of it to the outside) and evading at 90 degrees to the attack line. To test our practice, Ollie the brought all the class back together, having been working with the lower ranks on making good attacks, I believe. He lined us up, placing one upper rank facing the line and did “machinegun sanbon”. I’m afraid the evenings earlier practice rather went out the window as there was little time to work on applying any technique that was not already ingrained. Consequently I think the excercise fell short of his intentions, however it was of course still a good drill from a purely experiencial point of view.
Last we went through Taikioko Shodan several times, then each of the upper ranks performed a kata of choice individually. I selected Heian Godan, one of my favorites. When going through it, I felt my feet were out of alignment on the kiba dachi and kokutsu dachi (horse and back stance respectively). I’ll have to watch this as I know I habitually step past my line when stepping into kiba dachi and when in kokutsu dachi, my front foot tends to line up more with the center of my hind foot rather than the heel. Additionally Ollie indicated that I flashed by the low juji uke (X block), where as I should put a micro second more there to indicate a strong block for the imagined kick.