10.03.05 - Practice Out of Class
Met at Alex’s home in Durham
This was the first time I have met with the purple belts outside of class to practice. I arrived just before 6:00pm and Alex met me outside in the back yard. After changing into my gi, we started warming up and doing some stretches while we waited for Phyl and Walt. We decided to get started and I asked Alex for some pointers with the latest technique I had learned: Returning Serpent.
He went through the technique slowly and described the points clearly. He dummied for me as I went through the drill several times. He had several observations and pointers that helped greatly. One of the problems I was having was range. I was stepping back to intercept the block and when it was time for the lunge punch, I was out of range. We determined that I could do at least a couple of things to correct this. The first was to make sure I intercept the block in the correct place. Although I was receiving the block in the middle third of my forearm, I was hitting Alex more toward the wrist, which was putting me further away. Also, when I stepped back to block, I was stepping into a wider stance than a neutral bow. After correcting this, the range was back where it needed to be.
The next area of trouble I was having was hand placement and stance change. Bottom line was that I was over-thinking the whole thing so we backed up a little and just did the stance change several times. Then we added the hands and all seemed good while I was practicing in the air. Then Alex stepped in and my right hand kept wanting to go to my right side instead of checking as it needs to. I think I’ll work this out with more practice.
Eventually Phyl and Walt arrived and got ready to work out. Since we all felt we could use some more practice with blocking after Saturday’s exercise with the boxing gloves, we started with that. Walt donned the gloves and pads and we practiced our blocks. The first round it was just blocking and the second round was blocking and countering with very light contact. It was good to do this again and I learn more every time.
Next we decided to do line drills of all the techniques starting with the Orange belt techniques. They asked if I wanted them to show me or if I wanted to wait for Sifu to show me the techniques I hadn’t been exposed to yet. I decided to go through the line with them participating fully with the techniques I have learned and then just went through as a dummy for the ones I didn’t. We went through all of the techniques and extensions, which took quite a while. When we finished up it was around 9:00pm and we all changed and went home.
It was a great workout and I learned a lot; not perhaps so much of technique per se but definitely about some of the finer points of Kenpo beyond the mechanical movements. I experienced first hand how the flow of the movements works and how tightly the basics work together. It was fun, tiring, and educational and I look forward to the next session.
This was the first time I have met with the purple belts outside of class to practice. I arrived just before 6:00pm and Alex met me outside in the back yard. After changing into my gi, we started warming up and doing some stretches while we waited for Phyl and Walt. We decided to get started and I asked Alex for some pointers with the latest technique I had learned: Returning Serpent.
He went through the technique slowly and described the points clearly. He dummied for me as I went through the drill several times. He had several observations and pointers that helped greatly. One of the problems I was having was range. I was stepping back to intercept the block and when it was time for the lunge punch, I was out of range. We determined that I could do at least a couple of things to correct this. The first was to make sure I intercept the block in the correct place. Although I was receiving the block in the middle third of my forearm, I was hitting Alex more toward the wrist, which was putting me further away. Also, when I stepped back to block, I was stepping into a wider stance than a neutral bow. After correcting this, the range was back where it needed to be.
The next area of trouble I was having was hand placement and stance change. Bottom line was that I was over-thinking the whole thing so we backed up a little and just did the stance change several times. Then we added the hands and all seemed good while I was practicing in the air. Then Alex stepped in and my right hand kept wanting to go to my right side instead of checking as it needs to. I think I’ll work this out with more practice.
Eventually Phyl and Walt arrived and got ready to work out. Since we all felt we could use some more practice with blocking after Saturday’s exercise with the boxing gloves, we started with that. Walt donned the gloves and pads and we practiced our blocks. The first round it was just blocking and the second round was blocking and countering with very light contact. It was good to do this again and I learn more every time.
Next we decided to do line drills of all the techniques starting with the Orange belt techniques. They asked if I wanted them to show me or if I wanted to wait for Sifu to show me the techniques I hadn’t been exposed to yet. I decided to go through the line with them participating fully with the techniques I have learned and then just went through as a dummy for the ones I didn’t. We went through all of the techniques and extensions, which took quite a while. When we finished up it was around 9:00pm and we all changed and went home.
It was a great workout and I learned a lot; not perhaps so much of technique per se but definitely about some of the finer points of Kenpo beyond the mechanical movements. I experienced first hand how the flow of the movements works and how tightly the basics work together. It was fun, tiring, and educational and I look forward to the next session.
posted by Bonzai at 10/03/2005 10:00:00 PM
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