2023-02-27
Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.
The beginner class is making it through Taikyoku Shodan pretty regularly now. Of course there are still mistakes - there always will be - but they’re fewer and farther between. We did have a little talk about “focus” tonight, though. Some minds were wandering and I thought it was a good time to remind the class that karate isn’t just about learning how to punch, kick, and block. It’s about learning to control your mind and body, completely, and that involves the ability to stay focussed and attentive. After all, it’d be easier for a predator to attack someone who wasn’t paying attention, right?
The advanced class we spent a lot of time working on hip rotation - specifically the rotation required to launch a reverse punch. We stood in front of the mirror, in front stance, starting with the opposite hand forward as though we’d just done a reverse punch. Then we would rotate the hip back and block (any block), then rotate the hip forward and reverse punch. The important parts are:
- Keeping the front knee stable and forward.
- Preventing the back heel from moving.
- Most importantly, bending the back knee to facilitate the backward rotation of the hip, followed by straightening of the knee to fire the hip forward.
This drill can be very tiring, turning the front leg into jelly after a few dozen repetitions, but isolating this rotation, and allowing no energy to be wasted with extraneous motion, is one of the most importation concepts in power generation. It’s critical. We often talk about power coming from the hips, but the hips don’t move in a vaccuum, the legs move the hips. The faster the leg straightens, the faster the hip moves forward, and vice-versa.
