2026-09-21

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Last weekend I attended a small, informal seminar with Steve Ubl in California and brought home a couple of things for my students. These weren’t earth-shaking revelations, mind you, just seemingly little things that have a big effect on power generation but still tend to get very little attention in class.

First was leg/hip drive. We all know it’s how we generate the majority of the power behind any given technique, and I usually spend a good amount of time on keeping the feet in place while rotating the hip back by bending the back knee, etc. But since we’re not always walking around in front stance it’s important to take what we learn from generating power in long stances and use it even when we’re in shorter stances.

We worked on this with two drills:

1. Students paired up and formed two lines facing each other. One side would get in front stance while their partners sat down and loosely held their front knees, almost like a loose hug. The goal was to provide gentle counter-pressure rather than prevent all movement, giving the standing partner tactile feedback so they would know when their knee was moving. Then the standing partner would jab on the first count and reverse punch on the second, repeatedly, without allowing either foot to move. The focus was on driving the punches with hip rotation, and driving that rotation by flexing and extending the rear knee.
2. Everyone got into kiba-dachi and began alternate punching, focusing on driving the punching arm with the hip, and driving the hip through the leg, all without distorting the stance.

Next was working on hip/shoulder alignment or, more to the point, just keeping them aligned. The easiest place to see this is in the counter-rotated inside blocks in Heian Nidan. I’ve always tried to counter-rotate to the point that my back shoulder was on line with my front shoulder and fist, but I’ve come to realize that’s just too far. My hips can only rotate about half that far and cranking my shoulders back farther than the rotation of my hips does nothing to improve the power of the block or the stability of my stance. This same sort of thing happens in the straight punch on the second count of Heian Godan.

Both of these details give me something to keep working on in my own training as well as in class. It’s easy to tell students to use their hips, but we need to spend time on what makes that happen and how the rest of the body follows. And sometimes I need to take my own advice and stop trying to turn my shoulders farther than my hips can go.