Wednesday, February 1, 2006
Adult Karate Classes in Highlands Ranch
Our warm-ups were a little abbreviated tonight so it appeared to me we were going to do something different and I was right.
Our stances our not low enough and our feet aren’t deep-rooted. So we spent around ten minutes with our backs to the walls and then lowered our butts to a very deep sitting position. We held this stance for 60 seconds. Then we did the stance while doing the 8-point block, then with counter strikes. My legs felt OK.
After that warm-up, the Sensei announced we were going to do Chi Sao.
Chi Sao, is often translated into English as “Sticking Hands” or “Sticky Hands”. Chi Sao is a training exercise that teaches and enhances your contact reflexes. Regardless of ability, this drill trains you on the sense of touch and also heightens a sense of awareness and allows one to feel and adapt as the hands of their opponent change. Think of Chi Sao as physical chess, as it employs as much of the mind as it does the body.
I felt comfortable in this because it requires good reactions to either block or create an opportunity to sneak a punch in. Use of elbows to block and counter-strike is useful along with using the body to flow with the attackers line of attack. Kind of like Aikido.
One partner I guess wanted so bad to land in some punches inched up closer than normal to me and then kept his hands a foot away from his chest which forced my hands to be less than 6 inches away from my upper body.
I didn’t care because I was still able to sense his hand strikes and still counter back with a body or head blow.
