Legs

Bit low in numbers on Tuesday which was a shame but as the class that attended were all “upper” belts I took the students through Kwanku Sho (to look at the sky – major form) which they all enjoyed.

On Thursday I had a much better turn out with nearly all of the members of the Buntingford Karate Club training. So I announced to them that on that night “I am after your legs”!

I started by giving a series of exercises that can be used at home to both strengthen and tone the calf muscles, the quadriceps and the hamstrings. Then I took them through a series of kicking exercises including, mae geri, yoko geri kekomi, ushiro geri, mawashi geri and ending up on the “dragons tail whip” which is Chinese and is actually pronounced “long bian wei”. It is in fact a back kick (or a backwards kick) and resembles the spinning back kick beloved of Jean-Claude Van Damme et al except that a dummy crescent kick (mikazuki geri) preceeds the backwards spin. It is meant to represent the lashing tail of a dragon and is very effective in a defence against a group of people intent on attacking you.

I will be interested to know how many students ached over this weekend!!!

Sensei Bill