Thank God spring has arrived in the Philadelphia region of Pennsylvania!
I have four or so outdoor areas within a ten minute drive where I practice my outdoor karate, primarily through kata. A couple of newer spots have nice single track trails, which make excellent trail running training. Another couple spots have a nice ten foot wide gravel and dirt trail which I've used for practicing kata and kihon training. I spend less of my training time on kihon, well specifically air kihon. Still I certainly believe it has its place. My typical kihon training though, is against one of two heavy bags I own ninety percent of the time.
Anyway, I decided the trails were perfect places to practice my attack oriented kihon training. By that I mean I tend to stride and slide into a technique, meaning I'll land in such a way that my foot, while solidly connected to the ground is capable of moving as my momentum may take it. I don't want to fight against the ground, I want it to fight with me as my partner.
Last Thursday I practiced twenty repetitions of the basic kihon taught to new students along the wide gravel trail. One technique per stride. In my mind though I envision these movements as attacks. Each one a decisive strike to end the threat. My stride length is seventy-five percent of a stride on a solid, safe surface like a clean dojo floor. Also, the back knee is always kept slightly bent for cushioning and stability. Friday (yesterday) I worked twenty reps each side of my front-snap, side-snap and roundhouse-snap kicks down the single track trail along the Schuylkill River. Great training with the uneven ground providing extra incentive to perform the kicks correctly!
Both exercises proved very fruitful I thought. Transitions between techniques was loose and relaxed, with focus on good balance, positioning and recovery. I think I'll be adding these as regular parts of my outdoor training, we'll see how it goes...
Well that's all for now...
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