Many of you will be attempting your 2nd or 3rd grading soon. Although we didn't go through the grading syllabus tonight, this lesson was still focused on preparing you for the upcoming grading. As you progress, not only do the techniques become more complex, but you must be able to do the techniques to a higher standard. Tonight we focused on how to improve your existing techniques.
Power comes from the floor. Our feet are what connect us to the floor and we want to maintain maximum connection to the floor. So we must have the entire sole of the foot in contact with the floor (not partially raised). This then allows us to compress our legs (bend at the knee) and quickly expand (straighten) to generate power which flows from the floor, into our techniques.
Your grading examiner(s) will be looking at your ability to use the floor to generate power.
Hip rotation is one of the core principals of Shotokan Karate. We rotate our hips in the hamni (45 degree position) and shomen (90 degrees - towards the front). This rotation, in addition to the contraction and expansion of the body allows us to generate speed and power in a controlled way.
Examiners will be looking at use of hips - especially for higher grades.
Kime (literally decision), enables you to make a decisive, finishing attack. We must first have a fast technique - and to be fast we must relax. However, if we hit something while relaxed, we are at risk of hurting ourselves. So we tense immediately at the end of the technique (the point of contact) and the immediately relax after. Going from 0 to 10 back to 0. This tension of the body is how we generate power.
Your grading examiner(s) will also be looking at your ability to generate kime or locking at the end of the technique.
Try to apply these concepts into all techniques across kihon, kumite and kata.