Class on Monday September 2nd, 2002

This was a private, only two participants and the second one showing up late. No bowing in was necessary.

As a private lesson, student requests determined what was practiced, and here is what your correspondent retained as lessons:

hook kicks

practiced next to the wall, just hitting the thigh of the partner. Due to the wall, the leg has to come up straight, but when veering into the target, the trajectory is nearly parrallel to the floor. It is important to twist the hips before the rear foot lands, this is what creates the correct trajectory at the end of the kick.

rear leg round house kicks

to practive pivoting and rotating on the front leg, the kicking shield as held at about 45 degrees to the left of the regular position, plus a few steps to the left as well. to hit the pad, the kick has to be exaggerated in its rotation. After practicing this, the regular kick was done. A small tip was to rotate the right arm in a slight circle to improve rotation

side kick

worked on the water and whip principle. The water principle involves kicking through and with power. The whip principle makes you barely touch the shield and retract. Retraction has to be horizontal and in a snap. Then it was a combination of the two in the actual kick. Retraction has to be very swift inorder to snap the kick and make it more of hit rather than the push which is the water principle.

worked on the straight lead, I asked to work on the twist of the hips. Sifu said that the twist has to happen in mid air, before the lead foot lands. At the point of hitting, the shoulders and lead arm all have to be in a straight line.

Sifu stressed that body movements have to be quick inorder to get power, pointing to the fact that force is mass multiplied by acceleration. Acceleration is increased with those quick movements. He suggested skipping rope very fast as an exercise for this.