Day 10 - kicks

I sort of lost track of the days for this logging of the kicks, so I will just summarize my experience. I really had to push myself to honor my commitment to kick the bag every day, I am not sure what was up with that but I definitely was attempting to create some road blocks. Once I got started, I was totally into it and had to time myself so that I wouldn't spend too much time down stairs.
I changed the stance for my round house kicks in the last 10 days and it feels a lot more powerful. When I was doing it from a horse stance, I don't thing that I was using a proper three point position and my kicks did not have the power that they needed. When I do it from a bow stance, I feel like I go almost automatically from a crane stance to the three point and then all I have to do is release the power. They feel good, I still have some tweaking to do but they feel like they are moving in the right direction.
I have been unhappy all week with my spinning back kick and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until this morning. I practiced at home and then I went to the kwoon to help with the kids class and then worked on my kicks there after class. I think that I was over rotating at home because I have laminate flooring and it is really easy to twirl around on it. Once I was on the mats, everything returned to normal and my kicks felt strong again. I do need to continue to work on keeping my head up and therefore kicking higher.
My goal for my side heel thrust has been to concentrate on transferring the power at the end of the kick. Sometimes I feel like I just place my foot on the bag at the end of the extension. This may be an exaggeration but it is the only way that I can describe it. I really focused on making sure that each kick counted as a good one by releasing my power into the bag. They feel a lot stronger on a more consistent basis than they did last week. Now I am going to focus on returning to my stance before launching the next kick.
My favorite kick is the front thrust kick. I love the feel of it when I execute it correctly, I feel strong when I kick. This week I have been focusing on bring my crane stance up higher so that I get more height in my kick. I think that this is improving (okay I marked the bag so my I know that my kicks are higher) and I have enjoyed the progress that I have seen everyday. On this kick I also need to focus on returning to my stance before launching the next kick.
I have really enjoyed this exercise in working on one thing every day and looking for ways to improve and get stronger. Some days my feet, joints and/or muscles did not like the idea of this plan but all was forgotten (not yet forgiven) as soon as I started kicking the bag. I am making a commitment to myself to continue to strive towards improvement in all aspects of my martial arts.
Sihing Kichko