Secrets of Sensei Klopp

I went to class on Saturday, and worked with Sensei Klopp on two things. First was the standard hitch step and pivot entry to a straight punch that we always do at the beginning of class. Without fail, Senseio Klopp would hit me squarely on the stomach whenever I entered on my right side. I kept thinking, do I angle my body first when I move in or does that make it too easy for him to track me. Of course, Sensei Klopp gave me advice that had nothing to do with that. He said to image cutting across uke with your hand diagonally starting from the top of uke's punching side to the hip on the other side. It helps if you actually draw a line with your hand. I don't know why it works, but my solar plexus was safe for another turn.

The second technique Sensei Klopp helped me with was katanage. The one were uke attacks cross hand grab, tori hitch steps and takes uke forward (and to the angle). So you are taking uke forward. Sensei Klopp kept telling me how stiff I was (of course), and I said I was having trouble with the concept of keeping my arm in my center, extended and alive so uke doesn't push my arm into me, yet not stiff. Sensei Klopp's answer (so to paraphrase, I know I'm not doing it
justice) is upon initial contact the arm should be extended and alive, but once that happens the key isn't the arm. The arm needs to stay alive to keep the connection and to feel uke, but body position is critical in the technique. I interpreted that to mean not to concentrate so much about keeping the arms out, because if I move out of the way properly and position myself correctly against uke's shoulder area-ish I'll be okay. Okay, not sure exactly what, but my technique did improve....