Shotokanplanet.org

This is a log of my journey to Shotokan Karate Shodan and beyond.

Archives for October 2007

Saturday Karate class – 10/6/07 – Kicks, kicks and kata.

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We did a warm up and then moved right into some kicking drills.

We started with some balance work.  Sensei Noia had us stand on a foam pad and hold on knee up in the air for 30 seconds or so on each leg.  My balance was really off for some reason, maybe it’s a sinus infection or something, but I was able to keep me knee up without too much wiggling around.  Next, we stood on the pad and did a bunch of front snap kicks without putting our foot down.  The front snap kicks were no easy task but then things got much harder.  We did front snap kick, side thrust kick and front snap kick all without touching the floor and while still standing on the pad.  I could not hold my balance at all.  After we finished those groups of kicks, Sensei had us do 10 roundhouse kicks, still on the pad and without touching the floor.

After that, we stood the pad on it’s side and did a front snap kick, stepped down over the pad into a front stance, front snap kicked again and then stepped back into a front stance.  The idea was to kick over the pad and also step over it without knocking it over.  After that came front snap kick, side thrust kick to the front and then front snap kick all over the pad.

We finished up with some kata.  We went out in groups and did our own rank kata.  I still need to tuck my butt under but hopefully that will improve with some more time.

Friday Karate class – 10/5/07 – Even more Tekki Shodan.

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We spent almost the entire class working on our kata again.  In the past three plus years or so that I have been learning Karate, we have never spent this much time working on kata.  I am sure that those from our class will do really good kata at our upcoming rank exams.

Doing all these kata with our Sensei’s watching us, we get instant feedback on what we need to fix or improve.  Little details like keeping our chest up and adjusting the height of our arms during certain parts of the kata make a huge difference.

We ended class doing kata in groups by rank.  My biggest problem that night was tucking my butt under when in the horse stance.  I need to figure out how to keep the gluteus muscles tensed and tucked at all times in the horse stance.  One of my problems is stepping over my foot between stances after tensing those muscles so hard.  It causes me to move really awkward and off balance.  It’s as if my hips lock in the horse stance position and then when I try to step they pop very quickly and throw my balance way off.  I am sure that they will get better as time goes on.

Thursday Karate class – 10/4/07 – More Tekki Shodan and group Heian Shodan.

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We started with the normal kicking and basics warm up and then did Heian Shodan as a group. Sensei Cieplik was concerned with our timing and had us pay special attention as we doing our reverse hand out, front snap kick, step back down and reverse punch. The point he made was that we should listen to the group and make sure that all of our timing is the same. He also had us do Heian Shodan in time with the group. This was a really different feeling. It reminded me of some of the TV shows filmed in Japan where you see a large group of Karate students doing the same exact moves in time with each other. I really don’t now how to describe it other than it was really cool and I enjoyed it.

After that, Sensei sent all of the 4th Kyu’s with Sensei Noia to work on Tekki Shodan. Sensei Noia took went over each an every move, watching for mistakes and ways to make our kata better. We spent a lot of time working on our stances. My stances weren’t as good as they should have been because I ended up being a little too aggressive with my stretching earlier during the day and pulled something on the inside of my right leg. I was still able to hold the stances but it wasn’t as low as it should have been.

One of the best points that Sensei Noia made was for us to keep out chests up while doing our moves. He must have said this to me 100’s of times on the past but for some reason it clicked today. He made another excellent point, which again he had told me many times but it just didn’t sink in until now was to tighten our lat (upper back) muscles when doing the blocks and punches. By doing this, it automatically forced my shoulders to stay down like they should. Those two things alone really made an immediate , noticeable difference in everyones kata. Keeping the chest out not only gives the kata a better feel, it makes me open up my moves instead of crunching them up like did in the past. The point about tightening the lats really makes that kata feel much more power then ever before. I think the punch, block at the end of that kata could really hurt someone, compared to when I did it without using my lats at the end of the move before.

Working on kata like we did was very exhausting. My legs were like jello after class and I could hardly get out of the car when I got back home. Even though it was tough, I got a lot out of it and feel that my kata will now be better because of it.