Archives for May 2008

Sensei Plocharczyk always give a hardcore class and today was no exception.

We started with an intense warmup. It included a lot of basics. We started in a horse stance and did our punches and blocks, then we moved into a front stance and did our block punch combinations. I know that those do not sound like any ouverly hard but we did all of the movements with no rest in between. It was one movement right on to the next for over 10 minutes.

Sensei then gave us a little rest. Time for some pushups. Sensei had us get into the top part of the pushup with our arms fully extended, he then had us go down and hold one inch from the floor for 20 seconds, next we pushed back up to the top and he had us go down half way and hold for another 20 seconds. It was absolute torture and I could only handle three of the four reps. My arms totally gave out on the last rep.

Next, out for kata. Sensei had us go out in groups by rank and do our own rank kata. Sensei told me that I need to watch my toes, the way they are pointing when moving from the back stance to the horse stance in Jion.

It was a great class.

Sensei Noia started class with some sparring drills but I ended up working on some kata and kihon with my wife on the side of the dojo. My ribs are still sore and I do not want to take any chance in having them hurt again over the next five weeks before my exam. It took six weeks for them to fully heal last time and they are still sore from doing certain movements.

After the sparring drills ended, Sensei had us work on some advanced kihon. We worked on some combination block and punch movements and then moved into the more advanced movements.  Not many moves that we haven’t done before but more repetitions than usual.

We spent a lot of time working on our back stance combinations such as, knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite.  We then worked on front stance, inward block, move into straddle leg stance, elbow strike and backfist.  That movement was always very hard for me in the past but for some reason, it was working tonight.

Next came some kicking drills.  We did front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side, back kick the rear, roundhouse kick to the front and reverse punch.  We haven’t spent a lot of time adding the reverse punch at the end of the kicking drills but it makes the movement feel more flowing to me.  Adding the punch just feels natural for some reason.  It also helps me ground my front stance at the end.  I just feels good.

We then did some one-step sparring.  I feel really good about my one-step compared to the past.  I shift out of the way better than ever.  I am not sure what changed but I like it.  I am also able to finish my counter punches much close and with more control than in the past.

We finished up with some kata.  My Jion felt ok but not great.  My legs were really tired after all of the basics and while I gave all the effort that I could, it didn’t feel great.

Overall, it was an excellent class.

 As we were starting class and sitting in seiza, Sensei Cieplik gave told us of an exercise where, while in seize, you raise straight up from the knees.  This is good for strengthening the knees, especially if they are are sore from hard training.

Sensei Cieplik often comments on how many of us are too tight and we need to relax when we do our Karate training.  I couldn’t agree more and often feel that if I could just let go, my Karate and other things outside of Karate would improve.  I always try to relax during class and only focus on the task at hand but even doing my movements can stress me out.  Tonight was a little different because I was able to let things go a little better for at least a few of the movements that we did.

Sensei brought up an interesting story about how a young female kata competitor asked how to be better at kata.  Sensei told her that she needs to imagine that coming from her shoulders, her arms are ropes and her hands are rocks attached to the end of the ropes. She needs to swing her shoulders and not have any tension in her arms.  Once she gets the feeling, she needs to do the same thing when doing her kata and let her hands whip out like someone snapping a towel at a friend in a locker room.  She walked away, walked away thinking, ya right, that’s the key.  After some time, the world champion Italian Karate team was in and met with some of our instructors and members of our club and she asked them, how do I get better at kata? and they answered, swing your arms as if they are ropes with rocks attached to the end.  Sensei was able to explain it in fewer words then I could type but the idea is the same.  If you release the tension on your arms and let the power come from the ground up, through our feet, legs and hips, your arms will do what they need to do.  Use the hips to swing the arms, not the arm muscles.

Sensei made a point to talk about when we move forward and backward, we need to cover our groin.  This is one of the key things that he often stresses in our classes.  He had us do many of our combinations paying all attention to covering our groin and not to worry about the upper body.  For me, I felt that focusing on that part of the movement gives me more hip rotation.  I am not sure that is the case but it feels that way to me.

We did some of our normal movements but there was a new one that really worked the brain.  We did a front leg, front kick come down with a reverse punch.  This was hard to get a handle on since we are used to front kicks with front punches.

Another exercise that Sensei demonstrated was kneeling down on a pad with one knee and pulling that knee with the other leg.  This exercise it to help punch with the body and make the hips work correctly.

Sensei had us finish class with a lot of kata.  I really like doing kata with him and watching him do the moves is very impressive.  You can just see the power emanating from his body when he does the movements.  We worked on Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  I tried my best to focus more on using my legs and hips and less on my arms and upper body.  When I do things like this, I realize how much more I have to learn and how little I know.  I know that I will get there and I am satisfied that every class I take brings me a step closer.