Shotokanplanet.org

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

Archives for August 2008

The hardest class I ever had – 8/16/08 – Saturday Karate class

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As of today, I think I can say that I lived through that hardest Karate class that I have had yet.

I knew it would be tough when we did the warm up…

Sensei Plocharczyk started us off with a really hard warm up.  He had us get into the lunge position and had us do ten of each, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and hook kick.  Then we switched legs and did the same thing on the other side.

By this time, I was hardly able to stand.

Never ending kihon…

We started with some simple movements.  We did moving forward with various blocks, then punches and then a combination of both.

From that point, we just kept going.  Sensei was testing our mental persiverance more than our physical.  As we did each combination of movements, he added more.  Below is the how the moves progressed:

We did all combinations moving forward.
Reverse punch and downward block.
Reverse punch, downward block and reverse inward block.
Reverse punch, downward block, reverse inward block and outward block.
Reverse punch, downward block, reverse inward block outward block and reverse rising block.
Reverse punch, downward block, reverse inward block outward block, reverse rising block and rising block.
Reverse punch, downward block, reverse inward block outward block, reverse rising block, rising block and reverse elbow strike.
Reverse punch, downward block, reverse inward block outward block, reverse rising block, rising block and reverse elbow strike and rising elbow strike.

And then came kicks…

Next came moving forward double front snap kick and double roundhouse kicks.  My front snap kicks weren’t too bad but my roundhouse kicks were a maybe six inches off the floor at that point.

We finished up with some conditioning push ups.  We did 10 normal push up then held our body half way up off the floor and then an inch of the floor for a period of time that I cannot remember.

I think I can say with some certainty that this was the hardest class that I ever had.

Roundhouse kicks and combinations – 8/14/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Wail ran a really good class tonight.

Lots of roundhouse kicks…

We spent a lot of time working on roundhouse kicks.  Sensei had us start with opening our hips up by doing roundhouse kicks from a front stance but in slow motion.  We started by bringing the back leg up first, then pivoting around to the front and throwing the kick.

We then worked on some combinations with roundhouse kick and reverse punch.  Sensei added a little twist and instead of us just stepping down into our front stance after the kick, he had us step into a cat stance first, then push forward into the front stance and throw the reverse punch.  He wanted us to working on our forward motion, pushing our hips forward, instead of just falling into the front stance.  This was a complex movement compared to doing the same type of movement when doing front snap kick combinations.

Hit the pad but use the hips and the back heel…

In order to make us better understand that pushing motion from the hips, Sensei had us partner up and work on hitting the pad from the hips instead of the upper like most of us do.  He had us stand a very small distance from our partner with our hips open and our back leg bent and then straighten the back leg, push off the back heel, close the hips and throw the punch.  My lack of ankle flexibility wasn’t helping me too much but when I was able to push off the back heel my punches were much more powerful and connected.  The look on my wife’s face when I hit the pad was enough to tell me when I did the movement the correct way.

Kata from start to end…

Sensei Wail wanted us to try and apply the hip and heel connection to our kata so we started with Heian Shodan.  We then followed it up with Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Hiean Yondan, Heian Godan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  I could certainly feel the connection when I did my strikes the correct way but the percentage of correct moves was pretty low.

Karate Olympics again – 8/12/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Was it Deja Vu or a bad dream?

Just when I thought it was over, it happened again…

Our class today was a repeat of the Saturday class.  Sensei Gatch had us do the same Karate Olympics that we did on Saturday.  You can read all about it on my previous post https://shotokanplanet.org/?p=322 .

We did the same four events and my results were as follows:

For the push up contest I was only about to muster up fifth place with 54 total push ups after across the two of the three 30 second sets.

For the V-sit event, I came in second place after holding my position for about seven minutes.

In the wall sit, I made it for almost three minutes but still had to do 50 squats since a couple people held out for 10 minutes.

In the sprint, I lost again and by just a nose.  I really need to spend some time working on my sprinting in the future.

Finish with kata…

Instead of doing Heian Shodan today, we did our own belt kata.  My Bassai Dai felt pretty good overall but I was just happy to be able to complete it.