Shotokanplanet.org

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

Archives for February 2009

Do kata the right way – 2/16/09 – Monday Karate class

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Sensei Brien had us spend the entire class working on kata but in a different way than we have before.

Make your kata perfect…

Sensei had us start wit Heian Shodan.  Each time he had us do the kata, he had us fix certain mistakes that he saw some of us make.  For example, the second time through he had us  make sure that we were turning on our heels.  The next time, he made sure that we were protecting our groin when moving.  We ended up Heian Shodan at least six times.

Next, we worked on Hiean Yondan with similar corrections as above.

For the final minutes of the class, Sensei had us work on our own kata but he wanted us to do it very, very slow and make each move perfect.  He wanted us to make our stances correct and lock our muscles on each move.  I have often done Bassai Dai very slowly in the past but I slowed it down even more.  It must have taken near five minutes to complete each kata at that pace.

Kicks and more – 2/14/09 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Plocharczyk had us work on some kicking drills today.

Kick that pad…

We partnered up and one of us held the pad while the other kicked.  We started with front snap kick.  We started with some light kicks for the first set of 10, a little more power on the second set of 10 and the last 10 were full power.  We then worked on some roundhouse kicks.  Between groups of kihon, Sensei had us run to opposite sides of the dojo and do a kata.

Make those muscles grow…

Partner push ups.  Sensei had us do push ups while our partner pushed down on our upper but Sensei Gatch thought I needed some extra resistance and put one of the 70 pound kids on my back while I did my push ups.  After that, Sensei had us hold our push up half way and he was kind enough to come and sit on my back.

Karate-ka in sync – 2/12/09 – Thursday Karate class

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I really enjoy class with Sensei Cieplik and always leave his class with something more than I came in with when I entered the dojo.  My only problem is that he shares so much with his students, it is almost impossible to remember everything that he covers even right after class.  I often wish that I could bring in a video camera or at least have a better memory.

Karate as a unit…

We spent a good amount of time working on our kihon drills and everyone was in the groove today.  There is one drill that Sensei has us do where we get into a left foot forward front stance and put our reverse hand out.  From that point, we do a front snap kick with our back leg, switch our hands, put our kicking leg back down behind us and do a reverse punch.

Over all, the movement itself is not hard after you do it a few thousand times but the main thing that Sensei looks for is how we the class does it as a unit.  There is a different feeling when the entire class of 40+ students does the same moves with the exact same timing and rhythm.  It’s not often that you see that many people of all different shapes, sizes and age, do something as a perfectly timed unit.

Because of this Karate-ka synchronization, Sensei had us move on to more advanced movements without a lot of kihon drills.  Sensei feels that if they group is doing good, don’t take any chances and move on.

Step into the punch…

Sensei had us work on some kata bunkai for Heian Yondan. We worked on the move just before the kiai with the rising block and knife hand but used a downward type block to our partners chudan punch.  In order for this movement to work the way Sensei wanted us to do was for us to step into our attackers punch.  Timing has to be good and the knife hand needs to strike in an upward motion right under the side of the jaw bone.  We did need to use caution when working on this drill since any power behind behind the knife hand would have hurt our partner.

Another excellent class.