Shotokanplanet.org

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

Archives for July 2010

Kicks, punches and the kitchen sink – 7/20/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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I have sparred and have gotten hit a lot in the past but today was full of kicks, punches and the just about everything including the kitchen sink.  Sensei Noia worked us to the point of mental fatigue that I don’t remember being in, in the past.

Get your kata over with….

We started the class with some kata.  We did Taikyoku Shodan first, then all of the Heian katas, then Tekki Shodan, Jion, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai.  We did all 10 of these katas in 12 to 15 minutes.

Get your pads on and get a partner….

We started with some free sparring drills but we could only use kicks to score with our partner.  We switched partners about five times.  The next sparring drill had us using only our hands to score.  This time, we switched partners four times.

Next, we made one long line across the dojo with our partner in front of us.  From there, we free sparred with a different partner until we sparring with everyone in the line across from us.  There were about 40 of us in the class so everyone sparred 20 different people.  It was non stop, constant sparring and  I would say that is was much harder than the anchorman sparring that I did at my test for Shodan.

I was holding my own pretty well, at least in my own mind, until I paired up with Sensei Plocharczyk.  He hit me more times than all of the other 19 people combined.  I lost count of how many times he hit me after the first 10 or so.  It was a good learning experience though.

We finished up with some push ups and class was over.

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Spin around – 7/16/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien had us spend most of the class working on spinning self defense movements.

It felt like the room was spinning…

We paired up and one partner did the attack, step in with front punch.  The other partner  blocked the attackers punching hand with the front hand, spun around and countered with a spinning back kick.

The next attack was the same with step in and front punch.   The defender blocked with the front hand, spun around into a horse stance and did a take down with a back fist.  For this work, you need to drive the leg between the attackers into a front stance.  Driving that leg backward allows the hip to take their leg out from under them.

The next attack was a shift in with a jab.  The defender blocked with the front hand, pulled the front foot back then spin around and hook kick.  You have to pull the front foot back to make the distance between you and the attacker otherwise you will be too close and the hook kick will not work.

Next came the same attack as above.  The defender blocked with the front hand, did a hook kick with the front leg and then follow that up with a roundhouse kick.  We did the same attack but this time we blocked and did a roundhouse kick followed up with a hook kick.

The last drill we worked on had our attacker shifting forward and throwing a reverse punch.  The defender die a block with a reverse punch counter, then spin around with a fist into a horse stance.  The idea was to end up behind your attacker when executing the back fist.

This was a really good class but I wish that my body would have cooperated a little better with the kicks.  Sensei Brien told me that many of the spinning kicks can also be applied to sweeps and leg attacks.

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Focus on balance not technique – 7/15/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik shared another well rounded class with us today.  We worked on kihon, self defense and kata.

On to kihon…

After our warm up we did downward block with reverse punch, then inward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch all moving forward and back.

The next drill we did was moving forward and back doing reverse downward block.  Yes, you read that correctly, reverse downward block.  The point that Sensei always makes when we do drills that we normally don’t do, is to open our minds to doing something different and when doing this drill it takes just that to make it work.  We also did reverse downward block with jab and reverse punch, which felt natural after a few moves.

Next came, moving forward with front snap kick and front punch.  The next move is not may favorite, front stance with inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and backfist.  Sensei said to insert a cat stance between the horse stance and front stance to help position the body before each stance.

Next came back stance with knife hand block moving forward and back.  Next came, back stance with knife hand block and front kick.

Time ot kick.  From a horse stance we stepped across and did side thrust kick, then side snap kick, then side front kick.  The next drill was step behind and hook kick.  This was really tough drill for me.

Partner pad drills….

We paired up and one partner held a pad.  From there, we shifted our weight to our back leg and then shifted our weight to the front then punched and hit the pad.  Putting the body behind the move, makes even a small movement very powerful.  We did a similar drill using a backfist but instead of using just our fist we used our entire forearm to hit the pad.  When doing this drill, you need to squeeze the floor with your legs and use the tensing of all the muscles of the body to make power.

Kata…

Sensei had us start with Heian Shodan but he wanted us to do the kata with our focus on the pull hand.  This always makes the kata feel much different to me and I need to keep this in mind whenever I do my katas.  We did all of the Heian katas, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.

Sensei made a comment about Heian Godan that I never thought of.  When doing the move right before the first kiai, do not pull the right hand back before the punch.

Sensei also told us to focus on keeping our balance not technique.  The idea is to fight to keep your balance and the technique will come by itself.

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