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

Archives for 2010

Figure eight side thrust kicks – 7/6/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia really worked us hard tonight!

Awesome warm up….

Sensei Noia warmed up the class and I have to admit, I felt really loose and ready to go.  Many really good stretches.

Up and over….

Sensei had us get a pad and place it on the floor.  From there, we stood in front of the pad and did a right leg, outside in crescent kick followed up with a left leg inside out crescent kick.  We got into a rhythm and did them alternating left to right and right to left.  We did that drill for what seemed like 10 minutes but my legs felt really good until what came next.

Figure eight side thrust kicks….

This drill was torture.  We got a partner and one of us held two pads in front of us.  The other partner did a side thrust kick and then moved the kicking leg in a figure eight around both the pads in one direction then the other.  Next, we did the same drill but then hopped on our stationary leg one person to the right and did the same thing, then to the next person on the right down the line until we got through about 20 people.  Needless to say, walking was not too easy after this drill.

Sticky wrists and pull….

For the next drill, we stood in front of our partner with the outside of our wrists touching.  From there, we moved our arms and at the right moment, we pulled our partners hand down and to the side and reverse punched them to the head.

The last drill of the day was to do the same drill but as we pulled our partners hand down, we did a front leg sweep.

It was an a really hard class and one that I and my legs won’t forget any time soon.

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Ten-no-kata – 7/1/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik had us spend a lot of time working on kihon and kata today.

Knee strike, turn and more….

After our warm up we started with knee strike, turn 90 degrees and put the knee strike leg down behind us. The key is to turn 90 degrees using the core, not the shoulders and to put the leg that did the knee strike down hard.

The drill was similar.  We did knee strike, front snap kick, turn 90 degrees, put the kicking leg down behind and reverse punch.  Turning from the core is something that needs to be worked on otherwise there will be no connection between the upper and lower body.

Ten no kata….

I always like ten no kata.  We start in a ready stance.  From there, we step forward with the left leg and do a front punch and then move back to ready stance.  We then step forward with the right leg and do a punch again and back to ready.  Then we step back with the right leg and do another punch and go back to ready.  For the forth move, we step back with the left leg and do a front punch again.  This can be done with blocks, punches, kicks, combinations of blocks, punches and kicks and a full Karate can be designed on just this movements.

Lots of kata….

We finished up working on Heian Shodan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Kanku Dai.

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Same hand block and counter – 6/29/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Plocharczyk filled in for Sensei Noia tonight and gave us a class full of self defense drills.

Get those legs warm….

We started with some simple kicking drills.  With a partner, each of us threw alternating front snap kicks.  After that we worked on alternating roundhouse kicks.  Then came a drill where we did rear leg roundhouse followed up with front leg roundhouse.

Same hand block and counter….

We spent a good amount of time working on some same hand block and counter drills.  One of the drills, that I really liked, started with our partner throwing a front hand jab that we block with our front hand and then immediately counter with a jab.  We did a similar drill where instead of countering with a jab, we used a back fist.

The only problem with classes like these is that so much information is shared but it is hard to absorb and remember all of it.  I know that I am going to be working on those two drills going forward.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.