Archives for 2011

One of things that I enjoy about taking classes with Sensei Cieplik is that he often revisits concepts or techniques after a period of time based on what he sees us doing in class.  Today, after doing our warm up kicks, he had us work on dynamic tension.

Dynamic tension….

From a front stance, pull with the front leg and push with the back leg until you cannot hold it and then let the kick fly.  Try to think of this concept like pulling a rubber band from both ends.

With the above in mind, we did many front snap kicks with front punch.

The next drills we did were from seiza (sitting on the floor with the buttocks resting on the heels.  The first drill was moving from seiza to kneeling position.  For the next drill, the idea was to lean back from the kneeling position and then straighten back up.  Some of us did a few kicks from seiza but my knees told me don’t even think about it.

The next drill was a “salad bowl” exercise.  From a front stance, the idea was to shift our weight on to our back leg, drop the hip and then spring forward and jab.  The jabbing motion will go on its own if this is done correctly.  This movement can be compared to the way a tiger loads up all of its weight on its back legs and then springs or launches forward.

Watch your partner very close….

For the next drill, we partnered up.  The idea behind this drill was to watch our partner either make them attack or catch their tell ( showing them prepare to attack.  It could be something as simple as them raising an eyebrow or seeing their shoulders raise up just before they begin the attack.

We finished up class with kata.  We did all of the Heian katas, Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  A key point that Sensei made was for us to present ourselves and be sure to have good posture before we start our kata and all the way through.  Good posture usually means better technique.

This was the last Thursday class of 2011 and I can say this was the best year of Karate classes yet and I am sure that 2012 will be even better!

For the last Tuesday class of 2011, Sensei Noia gave us class full of kata, basics and good, old fashioned pad hitting.  Hitting stuff almost always makes for a fun class and today was a fun class.

Warm up with kata….

We started out doing Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan and Heian Godan.  I always enjoy this type of warm up.

After the kata warm up, we moved on to basics.  We started by moving forward and back across the dojo with 5 different stances.  Those stances included, front stance, back stance, horse stance, cat stance and cross leg stance.  This was stance only drill with no arm movements.  Next, we did the same stances but added block and reverse punch.  We followed that with one count with stances and two techniques of our choice.   For example, we would do a front stance with a rising block and a back stance with knife hand block.

Hit the pads…

We spent the rest of the class hitting the pads.  The idea was to hit the pads without using a punch.  For the first drill, we could open hand techniques such as knife hand, ridge hand, back hand and palm strike.  The next drill let us use hammer fist and back fist.  For the last drill, we could use our elbows both horizontal or vertical and draw hand strike behind us.

Whenever we do drills like these, not using the common techniques, it always makes for an interesting class.

Sensei Cieplik has been telling us for many years, “from hip!”  Today, we had another taste of the type of power we can make when we use our  hips when we do our techniques.  Making power with a minimum of body movement is easy if we use our lower body instead of our shoulders and chest.  More about this below….

Start out with many kicks…

We started with front leg front snap and  rear leg front snap kick.  Moving forward with double front snap kick.  Moving forward with double front snap kick and then with double roundhouse kick.

We followed up with step across in a horse stance then with side snap kick, side thrust kick and both with one step.

We moved in to basics next with inward block, elbow strike and back fist and did this a number of times.

For the next drill, one of my favorites, we started in a front stance, loaded up our weight to the back leg and then reverse punched.  This movement always feels so strong because you have to use the hips and the entire body to do it.

The next drill was, from front stance, stationary jab and then step in with front punch.  Doing the jab first makes us throw our entire body into the front punch.  I am not sure how it looks but I would guess it is one of the strong moves in Shotokan.

Get a partner and hit them with your hip….

The the next drill, we partnered up.  We stood in a front stance and put one fist on a pad.  We pulled the hip back, same side as the fist, and used the hip and leg to push our arm forward.  We followed that drill with the same move but using a reverse punch instead.  The idea with both of these drills is to get under your partner by dropping your hips and using the salad bowl motion that Sensei often talks about.  We are using our locked arm as a push bar and our hips and lower body to move our partner.  We didn’t have to throw a single punch to move our partner back just by using our hips.  This is a concept that always sounds easy to do but is hard to actually perform.

Sensei always says this type of movement is like pushing a car in the snow.  You cannot push the car from your upper body, you need to drop your hips and get under it to push it forward.