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

Archives for February 2011

Listen for your knife hand block – 2/17/11 – Thursday Karate class

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This was a fun class.  Sensei Cieplik had us do a drill where our partner listened for our knife hand.

Basics….

Many basics today.  We started from a front stance, did a knee strike, then a front snap kick, and set the kicking leg down behind us in a front stance.

Next, we did moving forward and back with downward block,  inward block , rising block and outward block, all with reverse punch.  Then moving forward and back with reverse inward block, jab and reverse punch.   There was a lot of silence in the room when Sensei mentioned reverse inward block.  After that, we did moving forward and back with reverse punch.

You will hear if your partner is doing the drill correctly….

For this drill, we stood next to our partner, brought one hand near our ear and did horizontal knife hand strike past our partners ear.  If we did the drill correctly, our partner would hear a swoosh sound as our knife hand passed their ear.

More basics and kata….

Next came, horse stance and step across.  Then the same with side thrust and side snap kicks.  The idea is to move with the body, from the hips not the shoulders.  You also want to keep the foot that is moving across in contact with the floor at all times.

For Kata we did, Heian 1 thought Heian 5, Jion and Bassai Dai.

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The eye in your elbow – 2/10/11 – Thursday Karate class

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We did many of the standard drills in class today but Sensei Cieplik said a few things that really stood out.

Make those kicks better….

Sensei had us start in left foot forward front stance and we put our left hand in front of our body near center.  From there, we did a rear leg knee strike, touching our hand  with our knee while keeping our stance.

Eye in your elbow….

The idea of having your eye in your eye in your elbow when doing a knife hand is to keep your arm in a position where your elbow is facing your target.  I am thinking it is much like when you kick and you point your kicking leg knee at your target.

One point that I never hear too much of….

Sensei often mention that it takes 30 years to learn Karate.  The first 10 years are spent learning to relax.  The second 10 years are spent learning to adjust your body to the movements or techniques.  The last 10 years are spent learning how to move naturally.

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