Archives for 2011

Sensei Noia had us spend a lot of time basics today but he had us put extra attention on our stances.  I can’t speak for anyone else but since we have been spending more time on stances, my stances have improved a lot.  I can hold a stance much longer than before and I am able to keep my knee from moving side to side.

Stance, stance, stance, stance….

After our warm up, we moved in to a horse stance and did punches.  We did singles punches, double punches and triple punches while holding our stances.

Next, we turned our toes out toward the corners and squatted down until the top of our legs were parallel to the floor.  I should say that many people were able to get in to that position but I was not one of them.  These old hips of mine are story for another day.  From that stance, we did rising blocks and outward blocks.

For the next drill, we lined up, side by side, the long way across the dojo and did stances only across the floor.  By stances only, I mean with no hand techniques.  We did front stance, back stance, horse stance, cross leg stance and cat stances back and forth.  After that, we did the same stances but with different blocking techniques and all with a reverse punch.  You really need to focus when doing a block or reverse punch from a cross leg stance or cat stance.  I have found that if you drop down, even just a tiny amount, when doing the arm techniques, it centers my balance and makes the move powerful.  Just grounding myself and dropping my center of gravity, even a half inch, made a big difference.

It didn’t get any easier.  Next came back stance with knife hand block and reverse punch.  After that we did rising block with reverse punch.  Again, dropping down when throwing the reverse punch makes a big difference.

The next back stance drill had us doing ridge hand, followed with same hand knife hand block and reverse punch.  I have a picture in my mind of how this drill could be applied to real life but I will leave that up to you to imagine.  Or leave a comment below and tell me how you would use it.

The next drill was done in a moving horse stance.  We did a jodan knife hand strike that is the same one used in Ji’in.

Kata and one-step sparring….

We finished up with some kata.  We did Taikyoku Shokan, then Heian Shodan then Taikyoku Shodan again.  Next came Jion where Sensei counted out each move for us.

We then did one-step sparring but we could not counter attack with punches or kicks.  We could use elbows, hammer fist, back fist or other counters.  This really made the old mind work hard after 50 minutes of hard work.

We finished up class with out own belt rank kata (Kanku Dai for me).  The first kata as slow but perfect and the second one was all out, 100% power and speed.   My 100% was 100% for that moment in time though which I guess is still 100% no matter how I look at it.

If it looks good, slow it down!  

Sensei Cieplik shared a really interesting point with us tonight about making good things more visible by not rushing them.  The idea is, if you do something really well in your kata, hold each move in a group of moves longer to have others focus on it.  More to come….After the normal kicking warm up, we started with some kihon.  We did downward block, rising block and inward block all with reverse punch.  Then came a real hip opener, outward block and reverse inward block with jab and reverse punch.  The key to this move was open the hips for the outward block, close the hips for the inward block, open the hips again for the jab and finally close the hips for the reverse punch.  Of course, keeping the front knee from moving is an important requirement.

For the next drill, we needed a partner.  We started in a front stance facing each other.  One partner remained stationary and the other did what Sensei called an 8 point roundhouse kick.

1. Bring kicking up and point it to the 45 degrees to the back.
2. Pivot and point the knee to the front.
3. Kick around your partners arm.
4. Snap the kick back.
5. Pivot and bring the knee back to 45 degrees again.
6. Pivot and point the knee to the front.
7. Kick around your partners arm.
8. Snap the kick back, bring the leg back to the side and set it down, behind, in a front stance.

For the next drill, we hit the pads.  One partner held the pad and the other hook punched it.  For this to be effective, Sensei said to aim the arm, drop the body and hit.  For example, the punching arm is bent and the punching fist is aimed at the target, you use your upper back muscles to lock your arm in position and from there you drop your body and hit the pad.  This certainly is a good way to understand “with the body.”

For the next drill, we stood in a tall stance and threw a punch from the hip.  The idea is to let the punching arm and hand be very loose and have it act like a whip (rock on a rope) and then have the motion of the hip throw the punch.  The makes the power come from the lower body and not the chest and shoulders.

Give them a reason to pay attention to your movements….

Next came kata.  Sensei had the black belts go first .  We did Kanku Dai while he watched us and then said, when you get the four knife hand blocks in a back stance movements, do not rush through those four moves.  Pause for at least one second between each of those moves to show everyone how good your back stance looks.  We did Kandu Dai twice and then moved on to Join.

Today, Sensei Cieplik had us do our normal warm up which includes many kicks and as we were kicking, he saw something that many of us were doing that needed to be fixed.

We must fix this…..

We started with front snap kick to the front 20 times each leg.  Right after that, we got a partner.  One partner holds one hand out in front of the other, just above belt height, and the other partner brings their knee up to their hand, three times and on the third time, we front snap kick.  We did this drill 20 times with each leg.

For the next drill, we stood in front of our partner with one hand on their shoulder.  We then held one knee up as high as we could and then, while holding it up, we kicked above their belt 40 times with each leg.

The next drill is either a great kicking drill or a good bicep builder.  For this drill, you bring your leg up to the front, put one hand on your partners shoulder, then hook your arm your leg that you are holding up and bring it out to the side for a slow side thrust kick while keeping your arm hooked around it.  I should have arms like Arnold Schwarzenegger after doing this drill.

We couldn’t leave out the roundhouse kicks.  For this drill, we stood face to face with our partner, brought our back leg up to the side for a roundhouse, pivoted, then kick slowly at our partner and have them turn our kicking leg hip over at the end and point our foot down.

The next drill was a sparring drill.  From a fighting stance, one partner stepped in an punched, the other partner blocked and reverse punched, to other partner tapped the inside of the first partners calf and counter with a reverse punch.

Help the lower ranks with their kata….

Sensei paired each of the black belts up with a lower belt and had us give them help with their kata.

One of the most important parts of Karate is helping others so that they can carry on your art.  Hopefully, one day, the person that I helped will be able to pass on what they have learned to someone else.