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

8/25/07 – Saturday Karate class.

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Since I only took one class on Friday, I wanted to make it up on Saturday.

We spent most of the class working on sparring drills.  We started shifting in throwing reverse punches at our partner to get warmed up.  After that, we shifted in. threw a jodan reverse punch, shifted out and back in and threw a chudan reverse punch then moved to the right to punch at a different partner.

Next, Sensei had us get in to groups of three.  One partner would shift in and punch, one was a target and the other would try to hit the attacker with one of those soft pool pads if we didn’t shift out fast enough.  The drill did make us focus on getting out of the way after the attack but it was depending on good timing from the partner with the pool pad.

We finished up in a circle with the Sensei’s attacking us with the pool pads while we blocked.

Having my hips working better really helped me shift backwards faster than before.

8/24/07 – Friday Karate class.

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I only took one class since I didn’t want to push my hips too much after my chiropractic session with Dr. Pusateri earlier today.

I did end up doing one of the drills in the earlier class where our partner would hold a pad at belt level, we did a very slow side thrust kick and rested our foot on the pad and then Sensei told us to pull our foot back to the starting position very fast. I was able to retract my leg faster than ever and I didn’t have any problems getting my foot on the pad. Sensei did tell me to take it easy since he knew that the Doc told me not to go ballistic.

In my class we spent a lot of time working on stances. This was great for me since my stances were low and solid. Since my gluteus is working, I was able to lock my back leg when throwing a front punch and I was able to open my hips when when doing my blocks. It was a totally different feeling that I have not had since I started taking Karate.

When then partnered up. Sensei gave us the elastic exercise bands and had our partner place them around our hips while standing behind us. We then got in to a low stance, our partner would hold the bands and we would move forward while staying in our low stances. I was able to lock my back leg and it made my stances so much more solid. There was no bounce at all. We did a lot of repetitions going forward and then we did the same thing moving backward while paying attention to keeping our back foot planted when moving.

I was able to spend a little time with my Sensei after class and he had me do a couple of front stances with some blocks and punches so that he could see my hips working again.  I also threw a high side thrust kick while holding on to the wall and even though I was leaning a bit too much, my kick was about chest height and I was able to hold it up.

My first visit to the ISKC chiropractor.

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After months, or years, of not being able to throw good side kicks, Sensei Noia suggested that I go see the team chiropractor, Dr. Thomas Pusateri.

I was really nervous about going since I have heard horror stories from others about going to chiropractors but since Sensei Noia said he was good and knowing that all of the champions from our Karate club have gone to him, I felt it was time to go if I really want to improve my kicks and stances. Also, he has been doing this for 28 years and was very reassuring that he knew what he was doing. He has also been taking Karate classes for many years so he knows about how the body should work.

He spent close to two hours evaluating me. He found that my right pectoral and latissimus muscles were not working and that my gluteus muscles were totally turned off. He was able to make some adjustments to my neck that brought the pectoral and latissimus muscles back online. He was also worked on my neck a little more to get my gluteus working again. He then tested the range of motion of my hips. While keeping one leg straight, he moved each leg out to the side. The range of motion was less than 45 degrees and my right leg was the worse of the two. He also have me throw a slow side thrust kick and the height was well below the height of this desk.

After some more work on my neck and digging in to my leg muscles and hip area he was able to get the range of motion on left leg out to 90 degrees and the right leg to about 80 degrees. He feels that I have a bone spur on my right hip from pushing it in class to much and he will have to work on me some more to get it fixed. I was also able to throw my side thrust kick above the edge of his desk by a more than a few inches.

The digging in to my muscles was a horrible pain but in order to fix things, it’s something that I guess I am going to have to get used to for at least a short time. He also gave me some stretching exercises and told me not to go ballistic in class right away.

The real test came during class. After a little warm up, I was able to get down lower in my front stance than ever before. The best part is that, since my gluteus are turned back on, my hips were able to open an close when I would block and punch like they should have been. The other thing is that my side thrust kick was much higher and my balance was better too.

Needless to say, I am more than impressed and am going to visit him again.

If any of you are interested in going to see Dr. Pusateri, his information is:

Applied Chiropractic Arts
1560 West Algonquin Road
Hoffman Estates, Illinois 60192
(847) 934-4144