Shotokanplanet.org

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

Monday Karate workout.

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I took Saturday and Sunday off to rest my foot.  I have been having some problems with my left foot for the last couple weeks and I hope that the couple days off have helped it heal.  It didn’t bother my when I did my kata tonight.  It seems to hurt when doing side thrust kicks and roundhouse kicks so I won’t know until I do my kicking in class tomorrow.

One each of Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan and Heian Yondan.  Three each of Heian Godan and Tekki Shodan. (10 total)

I did slow motion kata with a powerful tense of my muscles at the end of each move.  I am hoping to help train myself to tense my muscles right at the end of the move instead of throughout the moves which has been slowing me down.

Friday Karate class.

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Excellent class.  We spent most of the time working on hip mobility and specific parts of our kata.  The moves were very hard and not only made heavy use of our hips but it also focused on speed and coordination.   One movement started in a back stance knife hand block, then spin around in to a front stance groin strike and then into a back stance double block from Heian Godan.

Heian Godan secrets from Thursday class.

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When doing the cresent kick, turn my left foot forward before doing the kick. Swipe my foot off my hand, hold the kic, then come down, reach out with my right leg in to the horse stance and push my knees forward while doing the head smash.

When doing the cross leg double block push the hips to the right at the same time when I do the block.

When coming off the first kiai, bring the right hand over the head as if pointing a pencil at the ceiling and bring the and down to the side instead of doing a downward block.

The jump height should be knee level or higher.

When doing the downward x-block, push down and then when coming up in to the upward x-block, bring the hands in and push up hard. I bounced my hands off my chest when going in to the upward x-block and it seems to work t well for me since it gives me more force and power from my hips and legs.

When doing a side kick, look first and then kick!  This made a huge difference in my side kick.