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

Bunkai – 3/4/10 – Thursday Karate class

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This was a very mentally challenging class for me today.  Sensei Cieplik had us work on bunkai from different katas.

Basics, then add a partner….

Sensei had us work on a drill that I haven’t seen in a while.  This drill had us in a fighting stance and from there, we changed our feet quickly and jabbed using the power from our upper body.  For example, starting with the left foot forward, we pulled the left foot back to the right foot, then stepped forward with the right foot and jabbed.

Another drill that we worked on was moving forward with reverse punch.  We did this with one, two, three and four punches moving forward.

For our next drill, we moved into groups of three.  We started with a drill where on partner stood between the other two.  From there, the middle person put a hand on each partners shoulder.  We then did a forceful knee strike.  The idea was to get the feeling of a powerful knee strike while keeping our posture and balance.

Kata bunkai….

We spent the rest of the class working on bunkai from the Heian katas.  We started with the first three movements from Heian Nidan.  Our partner punched at our head and blocked with the left hand, they then punched again and blocked with the right hand and trapped their arm between the front arm and back arm.

We also worked on Heian Shodan.  From there, our partner attacked with a front kick from the side and we did a downward block, deflecting the kick out of the way. We also worked on moves three and four where we block a front snap kick and counter attack with the hammer fist.

It was a great class, I wish I could remember more of what we did.

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Hop and kick – 3/2/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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Very hard class today.  Sensei Noia pushed us really hard with a lot of basics.

Get hopping….

After a really tough warm up with squat jumps and other really painful movements, Sensei had us do a drill that I don’t remember ever doing in the past.  We did a front snap kick, side thrust kick and a back kick and then hopped three times on the support leg.  We then set that leg done and worked the other leg that same way across the dojo.

Seiza….

For the next drill, we all got down into seiza.  From there, Sensei had us do front punch, double punch, triple punch and some rising block.  After that, we did front kick, side kick and back kick from seiza too.  I would like to officially call these movements knee killers going forward.

Get a partner and make them work hard….

For the next drill, we got a partner and stood across from them in a front stance.  One partner would step forward with a punch followed with a jodan reverse punch where the other would do a rising block and then a reverse rising block. After that, the attacking side would step forward with a chudan punch and reverse punch an the other an inward block and a reverse inward block.  The next move was a gedan punch and reverse punch and the blocking person would do a downward block and reverse downward block.  It was a really tough drill to grasp mentally but near the end, I think I was doing it the correct way.

We finished up in a horse stance in front of our partner.  From there, one partner did an inward block and other did an outward block against each other.  This forced us to use our lat muscles when holding the movement against our partner.

It was really hard but really good too.

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Good kihon makes good Karate – 2/26/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien, along with Sensei Cieplik, often say good kihon make good Karate.  If your want good kata or good kumite, your kihon needs to be good.  Sensei has mentioned before that without good kihon, your kata will never be much more than memorized movements much like a dance.  He often said that he could teach any good athlete the moves for a kata but they would not be doing Karate because of they do not understand the kihon or basics.

Working toward good kihon….

Sensie had us spend most of the class working on kihon drills.  We did blocks and strikes back and forth across the dojo.  We started with simple movements such as moving forward with front punch or blocks, then we moved into combination movements with block and punches and then we spent a lot of time working on our kicks.  We did front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick but with extra attention to the little details trying to make the movements perfect.

More kicks….

For the next drill, we got a partner and did front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick.  We used our partner as a support and did all three kicks.

We also worked on a roundhouse drill where we kicked each other, trying to keep our heel to our butt until we point our knee at out target and then let the kick fly. The idea was to mask that the kick is coming until it is too late for the opponent to see it.

It was a really tough class with lots of hip and leg work.

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