Shotokanplanet.org

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

Crescent kicks, I like them – 10/24/09 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Plocharczyk really worked us today.  I don’t remember doing this many kicks in a long time.

Focus mitt, partner and lots of kicks….

Sensei had us get a partner and our focus mitts.  From there we started with a low roundhouse kick.  Our partner sat in seiza (kneeling posture) and held the focus mitt about a foot of the floor for us to kick.  After that, we worked on a front stomp kick.  For this kick, you bring your knee up high in front and then push your heel down in front.  We did this with our partner holding the focus mitt again.

For our next drill, we worked on higher roundhouse kick.  After those came the fun stuff.  We spent a lot of time working on crescent kicks, both inward and outward.  I never really worked on this kick until today and I really find it interesting.  I was really shocked at how much power I can put behind it.  I never really saw this as powerful movement but it really is and it gave my hips an awesome workout.

We also worked on some conditioning drills and kata in between the kicks along with a drill, that we have done with Sensei Cieplik before, where we sit in seiza and raise up and down to strengthen our knees.

Walking after class was no easy task but I am sure my legs will recover sooner or later.

Do your Karate paperwork – 10/22/09 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik has been spending a lot of time sharing the little details that make good Karate even better.  For at least a month, he has been giving us homework and special drills to improve our stances and our movements and tonight was no different.

Paper underfoot…

Sensei gave all of us a piece of paper about four inches by five inches.  He then had us put it under the ball of our left foot and had us stand in a front stance.  From that position we slid our foot, with the paper under it, out into a cat stance, then farther into a front blocking stance, then a little more into a back stance and then repeat.  This was to give us the feeling of pushing our front leg forward and driving from the heel of the back leg.

For the next drill, we did Heian Shodan with the paper under one foot.  This gave a much different feel to the kata.  When the paper was under the front foot you could slide into the stance and when it was under the back foot you had to keep the heel down or it would slip out behind you.

Get a partner and a pad….

For our next drill, we got a partner and a pad.  Sensei had us work on a couple of different drills.  We started with reverse punch, then with sideways hammer fist and another move, for the advanced belts, where we put our hand about an inch from the pad our partner was holding and used body vibration to strike the pad.

Next, we had our partner get into a front stance as we walked around them and tested them, at various points on their body to see if they were locked or rooted in their stances.  For example, we would pull on their draw hand elbow or push on up or down on their punching hand.  We also pushed on their back leg to make sure it was locked and straight and we also pushed on their hip from the side where I was in my weakest position.  If you are not connected by your core, your stance is weak and your can easily be pushed off balance.  The core is the connection between the upper body and the lower body and if it isn’t there or weak, it will be very evident in your movements.

Lots of kata….

We moved into our kata next.  We started with Heian Shodan and went all the way to Tekki Shodan.  Sensei also gave us the option to do Heian Shodan with paper under the balls of both feet.  This was really interesting and certainly made the foot movements much more precise than when I did it without the paper.

We then worked on Jion with the paper under our feet up to the first kiai.  The first move in Jion is a real wake up if you do not drive the left leg back on the heel.

We then worked on Bassai Dai but without the paper.

Extra note for me to remember; When doing side thrust kick, kick my heel back and to the side.  I was kicking to the side and front instead of back.

Karate the old school way – 10/20/09 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia has been taking a different approach with the advanced class for that last few months and tonight was another good example.  He had mentioned to me about a month ago that he wanted us to start training again like we used to in the past and like he trained.  I am not sure about my other classmates but I have seen a huge improvement in my endurance, even though the classes have been very hard.

Kata, one-step at a time….

Sensei had us warm up with some kata and one-step sparring.  We got a partner and each of us did Heian Shodan and as soon as we finished that kata, we did one-step sparring.  We then did each of the other four Heian kata’s and Tekki Shodan with the one-step drill in between them each time.  This was a terrific warm up.

Kihon….

We started across from our partner in a horse stance.  From there we did front punches, double punches, triple punches along with rising block, inward block, outward block and downward block while holding our stance.  After that, Sensei had us get into shiko dachi (like a sumo stance) and had us do the same movements as above.  We ended up doing over 100 movements in each stance.

Next, we worked on back stance.  We started with stationary knife hand block.  For our next drill, we worked from a cat stance.  Each time Sensei counted we moved from a cat stance into a back stance making sure that we turned on our heels when moving from one move to the other.  We also did another drill where we started in a cat stance and did a stationary front leg front snap kick while keeping all our weight over the back leg.

Moving on….

For our next group of drills, Sensei had us work on blocks with reverse punch.  We started moving forward with a group of movements.  We did rising block, inward block, outward block and downward block all with reverse punch after each block.  Sensei had us focus on the finishing each move and also stepping forward as fast as possible.  I lost count of how many times we did this drill but it had to be at least 30 times or move.

Finish up with one kata…

We finished up class doing one kata, our belt kata.