Shotokanplanet.org

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

Time to get ready for Karate exams – 9/28/09 – Monday Karate class

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Sensei Brien had us work on our examination preparation.  Exam time is right around the corner and Sensei wants to make sure that we are prepared.

20+ minutes of really hard work….

Sensei had us go through the entire kihon part of our exam.  It included the following:

  • Horse stance with front punch, double punch and rising block.
  • Moving forward and backward front punch
  • Moving forward and backward with sanbon zuki
  • Moving forward and backward with rising block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with downward block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with inward block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with inward block, elbow strike and backfist
  • Moving forward and backward with knife hand block, front snap kick and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with front snap kick and front punch
  • Moving forward and backward with double front snap kick
  • Moving forward and backward with double roundhouse kick
  • From horse stance, moving sideways with side thrust kick
  • From horse stance, moving sideways with side snap kick
  • Shifting forward with front hand jab
  • Shuffle up with reverse punch
  • Moving forward with shift and jab followed with shuffle and reverse punch

Sensei had us do all of those movements with less then 10 seconds rest between them.  The last time we did this, I was ready to fall down but today, it was hard but much easier than the last time we did this in class.  We also did more moves in each group than at the test.  Normally we do five of each group of movements but Sensei had us do six or more for some movements which was a little hard then what we would see at our test.

Sensei suggested that to prepare for our exam, we should do sprints and not long distance running since our movements are anaerobic by nature and not aerobic.

Kata with spirit, even though you are tired….

After a few minute rest, Sensei had us do our kata.  He was looking at the speed of the kata and the spirit that we had when we did it.  He made the point that many people, when tired, start the kata with a lot of spirit but soon the output level drops and the spirit goes way down.  Another point he made is that people speed up their kata just to try and get it done because they are tired.

Sensei had us do our kata twice more but taking those points into account.

One step kumite….

We spent the rest of the class working on one-step kumite.  Sensei wanted us to work on doing the block and counter attack like we would de-ai.  He wanted us to sense when our partner was going to attack, block extremely fast and counter attack before they finished their attack.  Not too  easy a task to perform but if we can get it, it will help improve not only our one step but our free sparring and self defense.

It was a very tough but good class.

It’s all about the details – 9/24/09 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik shared some Karate details with us tonight.

Use the hips….

Sensei had us work on a different kicking drill tonight.  He had us stand in a ready stance, put on foot forward, much like a cat stance, push our hips forward and tighten our glutes as if we were doing a front snap kick.  Next, we pulled our leg back and out to the side and bumped our hip out about an inch on side of the leg that we were holding out.  Next, we put our foot behind us, straightened our leg and pressed that heal down as if we were doing a back kick.  Next we brought our foot to the front but our hip over and pivoted our back foot as if we were doing a roundhouse kick.  We finished up by bringing our foot back to the front just like the first move we did above.  The idea behind this was to help us understand the feeling of what our hips should be doing on the various kicks.

Work those stances….

Sensei gave us a drill to help us work on our stances.  We started in the ready stance, moved into a cat stance, put the same leg behind us, then moved back into a cat stance, put the same leg in front, back into the cat stance, repeat the two moves above and then bring the leg back into a cat stance once more and step out to the side into a horse stance.  The concept behind this was to keep our weight loaded on the support leg while moving into the stances and when we put the leg behind, we pushed with it and when we put the leg in front, we pulled with it.  Another very important part is that is helps us maintain posture and keep us from moving with the shoulders instead of the hips.  Sensei suggested that we do this movement a little each day and next week he is going to give us another drill that helps our back stances.

Another drill, started in a front stance, we then push backward off the front leg and as the back foot hits the ground and the leg straightens, we throw a jab.  This creates a feeling of scary power.  And even though you are moving back the power feels as if it is projected forward.

Partner up and use that draw hand….

Sensei had us get a partner to work in some draw hand drills.  Sensei explained that most people will tense up if someone pulls in their front hand.  If they tense up, you can use that against them and pull yourself and your punch into them.  I stood in front of my partner with his front hand out, I then pulled in his hand with my front hand in which he tensed up, which becomes my draw hand, and then shifted in and reverse punched them.  I used his reflex action against him to make my punch stronger and faster.  I don’t recall ever doing a drill where I actually was able to us my draw hand to pull someone into my punch and this feeling was different than anything I recall doing in the past.

We finished up class with some kata.  Sensei had us do Heian Shodan using the feeling that we had from the drill above when we had a move that needed the draw hand.  This adds another dimension to a simple kata.  We then did Jion and Bassai Dai to finish up for the higher belts and the lower belts worked on H1-H5.

Parts of Jion – 9/22/09 – Tuesday Karate class

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Very hard class today.  Sensei Noia not only made the class physically hard, it was mentally hard for me.

Get your pads on….

Sensei Noia gave us an interesting warm up tonight.  After we bowed in, he had us get our pads on and get a partner.  He then had us do about five minutes of free sparring to get the blood flowing.  We started with one partner and then got a different partner.  I have to really work on blocking backfists.  My second partner must have caught me half a dozen times with her backfist.  When I would move into attack, she would just step back and put the backfist about a half inch from my face.

After the free sparring, Sensei had us race our partner back and forth across the gym about six times.

Get your focus mitt…

For this drill, one partner held the focus mitt in front of them with it flat and their palm turned up.  We then stood in front of them with our left hand on their right shoulder and our right hand above our head.  We then did the dropping strike from Jion but instead of stepping forward, we stepped back away from our partner so that we didn’t hit them.  The draw hand was the key to my power.  If I just dropped my arm and down into a horse stance there was power but the pulling the draw hand back made a lot more.  We did the drill with both arms.

Next, we did the same movements but without our partner and moving just like the way they are done in Jion.

The next drill was the double block, downward and upward into the rising elbow strike from Jion.  For the first move, your partner held the focus mitt at about thigh level and we did the double block striking the pad on the downward block.  Next, our partner held the pad higher up and we did the rising elbow strike.  A lot of people call that move a block but I like to think of it as a strike, the way that Sensei Cieplik explained it to me.

The next drill started in a cross leg stance with the x-block.  From there we stepped back and did the double downward block, then stepped forward into the double outward block and then into the over head x-block.  We did these movements both separate and in groups but it seems like we spent a lot of time on cross leg stance.  After doing these moves many times, we added the outward block and stepping forward front punch.  The theme tonight for these moves was speed.  Sensei made us do many moves over again because we were moving too slow.

We finished up with some full kata.  Sensei had us do Jion as he counted, moving like we did in the drills above.  For our last kata, Sensei Noia let us do our own kata but he gave us a choice of doing however we wanted.  This meant we could do it all out, slow speed, fast speed, lots of power, low power, just hands, just legs or however we wanted.  I ended up doing Bassai Dai at a speed as fast as I could with less power.

It was really helpful working on Jion like this and I hope that we have a class like this but with the focus on Bassai Dai soon.