Shotokanplanet.org

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

Words of wisdom 11/7/08 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Noia had us spend most the class working on conditioning and sparring drills.

Words of wisdom…

Sensei Noia gave me some of the best sparring advice that he has ever given me.  He told me to stop trying to spar like the faster and more flexible people.  I was sparring one of our assistant instructors tonight and I was trying to keep up with him, shifting in and out but was unable to do it.  Sensei Noia said that I don’t need to shift around and can just stay in place and then put pressure on my opponent or make them come to me.  He said that I need to do it like the older Japanese guys who used to make everyone come to them and then they would attack or counter and attack instead of dancing all around the place.

For the longest time, I always felt that I needed to move around like the younger students if I ever wanted to be able to spar well.  After just a few moments, I was able to block and counter more times than I recall ever doing.  I am almost looking at it like one-step sparring but without knowing what attack is coming.

It was really enlightening and I am glad that Sensei Noia told me like it is.

New Kihon drills – 11/6/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik had us do a little less kicking warm up today and started with some kicking Kihon drills.

Kicks…

Sensei had us start with front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick combinations.  After the first kick, the movement starts to get a rhythm and it just flows.

Next came front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick, then put it down behind, step forward and execute a sanbon zuki.  We then did the same kicks but stepping forward with a simple front punch.  After that, we did the same kicks again but with a front hand jab followed up with a reverse punch.

Kata and bunkai…

Sensei Cieplik had us do a quick Heian Shodan and then came Heian Nidan.  After doing the kata a couple of times, Sensei had us get a partner and we worked on the bunkai for the first three moves.  It is hard to type this out but I will try my best.  Your partner attacks with a front punch and then you step back into a back stance, out of the way of the punch.  You then catch the punching hand between the blocking hands between the first and second move.  After that, you pull the punching hand and strike the ribs with the other hand from move three.  It feels very effective when done the right way but it took me a good amount of tries to get it right.

Lots of kata and more kata – 11/4/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia had us start with some kata.

Lots of kata…

We started with Heian Shodan, then our own kata (Bassai Dai for me).  Next came two Heian Nidan’s then my kata again, then three Heian Sandan’s then my kata, then four Heian Yondan’s and my kata, then five Heian Godan’s and my kata and then Six Tekki Shodan’s and them my own kata.  After all those, we started with Tekki Shodan and worked all the way back down to Heian Shodan and after those, we did our kata again.  We did somewhere over 30 kata’s in about 35 to 40 minutes.

One thing that got me through this part of the class was watching Sensei Plocharczyk doing the kata’s with us.  Whenever my mind gave up, I would look over at him not stopping and keep going myself because of him.  Sensei Noia said that we didn’t have put 100% into every kata but watching Sensei Plocharczyk give 100% made me do the same too.

One-step on our own and the block punch drill…

After all of the kata’s, Sensei had us do the block and counter parts of one-step sparring.  We then finished up doing the block punch drill with a partner.  My first partner was my wife and her and I do this drill pretty good but then we switched partners and I did the drill with Sensei Plocharczyk.  Do the drill with him is a different experience because he moves so smooth and fluid.  I felt that I did pretty well with him but I know he was going easy on me.

This class was incredible.