Shotokanplanet.org

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

Few drills, many times – 5/27/11 – Friday Karate class

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In this class, Sensei Brien didn’t have us do a lot of different drills today.  Instead, he had us do a few drills many times over. 

Shuffle and shift, forward and back….

For the first set of drills, we did shuffle forward and backward doing rising block with reverse punch.  We did the same drill with downward block, inward block and outward block all with reverse punch.

For the next drill, we did shift forward with a block and then shift backward with reverse punch.  The next drill was similar except we did shift backward with the block and forward with the reverse punch.

Partner kicks and punches….

We started with a front snap kick to the front and a side thrust kick to the side where  our partner was standing holding a focus mitt.  That was followed with a roundhouse kick and hook kick combination and then hook kick and roundhouse kick combination to the pad.  We also worked on stationary crescent kicks, both outside in and inside out.

We spent the rest of the class working on moving focus mitt target drills.  Our partner would shift around, like free sparring and when they stopped, we would attack the focus mitt.  We finished up with a simple, step and punch the focus mitt drill.  The idea was to get the distance and timing correct.

Ready stance without upper body tension – 5/26/11 – Thursday Karate class

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One of my favorite things that I like about Sensei Cieplik’s class is the extra attention to fundamentals every week.  Sensei changes up the order of the techniques and adds some other movements but he always has us focus on doing the correct kihon techniques.    This never gets old and I know that doing these basic movements every week make my movements better.

Good kihon (basics) with the body….

After the warm up, we did moving forward and backward downward block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, rising block with reverse punch, and outward block with reverse punch. Sensei watches these move very closely and makes sure that we have good hip rotation and that we are using our entire body with each technique.

Next, we moved into moving forward and backward in a back stance with knife hand block.  The key to the back stance is to make sure that the front foot stay quiet.  Instead of banging the front foot heel down, the ball of the foot should touch the floor first while being gentle and quiet.   We also did moving forward and backward in back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand.

For the next drill, we did shuffle up, front leg roundhouse kick with reverse punch.  Lots of hip rotation in this drill.   We followed that up with some shifting drills.  We did shifting forward with jab, then jab reverse punch, and then double jab with reverse.

We finished up the kihon with moving sideways in a horse stance, then moving sideways again but with side thrust kick.  We did also side snap kick and then, side thrust kick with snap kick.

Last minute kata advice for the students who are testing….

Sensei had many students papers to sign so that they can test and he gave everyone detailed advice about ways to improve their kata.  We did Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, and Tekki Shodan three times.  We also did Jion, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai twice.  The higher ranked Black belts did their testing kata too.

One of the key points that I remember Sensei saying is when you move to ready stance show loose arms.  Don’t use your biceps to or show tension in the upper body when moving into the ready stance.  Another great tip, related to Hangetsu, was to bring your hands to the side when moving into the ready stance to show that you are bending a steel rod.  The idea is your hands are out to the sides, shoulders back and lower body a bit forward as if you are being a steel rod around your hips.

Make those hips work – 5/24/11 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia is still having us work on exam drills.  Today, he had the class work on sparring drills for the first 30 minutes or so.   I have to sit out sparring for some time, until I get my Cohron’s disease under control,  I did a bunch of  basics and kata until I was able to join the class to do some more basics and kata.

Basics and kata on the side….

While I was off to the side, I went through most of the exam criteria even though I am not testing.  It included moving forward and backward:

  • downward block and reverse punch
  • rising block with reverse punch
  • inward block with reverse punch
  • outward block with jab and reverse punch
  • inward block, elbow strike and back fist
  • back stance with knife hand block
  • back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand
  • front snap kick and double front snap kick
  • roundhouse kick and double roundhouse kick
  • stepping across, in a horse stance, with side thrust kick and side snap kick
  • roundhouse kick
  • k with all the blocks and punching combinations, kicks

I finished with all of the Heian katas and Tekki Shodan.

Circle of doom….

I joined the class when the drills were really tough.  One partner put their arm straight out to the side and other partner put their leg straight out like a front snap kick and made a circle motion around our partners outstretched arm.  We did both clockwise and counter clockwise circles.   We did the same drill again but this time, we put our leg out like a side thrust kick.

Since I was the odd man out, I had to do slow motion side thrust kicks by myself.  Sensei Noia came over and stacked some pads up for me to kick over.  I never kicked as high as I did tonight.  My every day stretching seems to be paying off.

More basics….

For the basics, we did the following five movements only forward and then the same backward in reverse order.

  • moving forward triple punch
  • moving forward with rising block and reverse punch
  • moving forward with rising block and reveres punch
  • moving forward with inward block, elbow strike and backfist
  • moving forward with outward block, jab and reverse punch

Next came the kicking drills.  We started with front snap kick to front, side thrust kick to side, back kick to rear, roundhouse to front and then reverse punch.  Next came, front snap kick to front, side thrust kick to front.  After those kicks, we did knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand.  We then finished up the class with one, full speed and power kata.

I missed the sparring part, it did look like fun, but I know that I will be back to it no time.