It’s been a long time since I have taken a formal Karate class and after saving up my pennies I am able to take class again.  I trained at home almost every day and helped teach whenever work would allow but nothing compares to taking a formal Karate class.  When I train at home, I have a fairly structured workout that is planned out before I start but the dynamics of a formal Karate class are what makes the difference.  Class is based upon whatever Sensei Noia has us do and that dynamic really makes the training so much more effective.

Cold dojo equals long warm up

The dojo was exceptionally cold today but Sensei made sure we had a good warm up.

We started running back and forth five times across the dojo.  Then shuffle back and forth followed with front stance, back stance and horse stance back and forth.  Next came squat kicks for 10 with each leg and push ups came after those.  We did a single Heian kata of our choice then standing single, double and triple punches.  Needless to say, I was warm after that.

Cross leg stance work

Sensei had us work on cross leg stances.  We started with the sequence from Jion near the middle of the kata going from standing with arms at our sides to the cross leg stance with the x-block.  We then did a cross leg stance with any arm technique from the kata of our choice.  Then we did some specific cross leg stance moves from two other katas of our choice.  I did cross leg stance with overhead strike from Heian Yondan and then the cross leg stance with block from the start of Bassai Sho.

Next we did standing punch with block, again punch with block and move into back back stance with knife hand block from Bassai Dai.

Focus on your mitt

We spent the rest of the class working on some focus mitt drills along with some partner drills.

We started with one partner holding the focus mitt and the other doing punches, double punches and triple punches.  We also did back fist, knife hand and forearm strikes to the focus mitt.

We finished up with a simple partner drill where one partner punches and the other blocks with their reach hand and then knife hand strikes their neck.  It is a simple movement but effective and one that we don’t practice enough.  I feel, because of the focus on free sparring, we are often taught to block with the knife hand but after a while, those moves that we call blocks are often strikes and they can be very effective.

I haven’t written much here since I have not been taking classes because of real life issues but I am still assisting each week and I thought it would be useful to outline the classes.

Step, technique and lunge

Sensei Plocharczyk started class with a tough warm up.  He had the students do each of the Heian katas but after each step, he had them do a lunge in place.  For example, Downward block to your left, lunge, step and punch, lunge and so on with each move of all five katas.  It did get interesting when the back stance and horse stances came up and the students had to pivot in order to get there legs in proper alignment to the do the lunges.  I’ll admit, I miss taking class but I am not sure if I would have made it though the warm up today.

Various kicking kihon

This is where Sensei really starts to push not only the body but the mind too.  He often comes up with combinations that make you think as hard as you strike.  One such drill began in a front stance, then front snap kick, putting the kicking leg back behind and then doing a front snap kick before stepping forward.  The point behind this drill was to get the students to use their hip action where you extend and retract the hip.  Most would think that this is nothing new but you would be surprised how many students, even younger ones, only use their legs for kicking instead of their hips.  This action of the hips is something that students either forget or they never did when first learning.

The next drill, along similar lines, was from a front stance, with a knee strike, striking leg down and behind and then front snap kick.  After that came, the knee strike again but with a roundhouse kick.  There were some other drills, where the students goal was to keep their shoulders loose by keeping their arms down and hands loose while kicking for both front snap kicks and roundhouse kicks.  One student in particular, when keeping here arms loose and behind her hips improved her roundhouse kick like night and day.  Not using her arms to throw the kick made the techniques look much better then when here hands were clenched and in front of her.

Throughout the class, there were some push ups and other conditioning exercises to keep everyone working but the various kihon drills I am sure were enough.

One step for many and kata for one

Since there was an uneven number of students in the class, Sensei had everyone get a partner, except for the one student without a partner.  He had the partner groups do various forms of one step sparring while the single person did a kata with yours truly watching.  After the group finished one step, another student would do a kata for me and I would give then one or two pointers to help them clean up their katas.

Finish up with some knee strikes

Class ended with everyone partnered up and doing knee strikes on a focus mitt.  The idea was to use the hips to drive the knee into the focus mitt which sounds simple but as I noticed earlier, everyone doesn’t use their hips when striking with their knees.

After seeing all the kicks and hip work, I am starting to think that helping out with class is sometimes a little better than actually taking class.

Exams are coming to an end over the next couple weeks and Sensei Noia worked kata and basics today.

Exam time  is always good for training

Even though I stopped taking exams almost 6 years ago, I always enjoy the training before the exams. We spend a lot of time working on kihon and kata.

We started out doing all five Heian katas as a warm up. We could go as fast or as slowly as we wanted but with the intention of warming up and increasing intensity as we did them. After that, we did them all again with more intensity and speed since we were warmed up at that point.  Doing the Heian katas is always a good refresher and often, a Heian kata must be performed at the Shodan exams.

Next, we worked on basics. Starting with moving forward in a front stance with front punch, triple punch, back stance with knife hand block, horse stance with palm heel, horse stance with dropping strike from Jion, front kick with front punch, and front kick with triple punch. We followed that up with stances only, moving across the dojo doing two of the same stances and then changing to a different stance continuing to the other side of the dojo. We did the same again but this time adding hand techniques of our choice.

We worked on Taikyoku Shodan, executing each move with as much kime as possible. We did it twice again using only the left arm for one and right arm for another. One more time using both arms with all the power we could produce.

Kata of your choice but make it count

We then picked the kata of our choice and worked on power. After that, we had a partner watch us do the kata and tell us when the power started to decease for two total kats. We did it again and had our partner watch for spirit. Not just mean faces but if we were really into the fight and focused on what we were doing.

We then did one more kata trying to keep all that we just worked on in the kata. It was to supposed to be the all out, best of the night and then Sensei asked if anyone could have done better and for them to do one more kata if they felt the last wasn’t their best. Only one person stood off to the side, ya, you guessed it was me, because I felt that doing the kata once more would only be anti-climactic. I felt that the last kata I did was one of my best and I had little left in my legs to do one more and I knew that it would not be better than the last kata I did.