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

Step down not back – 10/14/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik fit a lot of Karate into a short time today.

Lots of kihon….

After the warm up we did rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, then front leg roundhouse kick, then the same but with reverse punch at the end of the kick. Next, we did double front snap kick and double roundhouse kick.

Sensei had us do a little different move, more for our mind than our bodies. We did moving forward with reverse downward block, jab and reverse punch. This really got the hips moving.

Next came back stance with knife hand block, then we added a front snap kick followed with knife hand block, then we did knife hand block with front snap kick and spear hand.

Next came inward block, elbow strike and back fist. Then horse stance step across, just step across. Then step across in horse stance with side thrust kick, then step across horse stance with side snap kick and then step across horse stance with side front kick.

Slap that foot and block…

Next, we got a partner. Our partner did a front snap kick, we slapped their foot out of the way, stepped in a did and attack using the same hand that we slapped their foot with. Slapping their foot out of the way

Kata…

Next, we did Hian shodan, squeezing the floor hard, between each move. Next, we did Bassai Dai, Tekki Shodan, Heian 5, Heian 4 and Heian 3.

**Special note**

Sensei shared something tonight that made moving backward feel totally different. He said, when doing techniques moving backward, think of stepping down instead of stepping back. It changes the feeling of movement just by changing your mind.

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Hold your stance – 10/12/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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We warmed up by jogging to each quarter line across the gym and back four times.
After the warm up, we moved forward and back across the gym in a front stance with our hips closed, like a punch. Next we did the same but with hips open, like a block. We did the same again but this time, we moved into the stance with our hips open, then we closed them, like doing a block with reverse punch.

Get a pad…..

We stood in a front stance and put the pad even with our knee and toe on our front leg. From there we held the stance and did punches and blocks, without letting our knee move around.

Next, we did the drill like above but in a back stance. From the back stance, again we put the pad in line with our knee and toe but on our front leg. From there we did blocks.

After that, Sensei Noia had us put those stances to the test and we did a front stance with punch, move into a back stance with knife hand block, then back into a front stance with punch again.

Get it right, slow kata….

We started doing very slow Jion but was as close to perfect stances as we could get. I am not sure how many times we did Jion or parts of it but there was lot.

We then did our own kata, Kanku Dai for me, holding each stance for two seconds then exploding into the next move. We finished class with a single full power and full speed kata.

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Squeeze the floor – 10/7/10 – Thursday Karate class

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There is not a lot to type about as far as the techniques that we did with Sensei Cieplik today but there was a very important theme to this Karate class in relation to stance training.

Ten-no kata….

Sensei has us start out with the normal warm up and the we moved into some ten-no kata. Ten-no kata is a group of basic movements that form a simple kata. For example, we stepped forward with our left leg and did a front punch, we then moved back to ready and then stepped forward with our right leg. Back to ready again and then we stepped back with our left leg forward and then back to ready and once more, we stepped back with our right leg forward and executed the technique. Front punches can be replaced with pretty much any other attack or block since the pattern is easy to follow once you get used to it.

Squeeze the floor….

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on our stances and the idea of squeezing the floor before moving forward or backward. For example, when moving forward, the idea is to pull with your front leg and use your back leg to keep you from moving. This creates what Sensei calls dynamic tension. With the tension, the rear leg moves forward at blinding speed once it’s released. I compare this a engaging the parking break on a front wheel drive car while stepping on the accelerator then releasing the parking break. All this power is just waiting to go and once released it launches the car forward.

Focusing on the dynamic leg tension, the arms kind of just go. I wasn’t really paying any attention to my hand techniques but they seemed to fly out without having any mind focusing on them. The only downside to this training is that it’s very painful and intense. If my hips had a mouth, I would have to censor what they were saying to me after few sets.

We finished up class doing kata while squeezing the floor on the punches and blocks in each movement of Heian Shodan. Give this a try and see what a difference it makes in your Karate movements. I remember being told to do this before but this was the first time that I remember spending most of a class working on this specific concept. Good stuff!

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