Shotokanplanet.org

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

Ten-no-kata – 7/1/10 – Thursday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Sensei Cieplik had us spend a lot of time working on kihon and kata today.

Knee strike, turn and more….

After our warm up we started with knee strike, turn 90 degrees and put the knee strike leg down behind us. The key is to turn 90 degrees using the core, not the shoulders and to put the leg that did the knee strike down hard.

The drill was similar.  We did knee strike, front snap kick, turn 90 degrees, put the kicking leg down behind and reverse punch.  Turning from the core is something that needs to be worked on otherwise there will be no connection between the upper and lower body.

Ten no kata….

I always like ten no kata.  We start in a ready stance.  From there, we step forward with the left leg and do a front punch and then move back to ready stance.  We then step forward with the right leg and do a punch again and back to ready.  Then we step back with the right leg and do another punch and go back to ready.  For the forth move, we step back with the left leg and do a front punch again.  This can be done with blocks, punches, kicks, combinations of blocks, punches and kicks and a full Karate can be designed on just this movements.

Lots of kata….

We finished up working on Heian Shodan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Kanku Dai.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

Same hand block and counter – 6/29/10 – Tuesday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Sensei Plocharczyk filled in for Sensei Noia tonight and gave us a class full of self defense drills.

Get those legs warm….

We started with some simple kicking drills.  With a partner, each of us threw alternating front snap kicks.  After that we worked on alternating roundhouse kicks.  Then came a drill where we did rear leg roundhouse followed up with front leg roundhouse.

Same hand block and counter….

We spent a good amount of time working on some same hand block and counter drills.  One of the drills, that I really liked, started with our partner throwing a front hand jab that we block with our front hand and then immediately counter with a jab.  We did a similar drill where instead of countering with a jab, we used a back fist.

The only problem with classes like these is that so much information is shared but it is hard to absorb and remember all of it.  I know that I am going to be working on those two drills going forward.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

Rohai kata – 6/24/10 – Thursday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Another excellent class with Sensei Cieplik.  Sensei also shared an interesting tip: In order to keep from putting too much stress on the body with acrobatic type movements, “Visualize the movement three times and do it once.”

Some different kihon drills…

After the warm up, we did knee strike with front snap kick.  Then, front snap kick with front punch.  Next came front leg front snap kick, rear leg front snap kick followed up with sanbon zuki (triple punch).

Get a partner…

We spent a lot of time working on some partner drills.  We start with a drills where one partner would jab and reverse punch and the other would block both attacks and counter with a jab.  For example, from kamae, with both partners in a a fighting stance, with left hand and leg forward, you jab with the left hand, reverse punch with the right.  The person on defense, blocks the jab with the left hand, blocks the reverse punch with the right hand and counter with a left hand jab.

The next drill is similar but instead of a using a jab to counter, you use a backfist instead.

The next drill is a little harder to put into written text and hard to remember too but I will try.  One partner stands in ready stance and the other parter is in a fighting stance.  From their the partner in the fighting stance is attacking with a front snap kick and the partner on defense is doing a low scooping block under the attackers leg, driving them back off balance and attacking their face with a jab or backfist.  It was a pretty dangerous movement and we had to do it very slowly in order not to take our partner down.

A kata called Rohai…

This was fun.  Sensei called all of the Shodan’s to the front and did a kata with us.  This kata is not from Shotokan but instead, it is from Yamazaki Sensei’s (Sensei Cieplik’s Sensei)  style called Ryobu-kai.  The kata is called Rohai and is equivalent to middle belt, maybe green belt level.  I wish I could describe this kata but even after doing it three times with Sensei, I cannot remember much more than the first few moves.

It was an awesome class!

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.