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

Jumping kicks – 6/15/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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When it comes to Sensei Noia’s classes, I keep saying that his classes cannot get harder but then hen comes up with one that’s harder then before.  From now on, I am going to stop saying it because todays class was very hard.

Start out with 14 katas….

After a quick warm up, Sensei had us start with all five Heian katas, Tekki Shodan and then our own kata (Kanku Dai for me).  We did all of those katas in order and then after we finished, Sensei had us do them from the last kata we back down to the first.

Jumping kicks….

We then moved onto kicks.  Instead of just kicking, we started with moving forward, jumping front snap kicks.  After that, we did jumping roundhouse kicks, then jumping side thrust kicks and jumping hook kicks.  Needless to say, my jumping kicks were really ugly.

After that, we did moving forward, front snap kick, roundhouse kick, side thrust kick and hood kick inside crescent kick and outside crescent kick.  We then worked on moving forward with spinning back kick and after that came double spinning back kick.

Hit that pad, hard…..

Next, we got a partner and finished up class hitting the white pads.  We started in a horse stance, punching the pad.  Next, we moved into a front stance and reverse punched.  Then came elbow strikes, knife hand or ridge hand strikes and lastly, hammer or backfist.

About the only part of my body that doesn’t hurt now is my fingers.  I am glad that I don’t have to type with my legs.

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Kata makes good kumite – 6/11/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien had us work on using our hips more in our movements.  He also had us work on getting more speed and explosion.

Get warmed up…..

Sensei had us start in a horse stance.  From there we did front punch, double front punch and rising block.  From there, we stood up and double front snap kick.  Next, we moved back into a horse stance and pivoted to the left then right on a 45 degree angle each time.  Next, we added reverse punch to the drill.

Snap your hips….

Sensei had us work on getting more snap from our hips when we are moving.  He had us start with moving forward and and backward in stance only making sure that we snap our hips. We then started in a stance with our hips open then threw a back leg front snap kick.  Next, we started again with our hips open and threw a reverse punch and as our hips closed, we launched a front snap kick.  We then worked on blocks, moving forward and back very fast and opening our hips as we blocked.

Next came knife hand blocks.  Instead of moving the legs first and slowly winding up before we did the knife hand, he wanted us to throw it the same way we would a punch.  He had us started out doing the knife hand from our shoulder instead of our ear to give us the feeling of speed, which it did.  Next we did the same move, from the ear now but trying to keep the same hight speed and it worked.

Low belt kata with high belt knowledge….

Sensei made a point that many people move up through the ranks but they still do their kata like they learned it when they were a lower belt.  He said that many people still do their kata like they learned it when they were lower belts.  For example, doing Heian Nidan as a black belt should look a whole lot different then when you are were an orange belt.  The movements should be fluid, strong and have good rhythm not slow, weak and robotic.  If you do explosive movements in Kanku Dai, you should do the same in the Heian Katas too.  It’s an excellent point and something I really need to work on now.

Sensei also explained the good kata and kihon makes good kumite.  His Sensei made him do kata, with no kumite, for three months  and after all of the kata, his kumite improved too.  I too have found the same thing.  I had a total of maybe three classes where I did sparring in the three months leading up to my exam for Shodan and I sparred better then I ever have before at this exam.

We did all of the Heian katas with Sensei counting each move, trying to explode into each movement like we do in our higher belt katas.

Get a partner….

We finish up working on some partner focus drills.  Our partner held out one hand and did a roundhouse kick and touched their hand with the ball of our foot.  For the last drill we did some attack and retreat drills.  We started by shifting and then getting out before our partner could swing at us and hit us with their hand.  One really good takeaway from this drill for me is, when retreating, pull the attacking hand back as fast as possible.  By doing that, I was able to get away faster then I ever remember doing.

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Shuffle up and kick – 6/10/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik had us spend some extra time on our kicks again but tonight he had us work on a drill that we haven’t done too often.

Make those kicks better….

We started with our normal kicking warm up doing 20 front snap kicks to the front, then 10 front snap kick and back kick combination, then front snap kick and side thrust kick to the front followed by front kick, back kick, roundhouse kick and front kick.  After that, we did stationary  rear leg knee strike with front snap kick.  Sensei gave me some more advice on my front snap kicks in general, when I am putting my leg back down behind me, I am snapping my foot too far back on the retraction and pointing my toes down at the floor.  I need to keep the bottom of my foot even with the ground and keep my toes up until my foot is down behind me.  I also need to be mindful of this when doing any of my front snap kicks, moving forward or back.

Next, we started in a front stance and did front leg front snap kick followed with a rear leg front snap kick moving forward.  Sensei gave me some really good advice on this kick.  He said, after the front leg kick, step forward and down instead of just down.  If you miss the target with the front leg front snap kick, stepping forward and down allows a follow up attack with a shin strike.  It also helps to make the in-between stance lower and the second kick higher.  After that we did moving forward double front snap kick but paying attention to the shin strike in between the kicking movements.  We followed that up with double roundhouse kick.  Sensei said that if you turn your hip too far sideways the kick can easily be avoided.

Shuffle up and kick…..

For the next drill, Sensei had us shuffle our back foot up to our front foot and throw a front leg roundhouse kick.  This is certainly not my kick but Sensei told me to throw a cutting kick instead.  The idea is to make the back foot drive the front foot when kicking and the front foot drive the back foot when pulling it back.   In order for this move to be effective, it needs to be done quickly.  I can see nothing but improvements in my kicks, I do this drill outside of class too.   I just need to make sure that I don’t sweep myself in the process.

A few more basics and some kata….

We also did moving forward and with downward block, rising block, inward block, outward block and reverse punch.  Next, we did a single Heian Shodan.  We then did backstance with knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand strike moving forward and back.

The next kata we did was Bassai Dai and after that, everyone else continued doing kata while Sensei asked me to assist one my fellow Karateka on the side.

It was an awesome class!

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