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

Ten-no-kata and a guest Sensei – 8/7/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Tonight, we had a guest sensei, Dr. David Renner.   Dr. Renner is a chiropractor, who works with Dr. Pusiteri, who is my chiropractor, and he likes to apply Applied Kinesiology to Karate when possible.

Warm up…

Horse stance with punches and rising blocks to get the blood flowing.  We have been doing this more and more as of late and I think it helps but it is really hurting my hip, especially my right hip.

Ten-no-kata, at least that is what I think it is…

Sensei mentioned ten-no-kata when we were doing our movements but I am not sure if all them are considered ten-no-kata or just certain movements.

The first movement was ready stance, step and put left foot forward, downward block, reverse punch and step back to ready stance.  Next, from the ready stance came step and put right foot forward, downward block, reverse punch and step back to ready stance.  We then did the same block and punch but we stepped and put the left foot backward.  The last move was from ready stance but we stepped with the right foot backward.

When then did the same thing but instead of downward block we did rising block, then again with inward block and then with outward block.

Next came a back stance drill.  From ready stance, we back to the right with the left foot forward and did a knife hand block.  Next, all starting from the ready stance,  we stepped back with right foot forward and did our knife hand block.  After that, we stepped forward with our right foot but then faced the back of the room so our left foot ended up in front.  The last move was stepping forward with our left foot, turn and end up with our right foot in front but again facing the back of the room.

The movements got a little harder as we went on.

From ready stance, we step into left leg forward with rising block, then reverse punch, then rear leg front snap kick, change hands, then put kicking leg back down behind and throw another reverse punch.  You end up making a + or a small letter t shape with your feet doing the movement in four directions.  I hope I explained that well enough.  I really need to work on my videos soon.

Kata time…

Sensei then had us do our own belt level kata as he looked on and offered advice.  We did our kata, slowly, two times.  Sensei watched me do a couple of moves and nodded with approval so I felt pretty good.

Gun defense drills…

Sensei explained that the most important part of gun defense drills are if you can run away, then run away!  Your wallet or money is not worth a bullet to your chest or head.  This type of defense should only be used as a last resort and the odds of getting shot if you make a mistake are certanly in the criminals favor.

The first defense drill started with us facing our partner.  Our partner pointed the gun at us at chest level and we stood with our hands up, like “I give up.”  Next, we move to the outside, grab the gun hand with our left hand, grab the other side of the gun hand with our right hand, put their arm, about at the eblow into our armpit and squat down while keeping the gun hand pointed away and pulling up.  This puts them in an arm bar and from that point, as we take them down we can break the arm or at least lock it up so that we control the gun.

The next drill was a gun attack from behind.

Our partner put the gun in our back and we put our hands up again.  We turn, extremely fast, and grab their right gun hand with our right hand and quickly push their elbow with our left hand.  The idea is to get out out the way of the gun and then do anything you can to disarm them.  You have to grab the hand so that they cannot turn the gun on you and as soon as you do, you need to take it away from them or hurt them so much that they cannot shoot.

Speed and timing is exteremly important and if I don’t move fast enough, you are going to get shot.

It was an excellent class and I hope that I never need to test the gun defense movements that we worked on tonight.

Hand, not wrist, on your hip – 7/24/08 – Thursday Karate class.

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Moving forward with reverse punch…

After our warm, Sensei Cieplik had us work on moving forward with reverse punch.  Most of us are used to doing moving forward with front punch so this takes a little more mental focus than physical.  He had us do the movement slowly at first, then we did four steps slowly, then faster and then two steps, pause and two more steps with the punch.  We spent a good amount of time working on this movement and after a few it felt ok but no where near as natural as moving forward with front punch.

A revelation for me: Hand, not wrist, on your hip…

Sensei gave us one of the best pieces of advice tonight.  He said “put your (draw) hand on your hip, not your wrist on your hip.”  This allows the shoulder to stay down and elbow to go back farther.  For the longest time, I have put my wrist on my side and not my hand.  This made a huge difference in my posture and it allows me to engage my lats instead of my chest when punching or blocking.  This also allows for a little more extension on the punch.

An exercise for better side thrust kicks…

Sensei had us do a front snap kick and bring it back, then grab behind knee with our hand, pull the knee upward and at the same time put the leg out to the side into a side thrust kick.  Hold for 1-1000 and bring it back to the front again.  Sensei said that this will make your arms really strong if you are not doing your side thrust kicks like this now.

Back stance with five degrees less…

We worked on moving forward and backward in a back stance with knife hand block.  Sensei Cieplik said in order to engage the hips when throwing a kick with the front leg, we should have the back foot facing a small amount to the front not straight ahead.  Instead of having the foot facing straight forward, turn it in about 5 degrees toward the front.  I could feel a huge difference in the front snap kick from the back stance.  I was able to snap the kick straight out in front instead of the weird thing that I was doing when my back foot was pointed straight to the side.  It allows the kick to work with the body instead of against it.

Kata…

We did Heian Shodan.  Sensei wanted us to pay attention to our back stances.  I was so into keeping my hand, not my wrist, on my side, I made a mistake and started doing rising blocks instead of front punches near the end of the kata.  It did feel much different.

Small blocks can be effective movements…

We got a partner and one of us stood with our hands out in front of us.  Our parnter threw a front punch and from the pinkie finger we pivoted our hand into an outward type edge hand, turned our body and moved the punch past us. The movement itself was very small but large enough to move the punch away from my body.

We then did a similar move where we pivot from the thunb, close the hand and do an inward block.  Again, this small movement deflected the punch past us and allowed for a counter movement.

The key to these movements is precise timing and moving to the inside or outside of the punch.  The outward block with the edge hand was very similar to the knife disarms that Sensei Noia has been showing us recently.

Saturday Karate Class – 5/24/08 – Hitting the pads.

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What a great class.

Even before class was excellent.  I was able to spend a little time talking to Sensei Plocharczyk about Karate.  He gave me some excellent insight.

He made a comment about taking Sensei Cieplik’s class one day.  During that class he tried to do his best Karate and Sensei walked up to him and said “do your Karate for yourself and don’t worry about doing it for anyone else.”  Even though Sensei Cieplik had said that before in our classes, it sometimes sinks in better when certain things are said by someone else.  I often try to do my Karate for everyone else when I should just be doing it for me.

Sensei also gave me some of the best insight on doing kata.  I have often heard people say that we should visualize an opponent when doing our kata but again, the way that Sensei Plocharczyk said it, finally made it sink in.  He said to spend an afternoon or some time going through each move of the kata and figuring out for myself how to apply each move.  Even with almost four years of Karate under my belt, I have never really spent time trying to get a full understanding of each movement.  It’s just a bunch of movements until you realize how they are applied.  I am really interested in working on this and hopefully improving my kata in the process.

Sensei Plocharczyk started us off with a tough warm up.  He had us doing sprints to each line on the floor of the gym.  Next, we shuffled in a horse stance to each line and back.  Next came side leg raises to stretch out our hips across the gym.

He then had us get our focus mitts and a partner.  Our partner would hold the pad on their stomach while in a kiba dachi (horse stance) and we would punch it.   Next, instead of the punch, we used to side edge of our hand.  This motion was a straight motion, like a punch, not a circular motion like a knife hand block.

After that, we got into a kokutsu dachi (back stance), our partner held the pad about shoulder level and we did a knife hand block.  I never really worked on striking a pad when doing that movement and it feels stronger that I thought it would.  We did 10 or so reps and then five more but our partner had to fight against us and put pressure on the pad for a count of five seconds or so.

Sensei then had us get down on one knee and hold the pad at about knee of thigh level and our partner would side thrust kick it.  I was actually able to do this movement since it was low and had enough power to knock my partner over a couple of times during the drill.

Between most of these drills, Sensei had our partners and us run to opposite sides of the gym and do a kata.  I ended up doing all of the katas that know up to Jion.  My katas felt really good today and Sensei Gatch commented that my Jion looked good.

We finished up with some punching drills.  Sensei would hold two focus mitts about should height and we had to punch them across our bodies.  Sensei was facing us, we punched his left hand with our left and right with right and then he would say duck and we needed to get out of the or get our heads hit with the focus mitts.  It was a great, high speed coordination drill that I want to work on at home.

Lots of good stuff.