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

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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Friday Karate class – 6/13/08 – Squeeze the legs kata.

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I didn’t go to class yesterday since both my wife and I weren’t feeling well. Her back was really sore and my hip was so sore that walking hurt a great deal. I was really looking forward to Thursday class but I don’t like to take class when I cannot put everything into it.

Both my wife and I went to our chiropractor, Dr. Pusateri, today and luckily, he was able to fix both of us. My wife’s back was messed up and my right hip bone was pointing down, causing most of the muscles in my right leg to turn off. It was really making front stances very painful and most of my front kicks were way off because of it. Dr. Pusateri got everything back in place and working again so things are good.

Today was an excellent class. Sensei Noia asked who wanted to do kumite and who wanted to do kata. I choose kata again since my body was put back together this morning. We went off to one side with Sensei Plocharczyk and he took us through a different kata workout that I never recall doing in the past. Sensei started us off with Heian Godan but instead of just doing the kata, he told us to squeeze the floor with our feet and legs. As we did each move, Sensei walked around and checked to make sure that we were squeezing the right muscles. He would try to push us out of our stance and then check to make sure that our core was tightened. This doesn’t sound too hard, right, but it was torture. We would hold a stance for at least 15 seconds and sometimes up to one minute if he had to correct one of us. We did the same for Tekki Shodan and Jion too.

When working on Jion, Sensei gave me some things to work on. When I go from the first move into the second move, I am coming up out of my stance. When going into the horse stance with palm strike, I am turning on the ball of my foot instead of the heel. When moving into the first outward block, before the front punch, I am locking my back leg after my block is executed. Going from the front punch into the downward block, before the three stomps, I am raising up.

Sensei also had us do an interesting drill where we sit on a swiss ball and punch a pad that our partner is holding. I had an extremely hard time sitting on the ball with my feet behind me. My hips were screaming. I think I need to start sitting on the swiss ball again while I am typing on the computer here. Maybe it will help my flexibility. We did another drill where Sensei had us sit on the swiss ball, hold a pad and twist from side to side while our partner held our feet. It is a great core exercise and I could really feel it.

I plan on spending the next six months working on making all of my stances in my kata and basics like they were tonight. I walked through my moves for such as long, it is too bad that it took me almost four years to finally get it right. It wasn’t that I didn’t here this in the past but it just didn’t sink in until now.

I have to admit a funny thing. Every time I change rank, I learn something or realize something new that I have to work on. I know that there is no magic in rank advances but it always seems to make me understand something better each time my rank changes. Maybe my mind is clearer since the exam is over and there won’t be another one for at least six months now.

Tuesday Karate class – 1/29/08 – Kata so hard, I made myself sick.

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Have you ever worked so hard in class that you had both a headache and stomach ache? If you haven’t experienced that wonderful feeling, you don’t know what you are missing. More about that later.

We started class with a longer warm up and stretch, which felt pretty good.

Sensei Noia split everyone into groups. He took all of the brown belts, three of us and other Sensei’s took the rest of group. Sensei had us start out by doing Heian 1-4 as a warm up. Things felt pretty good and I did those four katas with about medium speed and half power.

From that point, Sensei had us do the first move of our belt rank kata. He had us start very slowly and precise with extra attention to our form. He wanted us to feel the movement and he corrected each of us if there were any mistakes. We did the first move maybe five or so times before moving on.

Next, I did the first move along with the first front snap kick and triple punch. Again, this was slow so that Sensei could see our technique. I have to continue to focus on keeping my shoulders down when punching. Sensei said to make sure that I rub my elbows on my gi and also to squeeze my lats to keep my shoulders where they belong.

We then added the second front snap kick and triple punch. I was really focusing on keeping my shoulders down by then and doing fairly well. When I did the front snap kick and triple punch to the right, I was leaning my head forward for some reason but I think it’s related to my hips and was leaning at the waist. Sensei Noia said that I looked like a bull and “don’t do that”.

We then added the next moves with the rising block, reverse punch twice and then the single rising block and single front punch. Sensei told me that I need to use my HIPS more. I was not opening up enough on the block and not straightening them enough on the punches. I focused on those and was moving better but I feel it makes my moves robotic so I need to work more on those outside of class.

Next, I worked on the dreaded turn and block after the ki ai. I was having a hard time and not moving my feet fast enough. Sensei took a pool noodle and would tell me to go and if I didn’t move my feet fast enough, he would hit my back foot with the noodle. Out of ten moves, I think he hit my foot about six times. I really need to work on those moves.  I kept working that move and the mirror image move that follows over and over again.  I lost track of how many times I did those moves but it had to be over 15 at full speed and power.

The interesting part about this class was that Sensei would have us do each move slowly, then full speed and then add the next move slowly. For example, I would do the first move in Jion very slow, next I would do that first move fast and then the second move very slow, next the first and second move fast and the third move very slow and so on.

Sensei had us do the full kata and I ended up skipping an entire section.  I don’t know what I was thinking but I left a whole group of moves and finished my kata facing the wrong direction.

One thing that was different is that I worked so hard, I ended up with a headache and a really bad stomach-ache.  I dug deeper and pushed harder than I remember.  Hopefully next time I push it like, I won’t get the side effects.

Great class!