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

My hardest Karate class yet – 9/20/08 – Saturday Karate class

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I know I have said this before but I can say with some certainty that this was the hardest class I have ever had.  At one point, I was almost unable to catch my breath.  I don’t remember ever getting to the point where I could not catch my breath like I did today.

A lot of warm up…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us Jog full court and back 4 times, shuffle back and forth 2 times, shuffle and raise the front leg up like a roundhouse kick 2 times to the side and then do 50 sit ups.

The big pads…

The big pads are about a foot tall and we stood in a front stance with one foot on the pad and the other foot on the floor.  We then stood up in the pad, threw a front snap kick and put the kicking foot back down behind us.  Next, instead of doing a front snap kick, we stood up on the pad and did a knee strike but we pushed our knee and our hips forward and then set our leg down behind us again.  After that we did the knee strike but after we set the kicking leg down we immediately stood back up and did a front snap kick.

After that we did 10 pushups with our feet on the pad and then a few more but with our body in a bent over V position and our hands close together.

Next, we stood on the pad and did the first move of Jion.  We put our back foot down on the floor while keeping the front foot on the pad.  We then stood back up on the pad and then stepped back with the opposite leg.  After that, we stood on the pad, stepped down with one leg and did a front punch and a reverse punch.  We then stood back up on the pad and threw a front punch and repeated the movement with the other leg.  This was an awesome drill and it felt like it really worked the entire body.

We then did 25 more situps and another drill where we laid next to one end of the pad, put one foot on it with one knee bent, facing up toward the ceiling, and the other straight while holding a wrestlers bridge for 30 seconds or so.  We then swithced legs and did the other side.

For the next drill, we stood next to the pad and put one foot on it.  We then shuffled up, did a roundhouse kick and set the kicking foot on the floor on the other side of the pad.  We the did the same thing with the other leg.

We then did another 25 situps and 10 more pushups.

Next, we got a partner.  With one of us on each end of the pad, we had to do 10 pushups.  We then picked up the pad and ran to the center of the gym, did 10 more pushups and slapped each shoulder after each one.  Next, we picked up the pad again, ran to the far end of the gym and did 10 shoulder slaps.  We then picked up the pad and ran back to the other end of the gym.

The final drill was the hardest.  One partner stood near the bleachers and did alternating one leg squats while the other picked up the end of the pad and threw it end over end from one end of the gym to the other.  It is like the big tire toss that they do at the worlds strongest man contest but with a pad and not as heavy as the truck tires.

I think I can honestly say that this was the hardest class that I have ever had.

Elastic kumite drills – 9/19/08 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Noia gave us an interesting class.

Elastic band run…

Sensei Noia had us get a partner and an elastic band.  He had one partner stand in front of the other with the elastic band around the hips of the person in front.  The person in front had to run across the gym while the other person pulled on the elastic band.  This was a real hard drill but a lot of fun too.

Elastic band shifting…

For the next drill, Sensei had us shift with the elastic band around our hips instead of running.  The shifting drills were a bit harder than the running drills since the elastic bands added a lot of resistance against the shifting leg.

Sensei had us put the band down and shift without it.  I was able to cover at least an extra six inches of ground with each shift.

Shift and run…

For the next drill, Sensei had us shift across the and when he said go, we had to run to the end of the gym.  The idea was for us to be able to change movements as fast as possible.

We finished off our drills, shifting forward while holding our headgear in our front hand at nose level.  This was to keep us from letting our hands fall when we were tired.

I am certainly no kumite expert but I do feel that my skills are starting to improve, slowly but surely.

Some advanced kata – 9/18/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Something on my mind other than Karate…

We started class with the normal kicking warm up and Sensei Cieplik immediately knew that I was off.  He walked past me and squeezed my right hand and said that I was thinking about something else since my hands were clenched.  As soon as he did that, I was as if a light switch was flipped and my focus change to class instead of whatever else I was I thinking of.

A little different kihon…

Sensei had us work on something new.  We did an inward block, outward block with jab and reverse punch.  The idea was to get the hips warmed up and to make us use our minds in a different way.

Next, we did the standard back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite.

Partner up…

Sensei Cieplik had us work on some partner drills.

We did a drill with inward block, elbow strike and backfist.  The idea was to block our partners punch,  step about halfway behind them, elbow strike them in the ribs while grabbing their front hand and then backfist them in the head from under their arm pit.  From that point, you could turn their arm over, push the back of their leg and take them down on to the back of their neck.  We didn’t go through with the takedown but the it movement was easy enough to do with very little effort.

Advanced kata time…

Sensei had us finish class with some kata.  This was really interesting and I really enjoyed it.  Sensei had us start with Jion and he counted out each move and gave specific instructions on how we should do the more difficult moves in the kata.  After that, we moved on to Bassai Dai, then Kanku Dai and Hangetsu.  It felt excellent doing the the advanced kata and I hope we this more often.  It is hard to describe but it just felt really good.

As always, it was an excellent class.