Shotokanplanet.org

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

Guest Sensei and some bunkai drills – 7/19/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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Today was an interesting day.  We had Sensei Brien as our guest Sensei today.

Three step sparring with a twist…

Sensei had us partner up.  One of us did the blocking and the other did the attacks.   We started with our partner throwing a jodan front punch.  We then stepped back and did some simple drills with inward, outward and rising block.

After we warmed up Sensei had us do some different blocking movements.  The first movement was stepping back and blocking with a knife hand.  We brought our hand up to our ear and blocked the same way we do in the kata but instead we were in a front stance.

The next movement was similar but we brought our knife hand block around from the outside much like an inward block.  The idea was to redirect our opponents punch away from us.  We turned our hand the opposite way and used to back of it to redirect the punch.

The next movement was a downward palm strike block.  Our opponent threw a chudan front punch and as it was coming toward us, we would do a downward type palm strike and hit their hand out of the way.  It is similar to a downward block but it is more of a direct downward motion instead of a cross body motion.

We spent the entire class working on movements like these and I am surprised how quickly our hour long class went by.

Kata in every which way – 7/15/08 – Tuesday Karate class.

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Sensei Noia gave us another interesting class tonight.

He started class with a tough warm up. We jogged, shuffled, shifted and low walked across the gym more times than I want to remember.

Kata: Forward, backward, mirror image and more…

Sensei had us start with Hiean Shodan the normal way. Next we did it from last move to first move, which was really a challenge. After that, we did it mirror image. Doing mirror image was much easier than going backward for me. Next, Sensei had us do the kata again but instead of pivoting on the back leg and moving the front leg when do each move, he had us pivot on the front leg and move the back leg.

We spent about half the class doing those same but different kata’s and the best part was that Sensei Noia did them with us. He actually had all of those movements memorized and was able to do them just as strong and as fast as if he was doing Heian Shodan the normal way.

He had us finish up doing two kata’s of our choice. I ended up doing Heian Yondan since I really like that kata.

One-step with kata bunkai…

Sensei had us pair up and work on some one-step sparring but instead of doing the normal blocks and countered, he had us work on block and counters from our kata’s.

For example, my partner grabbed my gi with both hands at my chest, I then raised both arms up above my head, forming a diamond shape for lack of better description, then brought them down around the outside of my partners raised arms and stuck my partners ribs. This movement is from Bassai Dai where your break the hold, strike the ribs and then step forward and punch twice. Being so close after striking the ribs, I didn’t have to execute the punches.

Next, after attacking with a chudan front punch, my wife ended up doing a movement where she grabbed my punching hand, pulled it toward her and threw a low side thrust kick to my thigh, also from Bassai Dai. Had she of used any power, I would have been in trouble.

We ended up trading a few more movements and in what seemed like no time at all, class was already over.

Wrist and joint locks – 7/8/08 – Tuesday Karate class.

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Tai Chi update…

First, Tai Chi update from yesterday.  Mostly the same moves as the week before.  The main movement that we do is raised hands and stance.  This, from what I understand is the first movement of the forms that we are learning.  This was the last class of this session and hopefully our instructor will be able to teach another session for the rest of the summer otherwise my wife and I will be doing Tai Chi on our own for seven weeks until the fall session starts up.

Many wrist and joint locks in Karate class tonight…

The classes where we work on self defense moves really fascinates me since I really have never applied the moves that we learn in the real world.  I guess I am lucky that I haven’t had to use what I have learned but doing many of these movements with a partner helps to understand Karate in more detail.

Sensei Noia had us get a partner and they would grab our wrist.  We started with the attacker grabbing my left wrist with their right hand.  I would then put my right hand over their right hand an turn our their wrist and arm, the way that it shouldn’t bend.  In order for this to work, I grabbed their palm with my two index fingers and pushed the back of their hand with my two thumbs while turning the arm to my right.

Instead of breaking away like we did last week, the object here was to keep the attacker from attacking.  I guess that came out a little wrong but the idea is to make them not want to attack you because they cannot since they are in either too much pain or in a bad position to launch an attack.

We spent most of the class working on similar movements but different attacks such as someone grabbing our gi or cross body wrist grabs.  The movements are all very similar with the point being locking up the joints and wrists.

I wish that I could explain these movements in better detail but I think that I am going to have to begin doing these movements in front of the video camera so that I can share them with all of you.