Shotokanplanet.org

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

For real or not – 12/18/08 – Thursday Karate class

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This was the last class of this Thursday session and Sensei Cieplik left me with some interesting things to think about over the break.

Point that jab…

When throwing a jab, it needs to take a direct path to your target as if you are pointing at it with your finger.  This means that it should not go up or down, just straight in.

Kage zuki…

Think of kage zuki as an elbow strike.  This brought a different feel to this movement.  Instead of focusing on a hook type punch, thinking of doing an elbow strike makes the move feel much more powerful.  Higher belts strike with their fist farther away from their body.

Zanshin with a different meaning…

Sensei gave us another definition of Zanshin.  Make sure they are dead before you take your attention off of your opponent.  If you are on the street and someone is trying to hurt you, make sure that they are not going to get back up and attack you again.  The point is not to take your focus off of your opponent unless you are sure that they will not cause you harm.  This doesn’t mean that you should kill your opponent but you better pay attention even after you think they are not a threat.

There are fighters and people who spar…

There is a difference between those who can fight and those who can spar.  If you try to use your sparring skills on the street, there is a chance you will end up hurt or worse.  Just because you win all of the point sparring matches at your local tournaments it does not mean that you can fight if you life depends on it.

Your hands are empty for a reason…

Sensei made the point that our hands are empty because we either lost or broke our weapon and have nothing else to defend ourselves with.

Fitness, don’t think about using it…

If you are taking Karate for fitness do not use anything from class on the street. This was a very interesting point that I never really thought a lot about.  The point here is that if you are learning Karate for fitness do not attempt to use what Sensei shows us in class on the street.

Technique advice…

Here is one thing that I never thought of or remember hearing before. Twist your leg at the end of the kick.  I have made twisting my wrist for a hand strike or block almost automatic but I never thought about twisting my foot for a kick.

Lots of Jion…

There were a few people that needed to test and Sensei gave all of us a refresher on Jion.  We must have done Jion at least eight times.

I have many things to think about.

Crazy combinations – 12/16/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Because of a broken water main near the gym where we train, we had a short 30 minute class.

Sensei Noia was talking to some students and parents about test results so he asked Sensei Buss to teach class.

You said what combination…

Since time was short, Sensei Buss had us do some combination’s that we normally do not work on.  Step forward with jab, then reverse punch, back leg roundhouse kick, crescent kick, elbow strike and back fist for example.  The idea was to have us work on basics that we always do but put them in an order that make us think.  This shows how well we can use our basics even if they are in an order that we never work on.

It was a lot fun and really intense.  I would like to have a couple more classes like this in  the future.

Test results and a really good class – 12/15/08 – Monday Karate class

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Well, I am a bit disappointed in myself.  I didn’t do as well at my test as I wanted to and received my results today.  I ended up clearing my keri from the last test and am now a full second kyu.  I really felt that I put everything I had into training and preparation for this test but it seems that my examiners saw something different.

After thinking about it for sometime tonight, I feel that I put myself ahead of where I should be.  For the last few months, since I have been training five times each week, I felt that I was getting better and better and once I received the “Most Improved” award at our Karate banquet, I thought I was doing really well but because of that, I seemed to let my head get ahead of my body somewhere.  I trained extremely hard for this test and because of the last few awesome classes that I had, I felt that I was ready for my Shodan in my mind.

Somewhere, I guess I let me head get the best of me and even though I put everything I had out on the floor at my test, it was certainly not enough to fulfill my fantasy.

Because of this, I feel that I need what I want to call remedial Karate.  I need to be like Rocky III and get back to basics.  All of that “Eye of the Tiger” type stuff.  Somewhere between green belt and now, I seem to have missed something in my basics that others have found and I plan on going back to my roots, so to speak, and find what is missing in my Karate.

On a very positive note, my wife, went up a full rank is now a first Kyu keri.  I am very happy that both her and my son, who is now also a second Kyu, did very well on their tests.  The trained hard and tested well and really deserved it.

Awesome class…

Even though I was disappointed in my results, I had an awesome class.  For odd reason, every move I did felt good and I think it is because the pressure of testing is over.

We started out doing some basics for those in the group that still needed to test.  When doing those, my power, spirit and stances felt better than ever.  My movements flowed from one to the next with more speed than before.  I was next to my son in class and was able to finished all of my movements nine out of ten times before him.  I felt so connected with my strikes that it brought my spirit up more then before.

Kicking up there for a change…

Sensei Brien had us get a partner for some drills.  The first drill was a simple shuffle in with reverse punch and shuffle out to get our timing.  For the next drill out partner could block and I was able to score on my partner all 10 times while she scored on me maybe twice.

The next drill shocked me.  Sensei had us shuffle up and front leg roundkick our partner.  I was able to kick my wife at shoulder level with my right leg and somewhere under rib level with my left.  I was never able to kick this high with such consistency so hopefully something good is happening with this body of mine.

Kata from the core…

Sensei Brien had us do a drill that I haven’t done in some time.  He told us to pick a kata and it slowly while focusing on squeezing our core during each movement.  I ended up doing Heian Shodan a couple times and then Bassai Dai.  It really makes the kata feel different when the core is activated so intensely.