Shotokanplanet.org

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

Ladders and one-step sparring – 11/17/08 – Monday Karate class

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Today was our first Monday back after an unscheduled and scheduled day off.  Because of the extra day off, we had a two hour class.  Sensei Brien was out so Sensei Beth Noia and Sensei Sarah Plackett gave us an excellent class in his place.

We started out with some simple Kihon and combinations to get warmed up.

One-step with the entire class…

The was a little different, at least for me.  We started one-step sparring with a partner and then switched partners until we did one move with the half of the class.  Next, we all lined up in a square.  One person would attack, then step into the line and we would move out and attack and keep going around the square until the entire class had a change to attack and defend with against everyone.

Ladders, focus mitts and kata…

This was a good drill.  We started shifting in and out of the floor ladder with both feet together.  After the ladder, we stood in front of one of the Sensei’s holding a focus mit on each hand and cross punched and backfisted each one.  For example, with our left hand, we would punch his left hand, since he was facing us, and then backfist the mit on his right hand and we used the other hand.  This was an excellent coordination drill and once I got the hang of it, I was able to move fairly fast.  Next, we went through another ladder and shifted side to side but with really wide shifts.  After that, we went off to the side and did our own kata.

Kata…

We spent the last part of class working on Kata.  We started with Heian Shodan and went up to Heian Yondan.  After we finished working on the Heian kata’s we spent the rest of the time working on both Jion and Bassai Dai.  This was really good since both Sensei Beth and Sensei Sarah spent a lot of time correcting each of us individually when we were doing our kata.

A lot of moves and a lot of fun – 11/16/08 – Kick for Cures

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Today was our Kick for Cures event and it was a great success.  By the time we were finished, our club had already raised near $75,000.

For the first time, since I have been doing this event, it felt easy.  I would normally be ready to drop after an hour of kicks, punches and blocks but I felt so good, I ended up staying and doing another 1000 moves along with my wife and son.

It was a great event with a lot of great people and all for a good cause.

If anyone would still like to donate, you can do so at the Kick for Cures website,  There is still time until the end of this month.  Yo

Some Karate history – 11/15/08 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Gatch had us start class doing Heian Shodan and kata’s all the way up to our own rank kata.  We have done this before but the part that made it interesting was the Karate history that he explained between every couple of kata’s.

Karate history…

One of the more interesting bits of information was the meaning of Bassai.  He said that this means the splashing of waves off the rocks in the ocean.

Sensei also talked about the meaning of Shotokan.  Shoto is pine waves or the movement of wind through a pine tree and kan which means house.

He also gave us the Japanese names of many the more complex moves from the various kata’s.

One-step down the line…

After our kata, Sensei Gatch had us work on one-step sparring.  We did it a few times with one partner and then he had us move to a different partner each time until we did an attack and a block with counter with everyone in the class.  This is pretty helpful considering that we have people of all different sizes when we do one-step at our exam.