Shotokanplanet.org

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

Kata logic – 11/1/08 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Gatch gave us a good class today.  He gave us a lot of insight into how and why we do kata the way we do.

Kata warm up…

Sensei had us start doing all of the Heian kata’s and Tekki Shodan to get everyone warmed up.

Kata logic…

We spent the rest of the class working on parts of Jion.  Sensei went over almost all parts of Jion.  Starting with the first movement, he wanted us to put our foot straight back behind us.  Most of us were putting our foot back to the side inside of straight behind us.  The next move we worked on was the front snap kick with sanbon zuki.  After the kick, we need to put our foot down straight in front and again not off to the side which makes our stance too wide.  Next we worked on the back stance double block and horse stance with hook punch.  The point there was to make sure that the stances looked different.  We worked on more parts of the kata all the way through the end.

It was good class with a lot of kata specifics that we don’t often cover.

Scary Karate class – 10/31/08 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Noia gave us another one of the those really hard classes again.  It was very appropriate on Halloween and scary enough to make me wonder if I could finish it.

Sensei had us start with a very quick warm up.  We ran back and forth across the gym five times and shuffled back and forth twice.

Kata warm up…

Sensei had us start with Heian Shodan which we did a couple times.  Next came Heian Nidan twice, then Heian Sandan three times, Heian Yondan four times, Heian Godan five times and Tekki Shodan six times.  After we were totally tired and had done 20 kata about 30 minutes, Sensei had us do our own belt kata (Bassai Dai for me) as if we were at our test.  Just when I thought we were done, Sensei had us go through one-step sparring without a partner.  We then got a quick drink.

One-step sparring…

After a little water and some quick breathes we got a partner and worked on one-step sparring.  Sensei Noia had us do it with a little twist.  Instead of using punches and kicks to counter with, we had to use moves that we normally do not use.  For example, I used a knife hand to counter or a back fist.  There were a couple of times I used an elbow and at one point, after taking my partner down to the floor, I dropped my knee on him.  I always wondered why my son never wants to partner up with me for some reason.

Hip stretches and strengthening…

For the rest of class, Sensei had us lay on the floor with our upper body elevated by our arm and bent elbow.  From that position, Sensei told us to pick up our leg, slowly and bring it back down.  Next, we kept our leg up, in what was like a roundhouse position and kicked.  After that, we did a side thrust kick and back.  The next move was a hook kick.  The final move was for us to put our foot from our top leg on the floor and picked the other leg.  Again, all of these movements were done while lying on the floor.  They were very hard and I was limping after class but I need to find a way to do this drill at home.

It was a very hard class and even somewhat scary but excellent.

Exceptional class – 10/30/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Exceptional is the only word to use to describe this class.

So many little things to help make our Karate better…

Sensei Cieplik gave us so many bits of good information, I am hoping that I can list all of them here;

  • Higher belts need to apply their knowledge to the lower belt kata’s.
  • At the end of the black belt kata’s, Shodan and above stand up into the ready stance and do not hold the last position like the lower ranks have to do.
  • If the draw hand fist is tilted down the shoulder is not working and the elbow cannot be pulled back.
  • Do not use the chest or rollover the knee when doing blocks.
  • When in a back stance, tension should be behind you with the elbows.
  • Punch from the eye in the back of your elbow.
  • The harder and faster you pull the draw hand back, the harder and faster the punch will come out.
  • Use calm assertiveness.
  • There is a difference between knowing the technique and doing the technique.
  • Take two moves from any kata and create a kihon drill from them.

Kata…

Sensei had us do our kata’s from Heian Shodan all the way to Kanku Dai.

The difference between higher and lower belts is the higher belt do their kata because they know it and the lower belts think about their kata.

In Bassai Dai, after we do the punch with block and punch with block, we pivot on the ball of the left foot, to point the toes to the left and move into the back stance instead of just stepping into that stance.

This class felt really good!