Shotokanplanet.org

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

Just survive – 9/5/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik is back and shared and excellent class with us tonight.

Roundhouse kick with downward motion…

We did our normal warm ups and then started working on some kicking drills.  Sensei had us bring our leg up to belt level, or as close as we could get to it and then throw the kick with a downward motion toward the knee.  The reason behind this was to get the hip turned over near the end of the movement.

Sensei also explained, which I am sure he mentioned in the past, that a roundhouse kick is an extended sideways knee strike.  Thinking about striking a target with a sideways knee strike puts the roundhouse in a different perspective for me.  If I focus on the knee strike, the extension of my lower leg seems to just fly out without much thought.

With the body…

Next came some blocking and punching drills.  Sensei had us do a front stance and he explained that our front foot should be turned in a few degrees and never turned to the outside.

We worked on moving forward with various blocks and punches but instead of finishing our front stance, he had us do the block while in a cat stance and then throw the punch after springing from the back leg.  The spring from the back leg really added a lot of power to the reverse punch.  It also forced us to use our entire body when executing the reverse punch.

He also mentioned that the reverse punch is the “correct” punch.  When we walk, our hands and feet are opposite.  For example, left foot forward and right hand behind, then right foot forward and left hand behind. Sensei made the comment about our moving forward in a front stance with a front punch and if we can learn to do that with some proficiency, we should be able to Karate since our bodies are not neurologically designed to move same side hand and foot at the same time.

When doing the downward block, both arms need to come close together and the blocking hand needs to  speed up at the bottom to break an arm grab.  The idea is to do the block fast but add and extra boost right at the end of the movement when your blocking hand passes your draw hand wrist.

Zanshin…

After you are done with your fight, kata or basic, as you stand up into the yoi position, bring your weapons “hands” together in front of you and remain conscious of what it happening around you even though your battle is over..

In Karate of the past, when the attackers eyes are closed and he or she on the ground, not breathing, the battle is over.

Sport fighting has one winner but in self defense there is one survivor,

Kata, before class…

I was off to one side working on the first move of Bassai Dai before class and Sensei came over to correct me.  When doing the first move, he said that the movement is similar to breaking through a cinderblock wall with an eight pound sledge hammer.  The motion is to bring my hands UP from my side and pushing the hips forward and the hands somewhat downward.  He said that my ending hand position should be a refelction of my core.  I did the move half a dozen times and Sensei said that I was close to what what it should be but I know that really need to work on it a lot more.

Excellent class.

Partner kata – 9/2/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Since rank testing is coming up in the next couple or few months, Sensei Noia is paying extra attention in preparing us for our test.

Severe warm ups…

We started off doing suicides again.  This time, one partner would run to the four different lengths of the gym while the other partner is doing burpies.  After one of us completed the first suicide, the other would run and we would do the burpies.  I don’t think would have been too hard if we did it two or three times but Sensei had us do this seven times.  By number five, breathing was extremely hard and for number seven I my running was more like a fast walk.

Slow kata with no power…

After the warm ups, Sensei had us all do Heian Shodan.  He told us to do it extremely slow and with no power whatsoever.  Doing it with no power wasn’t really an issue after the warm up that we just did.  Next, we did our own belt kata the same way.  He wanted us to pay extra attention to our focus, even though our bodies were pretty much spent.  After that, Sensei had us do our own kata once more but with full power and speed as if we were at our test.  I felt that my kata was a little rushed but overall, it didn’t feel too bad.

The idea of having us do our kata after the hard warm up was to make us feel as if we were at our test and had just finished our kihon portion of the exam.  I think it was pretty safe to assume that we were more tired after the warm than we would be after doing our kihon at the exam.

Partner kata…

We haven’t done partner kata in some time and I am glad that Sensei Noia had us do it.  I want to add this aspect to my home training an hopefully my wife and son will want to do it with me.

Sensei had us do Jion.  Sensei would call off each move, I would do it and then our partner would walk around us making sure that we were working.  By working, I mean that we were holding our stances, had our body in the right postion and tensing the right muscles.

Anyone who knows Jion also knows that there are a lot moves to that kata.  After each count, we ended up holding that position for anywhere from 15 to well over 30 seconds.  If you don’t have good focus it is very easy for your partner to push you over with little effort.

We ended up doing this one Jion for 15 – 20 minutes.  It was really intense but it certainly made me focus on every part of the kata.

It was an excellent class and I hope that we have more like it.

Kicking the pads is always good – 8/28/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Getting things warmed up…

Sensei Wail started us off with a good warm up.  He had us doing alternating front snap kicks and then he had us do a movement where we raise our legs up from the side like a roundhouse kick to get the hips and core warmed up.

The next movement was hard for me.  Sensei told us to shuffle up, do a front leg roundhouse kick, shuffle back and then switch legs.  I was focusing on my kicks so intensely that I keep forgetting to change my feet after each kick.

Kicking was the subject of this class…

Sensei Wail had us start by moving slowly from a horse stance and the slowly do a side thrust kick.  Doing the movements slowly make them so much harder for me but if they can be executed well when done slowly, doing them fast will be so much better.

Next, we partnered up and got a pad.  The first exercise was leg circles around the pad that our partner was holding.  Sensei had us do them clockwise with our heel leading the movement.

After those, our partner held the pad and we did hook kicks.  The is one of the first times that I recall doing hook kicks on a pad and Sensei had our partner hold them low so that we could get some good power behind them.  He said to hit the pad with our heel.  I would guess that a kick like this to the knee, thigh or groin area would be very painful.

Some conditioning too…

Sensei had us stay with our partner for some conditioning drills.  While one partner did squats, the other partner held the side plank position.  We then switched places with our partner.  When our partner did the side plank for the other side, Sensei had us do side squats.  We started in the standing postion, moved one leg out to the side and squated in that direction.  I found this movement very interesting because it not only helps strengthen the hips, it also opens the hips up which is always a good thing for me.

Time to kick the big pads now…

Sensei let work on the the big pads next.  We started with front snap kicks.  I really feel that my front snap kick is my best kick and now that I know how to put my hips into them, they feel stronger than ever.

The next kick on our agenda was roundhouse kick.  I was really happy with my right leg roundhouse.  It was over belt level and it felt like there was finally something behind it.  My leg leg was a different story and it felt like there was nothing behind it.

We finished up the pad drills with side thrust kicks.  Those were certainly my weakest kicks and I really need to spend some extra time working on those.  They seem okay when I throw them at knee or average thigh level but anything about and they are weak and have little accuracy.

Some stretches to finish things up…

Sensei had us sit on the floor with our partner and put our legs out in the split postion.  He than had our partner put thier feet just below our knees.  He then had them push our legs out and hold it.  After a little time, he told them to push while we resisted for five seconds and after we relaxed again, he told our partner to push our legs out a little farther.   He had us do this three times.  After our legs were out in the farthest position, he had our parnter move our legs back in so that we wouldn’t pull any mucles trying to do it ourselves.

It was a good class and even though we did a lot of kicks, I was still able to walk to the car and then into the house without much pain.