Shotokanplanet.org

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

Slow down and finish each move of the kata – 7/31/08 – Thursday Karate class

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For some reason, kicking warm up felt different to me today.  I was just whiping the leg for front snap kicks and it felt good.

Balance when moving…

Sensei Cieplik had us work on the same drills but different.  When moving from front stance to front stance, bring the knees together, then reach first with the front foot while keeping all weight on the back foot, settle the front foot and pull yourself forward into a front stance.

Push the toes into the floor…

Sensei noticed that many of us where moving our front foot before throwing a front snap kick.  He told us to push our toes into the floor and squeeze with our then kick without moving that stationary leg.  It sound really simple but if you push the toes down the foot will not move.

Focus on the draw hand…

Sensei Cieplik has told us to focus on our draw hands many times in the past but today, it started to sink in.  If I focus on my draw hand, the punch or block feels almost automatic.

Slow down and do the kata…

Sensei told us that we need to slow down when doing Heian Shodan.  He said that most of the group finished it in 17 to 20 seconds.  We need to make the kata last at least 30 seconds if not longer.  He said to finish each movement and count 1-1000, 2-1000.  He had told us this in the past but but I am going to keep mentioning it here until I actually do it all the time.

Self defense moves…

Similar to the moves that we did with Sensei Noia on Tuesday, Sensei Cieplik had us do a movement where we step back on a slight angle, grab the attackers punching hand, pull it into us and jab at their head at the same time.  This goes along with the base, retreat and attack idea.  We start standing ready (base), we body shift on an angle and step back (retreat) and then jab (attack).   This movement is extremely powerful and I would guess that the attacker would not be feeling too well after getting with that jab.

The next movement was another defense to a front punch.  We stand ready, the attacker punches at us, we pivot our body to the side, the punch goes past and at the same time we grab the attackers punching arm and push with our other hand on their elbow.  This movement has to be timed really well to work because if the attacker has a change to tighten up the punching arm or pull back the arm bar will not be effective.

Excellent class as always.

More kata and self defense drills – 7/29/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Super warm up…

We started with suicides to each quarter distance line and back.  Next came butt kickers across the dojo.  Next, shuffle up and kick back and forth.  After that, we started slowly moving across the dojo with our knees up with arms up, almost skipping and then Sensei Noia would say “go” and we had to sprint to the far end of the dojo.  Next came low walks front and back.  Finally, moving back and forth across the dojo, we did a shuffle with a jab, shuffle with reverse punch, shuffle with front kick, and shuffle with jumping front kick.

My body was pretty much spent by the end of the warm up.

Different kata…

We did Heian Shodan the normal way.  Next we did it from end to to start.  We then did it from the start but we pivoted on opposite foot.  Instead of stepping to the left with the left foot forward, we stepped back with the right foot.  The idea was to pivot on the foot that we would normally move and step with the foot that is normally stationary.   Doing kata like this isn’t physically harder but mentaly it is extremely hard.

Kihon with a little twist…

From the ready stance, Sensei Noia had us step back with the left leg and jab, then go back to ready and step back with the right leg and jab.  Next came ready stance, step back into horse stance and do a palm strike.  He followed that with the same leg movement into a horse stance but with a backfist.  We finished those type of movements with step back into back stance and throw a knife hand block.

Self defense – based on the kihon with a twist above…

Sensei Noia had us partner up and do one-step sparring based on the movements that we were doing above.  If my partner threw a jodan front punch, I would step back, out of the way on the inside and throw a jab.

We did the similar movements with the horse stance with palm strike and backfist.  The idea with these movements was to just move enough to get out of the way of their punch and counter almost at the same time.

With the back stance, we used our drawhand to deflect the attack and then knife hand strike them in the neck.

Doing these simple movements shows that you do not need to move a lot to get out of the way of an attack and counter.

Kumite timing and super ippon – 7/26/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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Today, Sensei Gatch had the class work on kumite timing drills.

Timing is everything…

We started out with a partner, shifting back and forth trying to time when our partner was going to attack before they attacked.  The idea was for each of us to keep pressure on each other and see the attack coming before our partner threw it.  We would shift together, keeping the same distance and when they would shift in, instead of us shifting out of the way, we would attack first.

Super ippon…

The second part drill that we worked on was called super ippon.  The idea here was for both of us to charge in and attack and score the point first.  Either way, one of us was going to get hit but the one who hit first won.  We ended up doing this drill with different partners until there was only two of us left.  I ended up coming in at second place since the young guy that beat me was blinding fast.  He was able to cover three times the ground that I did and his was about four inches better.

I do feel that my kumite skills are starting to improve but I have a long way to go.