Shotokanplanet.org

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

Base, retreat and attack – 7/10/08 – Thursday Karate class.

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I am sure that all of you have heard me say this many times but each class I attend is getting better and better. I am not sure what has changed but something is different now.

Base, retreat and attack…

After our warm up, Sensei Cieplik began to explain a concept that our chiropractor Tom Pusateri shared with him. The idea is, in order for the body to work properly, we need to follow the way that it was intended to be used.

We start with a ready stance or base. In this position, our eyes gaze at everything around us and focus on nothing. In our dojo, we gazed at the entire wall.

Next comes retreat. With this, our body moves from the base stance into at short back stance. I would assume that a cat stance would work the same way but I need to ask Sensei about that. The idea is that we move away or retreat from our opponent. With our eyes, we close in on something smaller like a person. It is still not a detailed focus but it is much smaller than the gaze in the base stance.

From the retreat position, we move into the attack position. For this example we used a front stance and the attack was a front punch. Now the focus has to become much more narrow. It can be the size of a quarter or an opponents nose.

Now we combine then all. You start in the base stance, gazing but not focusing. Next, you move into a back stance, then spring or recoil forward into a front stance with a front punch. This movement felt so powerful, more powerful than I can describe. My gi actually made a pop when I punched with my left first. The movement felt very natural and my body almost flowed from each position to the next.

I need to do a little more research and hope to post an article to www.shotokanmaster.com in the near future.

Balance in needed…

Sensei Cieplik made a point that he has said before but in a different way today. He said that balance is needed in Karate. When you are in class, you want to be in class and not elsewhere. If you come to class, you think about class, not about what you are going to do after or did before class. When you are done with class, you think about not being in class. See the balance?

This also applies to more than Karate class but that is another story.

Do kata and apply base, retreat and attack…

Sensei made a comment that before “tournament” Karate, the 21 moves in Heian Shodan would take 42 seconds. After each move, the person doing the kata would pause for a two count and then move on to the next movement. That pause would allow for zanshin before doing the next movement.

The Heian Shodan that I did was different than any one I have done before. When I say, different, I mean it different in a good way. Adding the two second pause gave a base to start from instead of just trying to go through the movements as fast as possible like I have been doing for so long now. Concentrating on the two second pause, counting 1-1000, 2-1000 between each move, took my mind off the movement and allow them to flow naturally instead of forced, like I have been them for so long.

Give it a try and let me know what your thoughts are.

Kata in the moment…

Sensei made a comment about doing kata in the moment. Don’t think about after the kata or even the next movement, just do each move in that moment and then move on to the next.

Just relax…

Talking about doing kata in the moment and how we should find balance, Sensei had us partner up and rub each others shoulder (trapezius) muscles.  This is really helpful in making us relax, at least for me.

Self defense, move into the attack…

This was a neat movement but timing needs to be really good to do it correctly. Sensei had us partner up. Our partner attacked with a right hand front punch, we would step into the punch slightly to left or our opponent, move into what looks like a low lunge position, block with our left hand and counter with our right hand to the ribs and then move past them and either do another attack like a take down or run past them.

The idea is to make them miss with their punch by moving under it and then slipping past them and countering and following up with an attack if needed.

We will all be Shodans…

Sensei Cieplik says a lot of things that make me realize how special his class is but tonight he made a comment that was really incredible.  He said that every one of us in the class is going to be a Shodan and that he has seen it in the video tape in his mind, he just has to share the information and help us understand it.  He always shares information but he wants to share it in such a way, or enough different ways, so that we all understand it.

Knowing that Sensei has that much belief in all of us made tonight a very special class for myself and at least one other person that I talked to afterwards.

Wrist and joint locks – 7/8/08 – Tuesday Karate class.

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Tai Chi update…

First, Tai Chi update from yesterday.  Mostly the same moves as the week before.  The main movement that we do is raised hands and stance.  This, from what I understand is the first movement of the forms that we are learning.  This was the last class of this session and hopefully our instructor will be able to teach another session for the rest of the summer otherwise my wife and I will be doing Tai Chi on our own for seven weeks until the fall session starts up.

Many wrist and joint locks in Karate class tonight…

The classes where we work on self defense moves really fascinates me since I really have never applied the moves that we learn in the real world.  I guess I am lucky that I haven’t had to use what I have learned but doing many of these movements with a partner helps to understand Karate in more detail.

Sensei Noia had us get a partner and they would grab our wrist.  We started with the attacker grabbing my left wrist with their right hand.  I would then put my right hand over their right hand an turn our their wrist and arm, the way that it shouldn’t bend.  In order for this to work, I grabbed their palm with my two index fingers and pushed the back of their hand with my two thumbs while turning the arm to my right.

Instead of breaking away like we did last week, the object here was to keep the attacker from attacking.  I guess that came out a little wrong but the idea is to make them not want to attack you because they cannot since they are in either too much pain or in a bad position to launch an attack.

We spent most of the class working on similar movements but different attacks such as someone grabbing our gi or cross body wrist grabs.  The movements are all very similar with the point being locking up the joints and wrists.

I wish that I could explain these movements in better detail but I think that I am going to have to begin doing these movements in front of the video camera so that I can share them with all of you.

Kumite and body conditioning drills – 7/5/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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Sparring basics…

Sensei Plocharczyk started us out with some very basic moves.  We paired up and started off shuffling in and throwing a jab.  Next we shuffled in and threw a reverse punch.  This was a good warm up for all of us.

Time for more advanced kumite drills…

The next moves built upon the warm up drills that we just finished.  Sensei had us work on making our partner create an opening for us to attack.  For example, we would throw a jab to their head and when they would go to block it, we would change the attack, midstream, and throw the jab or reverse punch to the stomach.  I know this sounds really basic but getting the timing correct isn’t very easy and switching from one attack to another in a split second is not simple by any means.

We spent 90% of class working on those drills and using different fakes and attacks to create openings to trick our partner and open them up to attack.  I also realize that I still have a lot of work to do on my kumite skills.

Stronger body equals better Karate…

Sensei Plocharczyk setup a conditioning circuit course for us to finish up with.  The circuit consisted of 8 exercises which included;

  • Push ups with our feet up on the bleachers and our hands on pads raised up about a foot off the floor.
  • One leg squats where we squat down and touch our butts to bleachers and stand back up then do the other leg.  This counts as two stations.
  • A sideways shuffle sprint with a forward  and backward sprint.
  • Moving in and out between eight groups of pads doing a shift in with reverse punch both to the left and right.
  • Squats
  • Doing the plank and holding for 30 seconds.
  • An open space to do one kata.

Sensei had us spend 30 seconds at each exercise station.  For example, when doing the pushups we had 30 seconds to complete as many as possible.  I was able to do 20 and was pretty happy with that since most people didn’t make it over 10.

We didn’t have enough time for everyone to make it through all eight of the stations but it was a real challenge just getting through six of them.

One thing that I always find interesting about Sensei Plocharczyk and my other Sensei’s is that they don’t just make up these drills for the students, they actually do them or even harder drills themselves.  It is certainly nice to know that my Sensei’s work themselves just as hard or harder than they work us.