Shotokanplanet.org

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

Sunday Karate Tournament – 4/20/08 – No medals for me but fun for all.

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I entered this tournament, even though I shouldn’t of because of my ribs.  Luckily, I didn’t hurt myself too much.

I entered both the kata and kihon events.  I went up against that same group of people as always, which is good, since all of them are great people.  After entering 14 tournaments over the last three and half years, you really start to build friendships with your competitors.  Even though some of us win or loose, we all have respect for each other and no bad will when one or the wins.

I do these tournaments for fun and if I win, that’s great, if I don’t, no big deal.  I used to get really mad when I would not win but now, I just do it support my club and since I am going to be there anyway to watch my son compete, I may as well do it.

For the first time, when I did my kata, I had a smile on my face during most of it.  It was really funny, Sensei Cieplik has often told us to do our kata with a smile and this time, I did both of them with a smile.  It wasn’t a constant smile but it was there during many of the moves.  I didn’t win and I zoned out a few times but it was fun for me and I hope that I can keep the same feeling the next time I compete.

My son did better, he won a forth place medal in kata.  He did Jion and even though he is a 4th Kyu and should be doing Tekki Shodan or Heian Godan, he had his mind set on Jion.  I think he would have placed higher if he would have done Heian Godan but he was happy with his place and so was I and his mom.

Sadly, my wife was not able to compete because of some issues with her back but once she gets over those, I am sure she will be back to her winning self like before.

My wife, son and I also volunteered to help out with the tournament.  We helped in the staging area and had to line up the competitors and take them to their rings when the time came.  Their stagging area is run extremely well and without the hard work of Beth Rechenmacher, it would never be pulled off.  I have a lot more respect for the people that make these tournaments possible and am glad that I was able to be a part of it.  My wife and I also had the chance to help score one of the kumite matches.  It was really interesting to see how it’s done.

Even though, I didn’t win any medals, I think I still won by learning some new stuff.

Friday Karate class – 4/18/08 – Lots of kihon and pushed in ribs.

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I went to see my chiropractor, Doc Pusateri today and found out that I had a pushed in rib and my ribcage was torqued on my left side.  He just put his finger on my side and knew from my yelp what was wrong.  He was able to put the rib back in place and un-torque my ribcage in about five minutes and then he worked on my parts like always.  The pain was almost totally gone by the time I walked out of his office.  It was still there but only about 10 percent of what it was just a little while before.

I helped out with the two classes before mine like I do every week and wasn’t going to take my class since I didn’t want to hurt myself again.  I couldn’t just sit and watch so I ended up doing kihon for about half the class but I took it easy because Sensei Noia said to.  The combination moves did stress my ribs somewhat but not enough to cause any real pain like I felt in class last night.  We did some kicking combinations too and those are starting to finally improve.  I didn’t use any power on my moves and I did notice that my form improved a great deal.  I am going to have to evaluate my power output and consider taking it down a notch to improve my technique.

We finished up class with kata and I did Jion.  Again, it was a weak version of Jion, at least for me but I was able to complete the entire kata without too much pain.

Thursday Karate class – 4/17/08 – Good class but painful.

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I guess the title is a little deceiving.  What we did in class is what I would normally call painful but because of my ribs, it was.

We started our normal warm up and Sensei noticed right away that my kicks were off.  My foot was not too sore but bad enought to throw off my warm ups and my kicks at the start of class.  After a while, when I was warmed up, my foot started to feel better though.

My ribs are worse than they were yesterday and it made for a bunch of really painful kihon movements.  Any combination where I have to twist my hips was very painful.

One of the points that Sensei Cieplik, that really stuck in my mind, was to RELAX.  He made the comment that we are too stressed and that if we want our Karate to be better, we should relax.  Just let is go as he often says when we are doing our basics.  He has told us this many times before but for some reason, it stuck in my mind tonight.

Sensei has often told us this in the past but it is starting to become more important to my training.  He often says, when we are doing our kiohn, we need to; Practice, Persistence, GENTLE, Patience.  Practice our Karate as often as we can.  Be persistent and strive to do it correctly even if we don’t get it right away.  Be GENTLE, typed in caps to express the importance here, to our bodies and do what is within our physical abilities.  And have patience when trying to master our moves or ranks in Karate.

There is a lot of good advice in those four simple words and I am starting to understand them more as I gain more experience.  When I started Karate, I was so focused on getting my black belt as fast I could but as I am learning more, I realized that I still have a long way to go and that I need to follow those four simple words above.  Since I received my third Kyu, I am more interested in learning more details that I am about getting my Shodan.  I still want to get my black belt one day but my goal of only doing that has changed along the way.  It’s not like I am going to quit Karate after I get my black belt so I am going to take my time and enjoy myself and learn everything I can along the way.  When my black belt comes, it will but I am no longer worried about the destination and am more interested in the journey.

Another great point from Sensei, while we were doing some basics in a back stance is to think from behind.  The children often only think with the muscles in front such as abs, chest, quads, arms and shoulders where the adults can think from their back, rear shoulders, hamstrings  and lower back.  Children normally only think from the muscles they see where adults can use the muscles they cannot see behind them.

While doing some work with Tekki Shodan, Sensei mentioned that we should try to punch with our eye behind our elbow when doing the hook punch type movement.  If I understand this correctly, the idea is that if we drive from our elbow the movement will have power but if we use our fist, it will not be as strong.

Another excellent point that I should have been doing for ages is to squeeze my heels together in horse stance.   I know that Sensei has said this in the past but it didn’t sink in until tonight.  Squeezing the heels and tightening the butt and hamstrings makes the stance a whole different thing to me.  It puts my hips and legs in correct position and helps me keep my back upright instead of leaning forward.I spent some time after class talking to Sensei about what happened with my ribs on Tuesday and he gave me some good advice.  “Don’t get hit” he said.  At first, I was wasn’t sure what to think but then he explained something to me about one of his students that takes his Iai-Tate Do class and said that he keeps his elbows at his sides at all times.  Keeping the elbows in protects the ribs and he can block any body attacks with his hands.  If someone attacks his head, he just moves back.  In essence, the idea is to stay in close to the opponent and worry about blocking only the torso with the hands.  I am not going to be sparring until my ribs are fully healed but I plan on trying this advice then.

Even though I was really sore, it was still and excellent class as always.