This is a log of my journey to Shotokan Karate Shodan and beyond.
I haven’t worked out much since my Karate examination on December 2nd. I hurt my ribs during Tuesday class so I have been taking it easy to let them heal up. Even though I did take class on Friday, it was painful.
I did do a single slow motion Jion tonight but plan on getting back to normal training tomorrow.
I wasn’t able to take class on Thursday because I hurt my ribs on Tuesday night. I could barely move all day Thursday and taking class something that I don’t think I could have handled.
I was lucky that Sensei Noia had us work on basics and kata tonight. Moving through all of the kihon got my ribs nicely warmed up so that I could better than I did over the last few days. The pain was still very bad but I was able to make it all the way through class with reduced power.
We started with basic moves, moving forward, front punch. Then we moved to sanbon zuki, back and forth. Then came various blocks with reverse punch. We then did some kicks. Moving forward double front snap kick. Then we did horse stance, side thrust kick and then side snap kick. I was surprised that I was able to do the side thrust kicks. My ribs were so sore earlier, I could not get my leg much higher then knee level without serious pain.
After the kihon, we did some kata. We started with slow motion Heian Shodan followed up with a fast one. Then we did our own kata in slow motion, then again followed it up with a full speed kata. It felt really good to do Jion in slow motion. I have wanted to do that kata for so long and have it actually be my belt kata, the time is finally here.
There are days that just couldn’t be better and today was one of them.
After three and a half years of hard work, both my wife and I were promoted to 3rd Kyu today. We took our test on Sunday and revieved our results in class today.
It’s funny how many people say that getting a new belt or rank doesn’t make you any better than before but I have to admit, I felt much different in class tonight that I have in a long time. I know that I didn’t physically improve in the last two days since my test but mentally, I think things went up a notch.
Class was really good tonight and not just because of the new rank.
We spent the first part of class working on some anchorman drills. One of us would stand in front of the line and block and counter the attacks from the rest of the people in the line, one at a time. My friend Robert is always a challenge. He is second kyu, soon testing for 1st kyu, and he and I always try to trick each other. He moves really well and really likes to throw a double kick of roundhouse and hook kick to jodan at me or sweep me but since I have learned his signature moves, he tires some new moves now. I was able to block his first couple attacks but he tricked me on the third one and scored.
After that, we took off the pads and worked on one-step sparring.  Since my wife and I were third kyu’s, we got to attack the 1st and 2nd kyu’s and they blocked and countered.
Next came the really fun part, we got to work on kata.  It’s not like we never worked on kata before but it was time to do Jion. I have wanted to do Jion for a long time and finally, it is time to learn it. Even though I have practiced Jion for a few months now, it is finally my current rank kata. Sensei Noia took us through each move of Jion, step by step but before that, he had us do all of the Heian kata’s and Tekki Shodan. Doing all of those kata’s really gets me warmed up.
We did our first Jion very slow, while following along with Sensei Noia. Next we did it again at medium speed and then full speed. After that, Sensei Noia worked on Bassai Dai with the other brown belts and my wife and I did Jion three or four more times on our own.
Great class!