Shotokanplanet.org

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

Karate 3rd kyu rank test today – 12/2/07

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Tonight was my wifes and my rank test.

I never trained as hard for a test as I did for this one. I did so many Tekki Shodan katas that I even had dreams about it.

I was impressed with my wife tonight. She looked really good and I am sure that she did very well. She moves so much better than I do. If I could put her moves with my power, she would need to be registered as a lethal weapon.

We had a handful of movements for kihon:

  • Moving forward and backward sanbon zuki.
  • Moving forward and backward, rising block with reverse punch.
  • Moving forward and backward, downward block and reverse punch.
  • Moving forward and backward, outward block, jab with reverse punch.
  • Moving forward and backward, inward block, horse stance elbow strike and backfist.
  • Moving forward and backward, knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite.
  • Moving forward, double front snap kick.
  • Moving forward, double roundhouse kick.
  • Moving forward, front snap kick and side thrust kick.

That doesn’t sound like a lot of movements but the person counting gave our row no rest between movements. When I got to the double front snap kicks, I was working in the no oxygen zone.

Next we did our kata. Kata felt good to me.

We then finished up with one-step sparring. I was happy to have one of the ladies that I often see at the tests as my partner. Since we know each other, it makes the one-step feel easier and takes a lot of the stress off. I felt very strong on my counter punches and even got her hair to move, much like when I do one-step with my wife.

I feel that I did well but I won’t know my results until Tuesday class. I am going to be climbing the wall for the next day and a half now.

I am already putting together my new training program for the next test. I am going to spend the next three months working on stances, kicks, kata and endurance training. I am going to ignore the upper body moments outside of class since those are not an issue. I am always being told that my upper body is solid and even to lower the power level a notch or two or more.

I am going to torture my legs and get my stances down low by doing some daily timed static stance work. For my kicks, I am going to do a lot of kicks and work on strengthening my hips. I will continue to do a lot of kata. I want to try and spend some time improving my lung capacity so that I can do the entire test without getting so winded. After, I did my kata, I could hardly catch my breath so I need to work on that aspect.

I have a lot of work ahead of me but I guess that is what Karate is all about, to me anyway.

Karate workout weekly update 12/1/07 – I bet everyone thought I was being lazy!

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Instead of creating a separate post for my kata each day, I am going to update my outside of class workouts once each week unless I have something really interesting talk about. I will try to update this on Saturday or Sunday of each week.

  • 11/18/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/19/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/20/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/21/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/22/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/23/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/24/07 – 5 Tekki Shodan
  • 11/26/07 – 15 Tekki Shodan, 3 Jion and one each of Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan and Heian Sandan.
  • 11/27/07 – 10 Tekki Shodan, 2 Jion and one each of Heian Yondan and Heian Godan.
  • 11/28/07 – 5 Tekki Shodan

I am satisfied with myself this time. Since October 8th, I did 300 Tekki Shodan katas. This is kata that I have outside of class. If I added in all of the kata that we did in class, I would guess it would easily be over 450. This number doesn’t include all of the Heian katas or Jion either.

I have never trained as hard for my rank exams as I did for this one coming up soon.

Tuesday Karate class – 11/27/07 – Kihon, Kata and exercise is the best medicine.

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I got to class not feeling too well but as soon as we got moving, I felt much better.  It amazes me that the body can feel so bad but then completely turn around and feel great with just a little movement and sweat.  I don’t think I was really sick with a cold or flu but my mind just felt off, yet my Karate felt on after only a few moments.

We spent a lot of time doing kihon for our upcoming exams but it was geared toward the more advanced moves again.

Lots of kicking drills.  Side thrust kick with roundhouse and reverse punch.  Then roundhouse kick with side thrust kick and reverse punch.  Then double front snap kick and double roundhouse kicks.  After that came front snap kick with front leg followed with rear leg front snap kick.  We also did roundhouse kicks the same way but I wasn’t too good at doing the front leg roundhouse.

We also did back stance, knife hand block, front snap kick with nukite and after that came front stance, outward block into horse stance with elbow strike and backfist.

We finished up doing kata.  We did, Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan, Tekki Shodan and Jion.  For the first time, I was able to do Jion with some confidence and without making a mistake.