Shotokanplanet.org

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

Put your sparring gear on – 5/11/10 – Tuesday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

For the first time in a while, Sensei had us work on some sparring drills.  I was afraid that I would be really rusty but it wasn’t that way at all.

Warm up….

We started shifting across the floor and back.  After that, we shifted across the floor with one, two or three attacks.  Next, we shifted across the floor with as many attacks as Sensei counts.  It was tough, doing multiple attacks.

Get a partner….

For the next drills, we got a partner.  Sensei had us start with a single attack, then tow attacks, three attacks and four attacks with each exchange.  The goal of the one partner was to score with all attacks and the other partner was to block everything.  We switched partners two more times.  We finished up our sparring drills with some free sparring.

Conditioning time….

Sensei had do some conditioning drills at the end of class.  He started with some squat hops.  We put our hands over our heads, squatted down and hopped backward and forward.  After that, we did push ups, regular squats and something else that escapes me now.

We ended class with our exam kata but in slow motion.

It felt good to spar again, I am looking forward to doing more after exams are over.

This article was originally posted on www.shotokanplanet.org. Any reproduction on any other site is prohibited and a violation of copyright laws.

OUCH – 10/18/08 – Saturday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Sensei Plocharczyk put us through a serious conditioning class today.

The warm up was a workout in itself…

Sensei had us start with two, back and forth, runs across the gym.  Next, came a shuffle back and forth across the gym.  After that, 100 jumping jacks, 50 crunches and 50 squats.

Kihon…

Sensei Gatch took us through some kihon after our warm up.

We started moving back and forth doing rising block, downward block and reverse punch.  We started in with the rising block and our hips open, we then turned our hips forward and then opened them again for the downward block and then turned them forward again for the reverse punch.

Next came front snap kick to the front and side thrust kick to side.  Then front snap kick to the front, side thrust kick to the side and back kick to the rear.

Kata with some conditioning…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us hold our balance while others did kata.  The idea was for us to hold our  balance bent over at the waist with our arms out to the side and one leg straight our behind us.  Then is was our turn to do kata and the others had to do the balancing.

The next exercise was one group did kata and the other group did speed squats until they finished.  I was able to do 69 squats in the time it took one of our black belts to finish Kanku Dai.

The last exercise of the day…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us hold our balance with one leg up like a front snap kick, we then had to bend over and touch a pad to the floor, raise upright with a front snap kick, then hold our balance and pass the pad across to our partner.  We had to do this this five times on each leg.

It was a tough class but it felt really good.

Torture is the only word I can use – 10/17/08 – Friday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Just when I thought it was safe to go to class, Sensei Noia thought up a new form of torture.

All conditioning…

We started with five suicides across the gym.  Next came 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats.  After that, we did low walks back and forth across the gym.  Then came another 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats.

We then stood in two lines with a tape line in front of us.  From there, we had to jump, side to side, over the line for the length of the gym.  Next, we had to crisscross our feet over the same line.  Then came another 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats and somewhere else, we had to 10 more of each to complete a total of 100.  There we a couple of other drills on that line but my mind is too fuzzy to remember them.

We finished with some shifting drills.  We stood by the same line, shifted in and then out on an angle.

With the exception of the shifting, we did very little Karate but it was great to see how hard everyone worked.