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

My hardest Karate class yet – 9/20/08 – Saturday Karate class

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I know I have said this before but I can say with some certainty that this was the hardest class I have ever had.  At one point, I was almost unable to catch my breath.  I don’t remember ever getting to the point where I could not catch my breath like I did today.

A lot of warm up…

Sensei Plocharczyk had us Jog full court and back 4 times, shuffle back and forth 2 times, shuffle and raise the front leg up like a roundhouse kick 2 times to the side and then do 50 sit ups.

The big pads…

The big pads are about a foot tall and we stood in a front stance with one foot on the pad and the other foot on the floor.  We then stood up in the pad, threw a front snap kick and put the kicking foot back down behind us.  Next, instead of doing a front snap kick, we stood up on the pad and did a knee strike but we pushed our knee and our hips forward and then set our leg down behind us again.  After that we did the knee strike but after we set the kicking leg down we immediately stood back up and did a front snap kick.

After that we did 10 pushups with our feet on the pad and then a few more but with our body in a bent over V position and our hands close together.

Next, we stood on the pad and did the first move of Jion.  We put our back foot down on the floor while keeping the front foot on the pad.  We then stood back up on the pad and then stepped back with the opposite leg.  After that, we stood on the pad, stepped down with one leg and did a front punch and a reverse punch.  We then stood back up on the pad and threw a front punch and repeated the movement with the other leg.  This was an awesome drill and it felt like it really worked the entire body.

We then did 25 more situps and another drill where we laid next to one end of the pad, put one foot on it with one knee bent, facing up toward the ceiling, and the other straight while holding a wrestlers bridge for 30 seconds or so.  We then swithced legs and did the other side.

For the next drill, we stood next to the pad and put one foot on it.  We then shuffled up, did a roundhouse kick and set the kicking foot on the floor on the other side of the pad.  We the did the same thing with the other leg.

We then did another 25 situps and 10 more pushups.

Next, we got a partner.  With one of us on each end of the pad, we had to do 10 pushups.  We then picked up the pad and ran to the center of the gym, did 10 more pushups and slapped each shoulder after each one.  Next, we picked up the pad again, ran to the far end of the gym and did 10 shoulder slaps.  We then picked up the pad and ran back to the other end of the gym.

The final drill was the hardest.  One partner stood near the bleachers and did alternating one leg squats while the other picked up the end of the pad and threw it end over end from one end of the gym to the other.  It is like the big tire toss that they do at the worlds strongest man contest but with a pad and not as heavy as the truck tires.

I think I can honestly say that this was the hardest class that I have ever had.

Conditioning at the Karate Olympics – 8/9/08 – Saturday Karate class

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Four events means a lot of hard work…

In honor of the Olympics, Sensei Gatch held our own Karate Olympics.  This was an hour of all out conditioning that put Karate student against Karate student.

Three sets of timed push ups to failure…

We started with push ups.  For the first part of this three part event, Sensei had us do as many push ups and we could for 30 seconds.  I ended up with 34, the most in the group, in the first 30 seconds.  On the second 30 second test, I was able to do 22 push ups, which was the most in my group again.  For the third part of the event, I was only able to do 13 push ups.  One of the other students beat me on the third part by doing 16 push ups but my total of 69 beat his total of 67.  My arms and front deltoids were pretty much useless after the push ups.

V-sit and hold forever…

For the next event we got on to the floor and had to hold our legs up in the v-situp position for as long as possible.  I ended up winning this event by holding the position for longer than anyone else and over five minutes.  My abdominals never gave out buy my hip flexors felt like they were beaten with stick.

Wall sit or the dreaded invisible chair…

For this event we had to sit with our backs against the wall and hold for as long as possible.  Because my hip flexors already spent, I was only able to hold the position for about two minutes and 30 seconds.  I had to 50 squats because of the length of time that I held myself up.

Sprint or go home…

The last event was a good ole fashioned foot race.  Sensei Gatch put some pads as a finish line about three quarters of way across the gym.  We had to run agaist each other and the people who lost had to go to the other side of the gym and do low walks until everyone was done running the races.  I ended up losing to a young girl who is about 26 years younger than me but only by a couple of inches.

Kata…

After all the events we had to do a single kata.  Without much energy left, we all did Heian Shodan and even though I was really tired, it felt really smooth and relaxed.  Maybe I need to tire myself out for the next tournament or exam so that I can be so relaxed for kata?

Outside conditioning on the hill again – 8/2/08 – Saturday Karate class

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Saturday, in the park, think it was the 4th of July…

Sorry, that old song popped in my head when I thought about the tourture that Sensei Gatch put us through on the hill today.

Warm up that never ended…

For the warm up, we started by jogging down the hill, up the other side and then around the soccer field.  Next we went back to the bottom of the hill in groups of three.  One of us would sprint to the top of the hill, then walk back down and tag our partner who would then do the same and so on.

After that came front stance up and down the hill, then shuffle into horse stance up and down the hill and finally back stance up and down the hill.

We then walked over the bleachers where we had to jump on to the bottom seat and off for 15 jumps total.  Next, back to the hill for low walks and then bear crawls up and down.

We finally finished up with a cool down jog across the soccer field.

The more I think about it, torture might have been too light of a word for what we did today.