Shotokanplanet.org

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

Kata from the top down

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There are times when you go to Karate class and find out how hard you can push yourself and today was one of those days.  Today we did kata along with a drill using a the sukui uke from Bassai Dai.

Kata from highest to lowest

Sensei Noia had us start class with kata.  He had us begin with the highest level kata that we know and then work our way down to the lowest level kata.  For the Shodans and above, this meant doing 18 or more different katas for two of us.  For the lower Kyu ranks and other Shodan’s it meant doing all the katas they knew and continuing to do them over and over until the other Shodan’s were finished.  I was able to remember 18 katas and do all of them in under 25 minutes.  It was hard work but it also felt awesome being able to do all of those katas at one time.  I am not sure how they looked but they felt really good.

Hit hard but loose, with your forearm

We spent the rest of the class working on a drills from a technique in Bassai Dai called sukui uke.  The is the technique near the end of the kata where your hand starts high up, your twist your hips and drop your arm, striking with your forearm.  I believe the English translation is scooping block.  In the video below, it’s the technique at 1:23.

We started with our partner holding a focus mitt and we raised our hand above our head, dropping our arm and striking the focus mitt with the inside of our forearm.  The idea of this drill was to let gravity create the power and not muscle through the technique.   This is powerful movement if applied to certain targets like the neck which I explain more about later.

For the next drill, we worked on half of the movement without the scooping action at the end.  The idea was to let the arm fall across the body with what I can only describe as a whipping action.  The action of the arm falling and hips turning the body makes it fast and strong.  We then did the same drill again adding the scoop at the end of the technique.  I lost count but we did a lot these.

The last drill was with our partner again.  This time, our partner attacked with a right fist forward punch or wide hay-maker punch, we stepped in with a U punch, blocking and grabbing our partners punching hand with our top, left hand and then pulling them down by their arm and striking them with the inside of our right, inside forearm.  From there, this action allows your to throw your partner to the floor very easily by using your hip action and their neck.

The movements that we do in various katas can have many different applications and while I was taught that this technique from Bassai Dai was catching an attackers kick, scooping it up and throwing it away, the drill we worked on above brings a different, more serious, meaning to the same technique.

This proves that you cannot be close minded when looking for applications of the techniques in the katas you know.  What looks like a simple technique might actually be something totally different.

Class summary

  • Start with the most advanced kata you know and work your way down
  • Sukui uke, loose but strong
  • Kata techniques can have many different applications if we open out mind to them

Roundhouse kick warm up and kata bunkai – Saturday Karate class – 6/21/08

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Sensei Plocharczyk gave us a very interesting class today.  He had us do some things that we never did before both during our warm up and in class.

A very different warm up – Horse stance, shuffle and roundhouse kick.

We ran around the gym for a few laps and then Sensei had us line up on one side of the gym.  He then said get into a horse stance, shuffle up to the right, throw a low side thrust kick (around knee height) across the gym to the first line about a quarter distance of the gym and back.  Then, we did the same move but threw the kick to thigh level but to the halfway line across the gym and back.  Next, the same move again but to belt level height to the three quarter line and back.  We then did one more drill all the way across the gym, throwing kicks or trying to throw them to jodan level.  This warm up sound really simple but it gave my hips an excellent warm up.  I plan on doing this drill at home to help improve my hip mobility and kicking ability.

Kata bunkai…

I am calling this kata bunkai, not because it was all parts of one kata but because it was various parts of a few different kata’s.

We stood face to face with our partner.  My partner was my wife this time,  She grabbed the top of my gi near the top of my chest below my neck with her right hand and threw a wide hay maker punch with her left hand.  I stopped the punch using my left hand with an edge hand strike to her right bicep and grabbed her arm, near the bicep with my left hand.  I then moved my right foot behind her left leg and did the dropping strike from Jion to her right arm, to break her grip where she was holding my gi.  I then slid behind her, into a horse stance with still holding her right arm, threw an elbow strike with my right arm and took her down to the floor by pushing my right hip into hers and twisting as I executed the elbow strike.

Using the edge hand strike could be from many of that kata’s where a knife hand block is used, except this movement was a strike and not a block.  The arm grab with the downward dropping strike is from Jion and Sensei said that it can be done both with the right foot on the floor like a step or brining the knee up just like in the kata.  The elbow strike while holding her is the second from the last move in Jion.

We normally do not spend a lot of time on kata application but Sensei mentioned that during the summer months, he hopes to work on some more of these types of movements.  With the exception of lying on the floor looking up, I really like it.