Shotokanplanet.org

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

Friday Karate class – 6/13/08 – Squeeze the legs kata.

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I didn’t go to class yesterday since both my wife and I weren’t feeling well. Her back was really sore and my hip was so sore that walking hurt a great deal. I was really looking forward to Thursday class but I don’t like to take class when I cannot put everything into it.

Both my wife and I went to our chiropractor, Dr. Pusateri, today and luckily, he was able to fix both of us. My wife’s back was messed up and my right hip bone was pointing down, causing most of the muscles in my right leg to turn off. It was really making front stances very painful and most of my front kicks were way off because of it. Dr. Pusateri got everything back in place and working again so things are good.

Today was an excellent class. Sensei Noia asked who wanted to do kumite and who wanted to do kata. I choose kata again since my body was put back together this morning. We went off to one side with Sensei Plocharczyk and he took us through a different kata workout that I never recall doing in the past. Sensei started us off with Heian Godan but instead of just doing the kata, he told us to squeeze the floor with our feet and legs. As we did each move, Sensei walked around and checked to make sure that we were squeezing the right muscles. He would try to push us out of our stance and then check to make sure that our core was tightened. This doesn’t sound too hard, right, but it was torture. We would hold a stance for at least 15 seconds and sometimes up to one minute if he had to correct one of us. We did the same for Tekki Shodan and Jion too.

When working on Jion, Sensei gave me some things to work on. When I go from the first move into the second move, I am coming up out of my stance. When going into the horse stance with palm strike, I am turning on the ball of my foot instead of the heel. When moving into the first outward block, before the front punch, I am locking my back leg after my block is executed. Going from the front punch into the downward block, before the three stomps, I am raising up.

Sensei also had us do an interesting drill where we sit on a swiss ball and punch a pad that our partner is holding. I had an extremely hard time sitting on the ball with my feet behind me. My hips were screaming. I think I need to start sitting on the swiss ball again while I am typing on the computer here. Maybe it will help my flexibility. We did another drill where Sensei had us sit on the swiss ball, hold a pad and twist from side to side while our partner held our feet. It is a great core exercise and I could really feel it.

I plan on spending the next six months working on making all of my stances in my kata and basics like they were tonight. I walked through my moves for such as long, it is too bad that it took me almost four years to finally get it right. It wasn’t that I didn’t here this in the past but it just didn’t sink in until now.

I have to admit a funny thing. Every time I change rank, I learn something or realize something new that I have to work on. I know that there is no magic in rank advances but it always seems to make me understand something better each time my rank changes. Maybe my mind is clearer since the exam is over and there won’t be another one for at least six months now.

Tuesday Karate class – 6/3/08 – Parts of kata.

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What an excellent class. Sensei Noia really taught a great class.

I am not sure what was different but every bit of the class felt right. I am not sure if my body was just on today but the moves went together like pieces in a puzzle.

We started with a hard warm up and some stretching and then got right into it.

Sensei had us start in a horse stance. We did the normal drills of punches, double punches, rising blocks, downward block, inward blocks and outward blocks. We then turned sideways and did side snap kicks across and back the dojo.

Next, we were moving forward doing combinations. Sensei was calling out the movements in Japanese. For example, we did moving forward, downward block, front leg roundhouse kick and reverse punch.

After that, Sensei had us work on some kata parts. We started with Jion, He had us do the first movement about five times and then had us do the first, second and kick with sanbon zuki over about five times. Then we did the third movement with the kick and sanbon zuki about five times. All of the movements started with the end of the last movement. Next came the reach, block punch about five times and then we did from that movement all the way to the first kiai. From the first kiai, we did the turn with double block and then into the horse stance with hook punch. We then did the double block, shift into horse stance going both ways 10 times. We then did the move from the horse stance into the downward block.

Next came Bassai Dai. It was really cool to work on that kata. We did the first move about five times, then the first move again, turn into the outward block with reverse outward block. Then from the start again, turn into the outward block, then reverse outward block into the reverse inward block and outward. We spent a some more time doing moves after that all the way to the low knee side kick.

We then went out to do our entire kata. My first Jion felt really good. I was the last one to finish. I took my time and did each move not worrying about anyone else. We then did a second kata and again, I finished last. I did the kata like I felt it should be done. After those, Sensei Noia had us each pick a Heian kata. I normally would have picked Heian Shodan but I wanted to Heian Yondan. It felt excellent. With the exception of the second from the last backstance knife hand block, it had to be one of the best Heian Yondans that I have ever done.

After our last kata, Sensei asked for some to volunteer to stretch out the class since everyone worked so hard. I did and I picked my friend Robert to help out. It felt good to stretch right after class and I might start doing that on my own going forward.

Class has just been better and better lately. I am really starting to relax when I am training and I think it is helping.

Friday Karate Class – 5/23/08 – Kihon and kata on my own.

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My wife wife and son still weren’t feeling well, so I went to class early to help out.  I like to help out since I often warm up the classes and get some extra stretching in.  It also helped make my sore shoulder feel a little better.

When time came for my class, Sensei Gatch had everyone work on sparring so I went off to the side to work on some kihon and kata on my own.

I did moving forward in zenkutsu dachi:

  • Gedan barai with gayku zuki.
  • Age uke with gayku zuki.
  • Soto uke with gayku zuki.
  • Uchi uke with gayku zuki.
  • Uchi usk and kizami zuki with gayku zuki.
  • kokutsu dachi with shuto uke.
  • Kokutsu dachi with shuto uke, mae geri and zenkutsu dachi with nukite.

I spent most of the time working on my hip rotation.  I used a little less power but made sure that my hips came around.

Next, I worked on some kata.  I did an entire Jion at a slow pace and then finished up working on parts of the kata.

Sensei Gatch called me over to help referee with some sparring matches and I ended up doing that until the end of class.  I am hoping that helping referee will help me when the time comes for me to test for my referee license sometime in the future.