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

Good kihon makes good Karate – 2/26/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien, along with Sensei Cieplik, often say good kihon make good Karate.  If your want good kata or good kumite, your kihon needs to be good.  Sensei has mentioned before that without good kihon, your kata will never be much more than memorized movements much like a dance.  He often said that he could teach any good athlete the moves for a kata but they would not be doing Karate because of they do not understand the kihon or basics.

Working toward good kihon….

Sensie had us spend most of the class working on kihon drills.  We did blocks and strikes back and forth across the dojo.  We started with simple movements such as moving forward with front punch or blocks, then we moved into combination movements with block and punches and then we spent a lot of time working on our kicks.  We did front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick and roundhouse kick but with extra attention to the little details trying to make the movements perfect.

More kicks….

For the next drill, we got a partner and did front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick.  We used our partner as a support and did all three kicks.

We also worked on a roundhouse drill where we kicked each other, trying to keep our heel to our butt until we point our knee at out target and then let the kick fly. The idea was to mask that the kick is coming until it is too late for the opponent to see it.

It was a really tough class with lots of hip and leg work.

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Time to get ready for Karate exams – 9/28/09 – Monday Karate class

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Sensei Brien had us work on our examination preparation.  Exam time is right around the corner and Sensei wants to make sure that we are prepared.

20+ minutes of really hard work….

Sensei had us go through the entire kihon part of our exam.  It included the following:

  • Horse stance with front punch, double punch and rising block.
  • Moving forward and backward front punch
  • Moving forward and backward with sanbon zuki
  • Moving forward and backward with rising block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with downward block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with inward block and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with inward block, elbow strike and backfist
  • Moving forward and backward with knife hand block, front snap kick and reverse punch
  • Moving forward and backward with front snap kick and front punch
  • Moving forward and backward with double front snap kick
  • Moving forward and backward with double roundhouse kick
  • From horse stance, moving sideways with side thrust kick
  • From horse stance, moving sideways with side snap kick
  • Shifting forward with front hand jab
  • Shuffle up with reverse punch
  • Moving forward with shift and jab followed with shuffle and reverse punch

Sensei had us do all of those movements with less then 10 seconds rest between them.  The last time we did this, I was ready to fall down but today, it was hard but much easier than the last time we did this in class.  We also did more moves in each group than at the test.  Normally we do five of each group of movements but Sensei had us do six or more for some movements which was a little hard then what we would see at our test.

Sensei suggested that to prepare for our exam, we should do sprints and not long distance running since our movements are anaerobic by nature and not aerobic.

Kata with spirit, even though you are tired….

After a few minute rest, Sensei had us do our kata.  He was looking at the speed of the kata and the spirit that we had when we did it.  He made the point that many people, when tired, start the kata with a lot of spirit but soon the output level drops and the spirit goes way down.  Another point he made is that people speed up their kata just to try and get it done because they are tired.

Sensei had us do our kata twice more but taking those points into account.

One step kumite….

We spent the rest of the class working on one-step kumite.  Sensei wanted us to work on doing the block and counter attack like we would de-ai.  He wanted us to sense when our partner was going to attack, block extremely fast and counter attack before they finished their attack.  Not too  easy a task to perform but if we can get it, it will help improve not only our one step but our free sparring and self defense.

It was a very tough but good class.

Karate class so hard, even my ears hurt – 9/15/09 – Tuesday Karate class

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In an effort to help prepare us for our Karate examinations, Sensei Noia has been working on our physical conditioning.  Needless to say, we have been having some of the hardest Karate classes ever.

Kata and burpees….

We started class with a run back and forth across the gym at least eight times.  This got the blood flowing and my legs warmed up for what was coming next.

Sensei Noia had us do Heian Shodan followed up with 15 to 20 burpees, after that we did Heian Nidan and another 15 burpees and then Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Tekki Shodan with a set of burpees in between.  I was only able to do 10, 10, 5, 5, and 5 reps of the burpees.  I really need to work in this movement.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with burpees, you start standing upright, squat down low, throw you legs out behind you into the top of the push up position, do a push up, pull your legs back up into the squat position, jump up, off the floor into the standing position.  There are a bunch of videos on www.youtube.com demonstrating this exercise if you want to see it in action.  If you haven’t done burpees before give them a try, they are a really intense exercise.

Work those stances….

Sensei Noia focused on our stance training.  He had us get a partner and stood across from each other in a horse stance.  One partner put their left hand near their partners chin and punched as Sensei counted.  The other side the drill and then as one partner punched, the other side did rising blocks while holding the horse stance for 50 punches and blocks each.  We then did a similar drill but instead of a horse stance we did a shiko dachi where our toes were pointed out but our legs, thighs, were closer to parallel with the floor.

We then did a drill in a cat stance where we did a gedan knife hand block.  We then did the same stance but with the gedan knife hand block and a reverse punch.  The last drill in the cat stance was front snap kick, gedan knife hand block and reverse punch.

Next came holding a stance and counting to 10 in Japanese.  We started in horse stance, then shiko dachi, then cat stance with both left and right leg forward, back stance with both left and right leg forward and front stance with both left and right leg forward.

After 35 minutes of stance training, Sensei had us finish up with one kata.  He had us do our belt rank kata but as slowly as we wanted to do.  It took me almost four minutes to do Bassai Dai but I don’t think I could move any faster if I had to.  I might have exaggerated about my ears hurting because class was so hard but pretty much every part of my body hurts now, which is good.

Sensei Noia mentioned that we should try to practice our stances every day.  It doesn’t have to be as intense as our class but even five minutes a day will help improve our stances.