Shotokanplanet.org

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

Lots of kata and more kata – 11/4/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia had us start with some kata.

Lots of kata…

We started with Heian Shodan, then our own kata (Bassai Dai for me).  Next came two Heian Nidan’s then my kata again, then three Heian Sandan’s then my kata, then four Heian Yondan’s and my kata, then five Heian Godan’s and my kata and then Six Tekki Shodan’s and them my own kata.  After all those, we started with Tekki Shodan and worked all the way back down to Heian Shodan and after those, we did our kata again.  We did somewhere over 30 kata’s in about 35 to 40 minutes.

One thing that got me through this part of the class was watching Sensei Plocharczyk doing the kata’s with us.  Whenever my mind gave up, I would look over at him not stopping and keep going myself because of him.  Sensei Noia said that we didn’t have put 100% into every kata but watching Sensei Plocharczyk give 100% made me do the same too.

One-step on our own and the block punch drill…

After all of the kata’s, Sensei had us do the block and counter parts of one-step sparring.  We then finished up doing the block punch drill with a partner.  My first partner was my wife and her and I do this drill pretty good but then we switched partners and I did the drill with Sensei Plocharczyk.  Do the drill with him is a different experience because he moves so smooth and fluid.  I felt that I did pretty well with him but I know he was going easy on me.

This class was incredible.

Kata logic – 11/1/08 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Gatch gave us a good class today.  He gave us a lot of insight into how and why we do kata the way we do.

Kata warm up…

Sensei had us start doing all of the Heian kata’s and Tekki Shodan to get everyone warmed up.

Kata logic…

We spent the rest of the class working on parts of Jion.  Sensei went over almost all parts of Jion.  Starting with the first movement, he wanted us to put our foot straight back behind us.  Most of us were putting our foot back to the side inside of straight behind us.  The next move we worked on was the front snap kick with sanbon zuki.  After the kick, we need to put our foot down straight in front and again not off to the side which makes our stance too wide.  Next we worked on the back stance double block and horse stance with hook punch.  The point there was to make sure that the stances looked different.  We worked on more parts of the kata all the way through the end.

It was good class with a lot of kata specifics that we don’t often cover.

Scary Karate class – 10/31/08 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Noia gave us another one of the those really hard classes again.  It was very appropriate on Halloween and scary enough to make me wonder if I could finish it.

Sensei had us start with a very quick warm up.  We ran back and forth across the gym five times and shuffled back and forth twice.

Kata warm up…

Sensei had us start with Heian Shodan which we did a couple times.  Next came Heian Nidan twice, then Heian Sandan three times, Heian Yondan four times, Heian Godan five times and Tekki Shodan six times.  After we were totally tired and had done 20 kata about 30 minutes, Sensei had us do our own belt kata (Bassai Dai for me) as if we were at our test.  Just when I thought we were done, Sensei had us go through one-step sparring without a partner.  We then got a quick drink.

One-step sparring…

After a little water and some quick breathes we got a partner and worked on one-step sparring.  Sensei Noia had us do it with a little twist.  Instead of using punches and kicks to counter with, we had to use moves that we normally do not use.  For example, I used a knife hand to counter or a back fist.  There were a couple of times I used an elbow and at one point, after taking my partner down to the floor, I dropped my knee on him.  I always wondered why my son never wants to partner up with me for some reason.

Hip stretches and strengthening…

For the rest of class, Sensei had us lay on the floor with our upper body elevated by our arm and bent elbow.  From that position, Sensei told us to pick up our leg, slowly and bring it back down.  Next, we kept our leg up, in what was like a roundhouse position and kicked.  After that, we did a side thrust kick and back.  The next move was a hook kick.  The final move was for us to put our foot from our top leg on the floor and picked the other leg.  Again, all of these movements were done while lying on the floor.  They were very hard and I was limping after class but I need to find a way to do this drill at home.

It was a very hard class and even somewhat scary but excellent.