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

Do your kata as if it is a real fight – 10/6/08 – Monday Karate class.

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Sensei Brien started us with a little extended warm up.  After the normal movements and static stretches, he had us work on some dynamic movements.

We walked back and forth across the gym swinging one leg up and touching our fingers extended out in front of us.  We then held our hands about chest level and brought our knees up to our palms that were facing down.

Hard and then harder stances…

Next, Sensei Brien had us get into a horse stance (kiba dachi) and we did front punches and sanbon zuki’s.  After that, we got into a shiko dachi and did the same front punches and (triple punches) sanbon zuki’s.  Being in shiko dachi makes kiba dachi feel like a cakewalk.

Intense kihon…

We worked on some of the standard kihon moves with various punches moving forward and back and then combinations.  We also worked on our back stances and knife hand blocks.

  • Front punch moving forward and back, along with Sanbon zuki.
  • Rising block reverse punch, inward block reverse punch.
  • Front snap kick moving forward and back.
  • Roundhouse kick forward, slow and then for multiple counts.
  • Back stance knife hand block, also with front snap kick and nukite.

One of the major points that Sensei Brien made was for us to make sure that our feet keep up with our hands.  In other words, if we did a punch moving forward or back, as our front foot lands, our punch should finish.

Side thrust kicks with a partner…

Next, Sensei had us get a partner.  One of us stood in a horse stance and the other had to do slow side thrust kicks over their hands held about belt level.  side thrust kick with partner in horse stance

Kata…

We then worked on Heian Sandan and Bassai Dai.  Sensei Brien wants us to do our kata with the feeling that we are in a real fight.  He felt that some of us were doing our blocks with little or no power and wants us to make sure that our blocks actually block an attack if they need to do so.

Some new kihon drills – 9/22/08 – Monday Karate class

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Hips forward and step…

Sensei Brien had us start in a front stance with our hips forward and stepped forward across the gym.  Sensei wanted to make sure that we were bringing our knees together when stepping.

Sensei had us do a drill that I have never done before.  We started with our hips forward in a front stance.  We tried to stay low while bringing our knee together with our legs bent.  From there, we stepped forward and put both hands out in front like a double punch.  We then pulled back and into the position with our knees bent and together and then we put our other foot forward into the front stance with both hands out.

New combination drill…

We started in a front stance, then step and punch, turn 180 degrees around into a front stance and downward block, then step punch, turn around into a back stance with knife hand block, step punch, turn around front stance with outward block.  This movement really opens up the hips.

Back stances…

Next came moving forward and backward with back stance knife hand block.  Then a little different drill, moving forward and backward, stationary knife hand block, step forward and knife hand block again.  Before we moved, we did the knife hand block and then after we moved we did again.

Horse stances related to kata…

When doing the horse stance moves in both Jion and Hiean Sanda, Sensei said we need to bring our knee up to sternum before doing the movements.  For example, when doing downward block with horse stance in jion we bring the knee up high and then twist our hip right at the end before the foot touches the floor.

Kata…

We spent the rest of the class working on kata.  We did Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan and Heian Sandan trying to apply what we learned in the drills above.  I really like doing kata right after we learn something new because it gives me more ideas and possibilites on how to execute the moves based on my body.

Kihon, Kata and Kumite – 9/13/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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A little different kihon…

Sensei Gatch has us start off with some Kihon.  Sensei had us do some odd combinations.  We were doing movements like side thrust kick to the front and roundhouse kick to the front.  In order to do the roundhouse we had to bring the hips back around after doing the side thrust kick.

Kata…

Next came kata.  We started with Jion as Sensei Gatch called out each move.  He walked around to make sure that our stances were where they should be and that we were executing the moves properly.  Next came Bassai Dai, the same way.

Sparring basics…

Sensei Plocharczyk took us through sparring basics for the rest of the class.  We got a partner and worked on simple drills like shifting in and out with reverse punch.  The idea was to work on distance and making our partner do what we want them to do.  The idea was to make them put their hands where we want them by throwing a fake or combination attack.  If we threw a punch at the face, they raise their hands to block and then we would attack the stomach.  We spent a lot of time on this drills doing down the line with different partners.  For the last few moments of class, we did some anchorman sparring.