Shotokanplanet.org

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

Fundamentals are fun – 1/3/09 – Saturday Karate class

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This was the first class of the new year for us and it was one of the best classes that I have had.  We also had a special guest again, Dr. Kathy Bailey.

Back to basics…

Sensei Gatch had a talk with all of us before we got down to work.  He asked that all of us bring a notebook to class each week and write down what we learned and what we are told to work on to improve our Karate outside of class.

Sensei had mentioned that we need to get our fundamentals in order.  He was told that many of the students at the recent exams need to improve their Karate fundamentals if they want to get promoted.  With that said, he gave us an intense workout.  He also said that we need to work on our Japanese too.

Kokutsu dachi (backstance)…

We started with a partner and one of us had to take off our belt.  We both got into a back stance and held the belt like a tug-o-war.  The idea was to get low into the backstance and keep the stress on the back leg in order to make it stronger.  My leg felt like it was on fire so the drill certainly worked as intended.  I could hardly stand up to switch legs for the second part of the drill.

The next part of the drill was moving foward, in a backstance with knife hand block.  Sensei wanted us to move forward and make sure that our knees came together and our foot moved straight forward.  In order to do this, we need to pull mostly with the front leg and only push forward, a little, with the back leg.  Just pushing from the back leg cannot generate the speed moving forward anywhere near as much as pulling with the front leg.

Kicking for everyone…

Sensei Gatch also mentioned that working on the side thrust kick will improve most other side kicks.  He had us put one hand on the wall and put our leg in the front snap position.  He then had us turn our hip over but not kick.  This opened up the hip for what was to come.  We then did a side thrust kick to his count.  Once we got near the end, he had us hold our kick out longer and finally, for the last rep, he had us hold it for about 30 seconds.

I am hoping that we have more classes like this one.

Kicking the pads is always good – 8/28/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Getting things warmed up…

Sensei Wail started us off with a good warm up.  He had us doing alternating front snap kicks and then he had us do a movement where we raise our legs up from the side like a roundhouse kick to get the hips and core warmed up.

The next movement was hard for me.  Sensei told us to shuffle up, do a front leg roundhouse kick, shuffle back and then switch legs.  I was focusing on my kicks so intensely that I keep forgetting to change my feet after each kick.

Kicking was the subject of this class…

Sensei Wail had us start by moving slowly from a horse stance and the slowly do a side thrust kick.  Doing the movements slowly make them so much harder for me but if they can be executed well when done slowly, doing them fast will be so much better.

Next, we partnered up and got a pad.  The first exercise was leg circles around the pad that our partner was holding.  Sensei had us do them clockwise with our heel leading the movement.

After those, our partner held the pad and we did hook kicks.  The is one of the first times that I recall doing hook kicks on a pad and Sensei had our partner hold them low so that we could get some good power behind them.  He said to hit the pad with our heel.  I would guess that a kick like this to the knee, thigh or groin area would be very painful.

Some conditioning too…

Sensei had us stay with our partner for some conditioning drills.  While one partner did squats, the other partner held the side plank position.  We then switched places with our partner.  When our partner did the side plank for the other side, Sensei had us do side squats.  We started in the standing postion, moved one leg out to the side and squated in that direction.  I found this movement very interesting because it not only helps strengthen the hips, it also opens the hips up which is always a good thing for me.

Time to kick the big pads now…

Sensei let work on the the big pads next.  We started with front snap kicks.  I really feel that my front snap kick is my best kick and now that I know how to put my hips into them, they feel stronger than ever.

The next kick on our agenda was roundhouse kick.  I was really happy with my right leg roundhouse.  It was over belt level and it felt like there was finally something behind it.  My leg leg was a different story and it felt like there was nothing behind it.

We finished up the pad drills with side thrust kicks.  Those were certainly my weakest kicks and I really need to spend some extra time working on those.  They seem okay when I throw them at knee or average thigh level but anything about and they are weak and have little accuracy.

Some stretches to finish things up…

Sensei had us sit on the floor with our partner and put our legs out in the split postion.  He than had our partner put thier feet just below our knees.  He then had them push our legs out and hold it.  After a little time, he told them to push while we resisted for five seconds and after we relaxed again, he told our partner to push our legs out a little farther.   He had us do this three times.  After our legs were out in the farthest position, he had our parnter move our legs back in so that we wouldn’t pull any mucles trying to do it ourselves.

It was a good class and even though we did a lot of kicks, I was still able to walk to the car and then into the house without much pain.

Pure torture – 8/26/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Noia reached a new level today.  I cannot believe how hard class was and my legs were already starting to go weak before we finished the warm up.

Suicides are not a good enough description of this warm up…

Sensei had us start with suicides.  Normally we do one or two but today, he had us five.  Near number four, my legs were already starting to show signs of fatigue.  Next, we stood in front of our parnter and as they moved  forward, we moved backward in low walks.  We did this at least two times if not more.

Never ending low walks…

I thought that we were done with the low walks (walking lunges for those of you that might not have heard about these) after the warm up but just when I thought it was safe, Sensei had us do something worse.

We started with more low walks but we added front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, and front kick after doing each low walk.   Somewhere in there, I remember doing roundhouse kicks but I cannot remember the details of drill except I know were started in the low position.

Next, Sensei had us work with our partner again but the idea was for us to both do a low walk, the one moving forward would try to hit the others shoulders with their hands and the person moving forward would block.  This sounds like a simple drill but the stress of doing the low walks while trying to strike or block really changed the dynamics.

After those, Sensei had us do low walks again but one partner would kick from the low position and the other would block while moving backward.

We spent close to 40 minutes doing those movements.  My legs felt like jello at that point but we were not done yet.

Kata…

We finsihed up with some kata.  Sensei had us do a slow motion Hiean Shodan but with attention to our stances.  After that, he had us do our own kata in slow motion.  Next came our kata at medium speed and we finished up doing our kata at full speed and power.

I was a very tough class.  It wasn’t as bad as the Saturday before last but it was in the top five.