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

Ten-no-kata – 7/1/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik had us spend a lot of time working on kihon and kata today.

Knee strike, turn and more….

After our warm up we started with knee strike, turn 90 degrees and put the knee strike leg down behind us. The key is to turn 90 degrees using the core, not the shoulders and to put the leg that did the knee strike down hard.

The drill was similar.  We did knee strike, front snap kick, turn 90 degrees, put the kicking leg down behind and reverse punch.  Turning from the core is something that needs to be worked on otherwise there will be no connection between the upper and lower body.

Ten no kata….

I always like ten no kata.  We start in a ready stance.  From there, we step forward with the left leg and do a front punch and then move back to ready stance.  We then step forward with the right leg and do a punch again and back to ready.  Then we step back with the right leg and do another punch and go back to ready.  For the forth move, we step back with the left leg and do a front punch again.  This can be done with blocks, punches, kicks, combinations of blocks, punches and kicks and a full Karate can be designed on just this movements.

Lots of kata….

We finished up working on Heian Shodan, Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Kanku Dai.

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New session, more Karate to learn – 6/17/10 – Thursday Karate class

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Today was the start of the new Karate session and it was great to see a lot of the same faces and many new faces too.

Warm up….

Sensei Cieplik had us start with our normal warm up.  We did 10 stationary front snap kicks with our hands down by our sides.  Next came five front snap kicks and back kick combination.  Then we did front snap kick and side thrust kick.   Then came front snap kick, back kick, roundhouse kick and front snap kick.

We finished our warm up with a drill that Sensei has us do that it equivalent to jumping jacks.  We start in a front stance with our reverse hand out in front, we then reach with the opposite hand, throw a front snap kick and then step back and throw a reverse punch.  The idea here is for the entire class to do this drill in unison.

Kicks, punches and blocks and a kata….

We started with stationary knee strike with front snap kick.  Next comes moving forward with knee strike and front snap kick.  The key is to make it two separate movements.  The knee strike pushes the hip forward, then the hip retracts, the knee comes back up and the front snap kick is executed.

Next, we worked on moving forward with front snap kick and front punch.  We also worked on moving forward with just front punch but Sensei had us pay extra attention to all five parts of the movement.  And we all thought that moving forward with a front punch is simple.  Sensei has gone over this many times before but I feel that repeating this again is a good refresher that won’t hurt.

The five parts of the front punch are as follows;

  1. Shin clash – Hit them with your front leg shin and scare them with your legs.  Hitting them with the shin takes their mind off of your hands for a split second.
  2. Knee sweep – As the front knee knee moves it, it will twist and sweep their leg if done correctly.
  3. Guarded rear leg – The rear leg needs to be planted and solid.  A person the of the same weight should be able to stand on your back leg when you are in a front stance with your hips straight ahead.
  4. Draw hand – The draw hand or pull hand allows your to pull your attacker in toward you.
  5. The punch – The easiest part of the movement, just make sure that you hit with the correct knuckles, first two knuckles next to the thumb.  One other point that Sensei often makes about a punch is to think or focus on a spot behind your target instead of just stopping the punch at the target.

For our next drills, we working on moving forward and back doing downward block, rising block and inward block.  Sensei had us focus on our inward block and when moving forward and back, we need to keep our chins back.  Don’t squeeze or make the block small by bringing the blocking arm close to the body, instead, let the legs and hips do the block and just use the arm as an extension of the body.

Next, we worked on moving forward and back with inward block, elbow strike and backfist.  The idea here again was to make sure that stances are what they should be.  The front stance needs to look like a front stance and the horse stance needs to look like a horse stance, no kind of stances.

The next drill was back stance with knife hand block.  Then, knife hand block, front snap kick and spear hand.  Each move needs to increase with intensity.  The knife hand block is strong, the front snap kick is stronger and the spear hand is strongest.

For the next drill, we started in a horse stance, stepped across and did a side thrust kick.  The next drill was the same but with side snap kick and the last drill was one step with both kicks.  The key to this drill was to pay extra attention to the cross leg stance with our toes touching when stepping across.

We did one Heian Shodan after the basics.

Get a partner, block and jab….

With our partner, we did a drill where one of us throws a jab and reverse punch and the other partner, blocks the jab with the front hand, blocks the reverse punch with the back or bottom hand and then throws a jab right from the blocking position.  One key to this drill is to keep the elbow of the front jabbing hand facing downward.  If the elbow goes out the side, it makes the punch slower and less powerful.

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Get your hips under your heels – 1/14/10 – Thursday Karate class

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It is great to be back to Thursday class since I had to miss to last weeks class because of the nasty snow storm.  Sensei Cieplik took us back to basic basics.  Just when you think you are doing the most simple movement perfectly, Sensei shows you otherwise.  At least, that is how it turned out for me today.

Start out with kicks…

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on our kicks today.  We did the normal warm up kicks but then we moved into more kicking drills.  We did stationary knee strike with front snap kick.  The key to this is to retract the hips after the knee strike but before the front snap kick.

Get your hips under those heels….

Sensei had us spend a lot of time working on some simple drills that we have been doing since the first or second Karate class for most of us.  When we learned to step forward as beginners, we started in a front stance, we were told to step though and bring our feet together and then apart into a front stance.  The problem with that movement is it make us raise up when we bring our feet together.  Instead, Sensei wants us to bring our knees together to protect our groin but keep our feet apart about a foot apart.  This keeps us from raising up and down when moving and still protects the groin.

We also worked on the five parts of a front stance with front punch.  The five parts, are guarded back leg, shin clash, knee sweep, draw hand pull and the punch.

Next, we spent time working on the shin clash and throwing our front leg forward.  The idea is to throw that front leg forward, forcing the knee up and keeping our hips under our heels.  This keeps your tailbone tucked under and forward.  If the hips are pointing down, you cannot get your hips under your heels.

We also work on front kick with front punch.  This time, Sensei had us break the movement into parts.  We did the front snap kick and then set our foot down in a blocking leg stance, then we push the front leg forward and punched.  Sensei had us also pay extra attention to the draw hand instead of the punching hand.

Sensei said that if we practice these basic movements, he guarantees that our kata would improve.  He also said that great basics make great kata.

Get a partner….

For the next drill, we got a partner.  Our partner stood in a front stance, we stepped in did a skin clash with our foot on the outside of theirs and then we moved our knee to the outside and knee swept our partner.  The shin class almost looks like a sweeping movement at the start.  It’s a powerful movement but it can be rough on your partners knees.

Kata…

We finished up working on kata.  We did Heian 1 through Heian 5 and then Kanku Dai, Bassai Dai and Jion.  I was really disappointed in my Jion.  I guess the great basics part is something that I really need to work to improve my kata.

It was a great class but walking afterward was not easy.