Shotokanplanet.org

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

Elastic kumite drills – 9/19/08 – Friday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Sensei Noia gave us an interesting class.

Elastic band run…

Sensei Noia had us get a partner and an elastic band.  He had one partner stand in front of the other with the elastic band around the hips of the person in front.  The person in front had to run across the gym while the other person pulled on the elastic band.  This was a real hard drill but a lot of fun too.

Elastic band shifting…

For the next drill, Sensei had us shift with the elastic band around our hips instead of running.  The shifting drills were a bit harder than the running drills since the elastic bands added a lot of resistance against the shifting leg.

Sensei had us put the band down and shift without it.  I was able to cover at least an extra six inches of ground with each shift.

Shift and run…

For the next drill, Sensei had us shift across the and when he said go, we had to run to the end of the gym.  The idea was for us to be able to change movements as fast as possible.

We finished off our drills, shifting forward while holding our headgear in our front hand at nose level.  This was to keep us from letting our hands fall when we were tired.

I am certainly no kumite expert but I do feel that my skills are starting to improve, slowly but surely.

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

by Leave a Comment

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.

Kumite timing and super ippon – 7/26/08 – Saturday Karate class.

by Leave a Comment

Today, Sensei Gatch had the class work on kumite timing drills.

Timing is everything…

We started out with a partner, shifting back and forth trying to time when our partner was going to attack before they attacked.  The idea was for each of us to keep pressure on each other and see the attack coming before our partner threw it.  We would shift together, keeping the same distance and when they would shift in, instead of us shifting out of the way, we would attack first.

Super ippon…

The second part drill that we worked on was called super ippon.  The idea here was for both of us to charge in and attack and score the point first.  Either way, one of us was going to get hit but the one who hit first won.  We ended up doing this drill with different partners until there was only two of us left.  I ended up coming in at second place since the young guy that beat me was blinding fast.  He was able to cover three times the ground that I did and his was about four inches better.

I do feel that my kumite skills are starting to improve but I have a long way to go.