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

Kumite and body conditioning drills – 7/5/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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Sparring basics…

Sensei Plocharczyk started us out with some very basic moves.  We paired up and started off shuffling in and throwing a jab.  Next we shuffled in and threw a reverse punch.  This was a good warm up for all of us.

Time for more advanced kumite drills…

The next moves built upon the warm up drills that we just finished.  Sensei had us work on making our partner create an opening for us to attack.  For example, we would throw a jab to their head and when they would go to block it, we would change the attack, midstream, and throw the jab or reverse punch to the stomach.  I know this sounds really basic but getting the timing correct isn’t very easy and switching from one attack to another in a split second is not simple by any means.

We spent 90% of class working on those drills and using different fakes and attacks to create openings to trick our partner and open them up to attack.  I also realize that I still have a lot of work to do on my kumite skills.

Stronger body equals better Karate…

Sensei Plocharczyk setup a conditioning circuit course for us to finish up with.  The circuit consisted of 8 exercises which included;

  • Push ups with our feet up on the bleachers and our hands on pads raised up about a foot off the floor.
  • One leg squats where we squat down and touch our butts to bleachers and stand back up then do the other leg.  This counts as two stations.
  • A sideways shuffle sprint with a forward  and backward sprint.
  • Moving in and out between eight groups of pads doing a shift in with reverse punch both to the left and right.
  • Squats
  • Doing the plank and holding for 30 seconds.
  • An open space to do one kata.

Sensei had us spend 30 seconds at each exercise station.  For example, when doing the pushups we had 30 seconds to complete as many as possible.  I was able to do 20 and was pretty happy with that since most people didn’t make it over 10.

We didn’t have enough time for everyone to make it through all eight of the stations but it was a real challenge just getting through six of them.

One thing that I always find interesting about Sensei Plocharczyk and my other Sensei’s is that they don’t just make up these drills for the students, they actually do them or even harder drills themselves.  It is certainly nice to know that my Sensei’s work themselves just as hard or harder than they work us.

Tuesday Karate class – 6/10/08 – The exam results are in.

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I ended up taking off from Tai Chi yesterday since I was still having a little bit of trouble with my hips from the exam on Saturday. I pushed things so hard that my hips were aching and walking was a little rough at times.

At the begining of our class today, Sensie Noia told us our results from our exam. Both my wife and I received a kari, a half rank, so we are both considered 2nd Kyu but have areas that we both need to improve on. I am satisfied with the result and if any thing, it will make me train ever harder than before.

Class was good tonight. We spent most of it working on kumite drills and it good was good to do it again. I haven’t done any sparring in class for almost two months, since my ribs were hurt, and I feel it really set me back. My feet felt heavy when I was shifting and I was having a very hard time doing simple reverse punches when shifting in to attack. One thing that I did notice is that my right leg roundhouse has improved a good amount. Doing the roundhouse with my rear leg when shifting in or with the front shuffling in felt better then ever before. It had good height and I was able to snap it back faster than ever before.

Sensei Noia had us working on basic sparring drills. Shift in and jab, shift in reverse punch and shift in roundhouse. Since most of us haven’t been sparring too much, he always starts us off with the basics after exams are over and I glad that he does.

One drill that I like is where he has one of us hold our hand up and the other attacks based on where our partners hands are placed. For example, if our partner puts a hand under in front of their face, we throw a jab or reverse punch at it. If they put both hands on their side just above belt level, we throw a roundhouse kick. It is a good drill to help with focus and reaction time.

It was a good class but I know that I really have a lot of work to do on my sparring.