Shotokanplanet.org

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

Do your techniques with intent

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Today’s class involved a lot of pad work doing various strikes with as much power as possible. I would like to think that whenever we do pad drills like these, I am hitting the pad as hard as possible but today, Sensei Noia said something that made the techniques more powerful.

Hit with intent

We started out with a partner holding a pad or two while one of us punched the pad. We did punches from standing and front stances and after a little warm-up Sensei had us ask our partner if we were hitting hard. He also asked us if we felt we were hitting as hard as possible and most of us replied with a maybe not. The point he was trying to get across was if you are not hitting hard enough to hurt your partner if they weren’t holding the pad, you are aren’t hitting hard enough.

After some more punches, Sensei explained hitting with intent. The intention of our punches and strikes is simple, to stop an attacker with your one punch or strike. We often punch just to train but today he wanted us to punch with the intent to break ribs or incapacitate our partner if they didn’t have the pads between them and your strike.

I know this sounds simple and most students will say that always punch all out with intention but I can honestly say, I often do not punch my hardest unless I have a reminder. It’s not that I am lazy but for some reason, my punches go on autopilot and that’s not the best way to train.

We followed the punches with some roundhouse kicks with the same intention. I have had issues with my roundhouse kicks since I started training almost 15 years ago but Sensei Noia gave me some instruction today that changed my kicks. I have always focused on the correct technique for my roundhouse kick and that made them, for lack of better words, weak.

After a few kicks, Sensei told me to just throw my leg. He held the pad low, a little above thigh level, and had me do my rear leg roundhouse by just throwing my leg at the pad. This made a world of difference. It wasn’t textbook correct as far as technique is concerned but the power and speed was better than I ever had in the past. Throwing the kicks this way aren’t for tournaments or exams but the height of the kick and the power behind it would certainly stop someone from walking away after getting hit with it.

We did a few more pad drills with any hand techniques of our choice using the same intent as before. If you want to have some fun do some hammer fists or back fists with all out power. I have no doubt that those techniques, at least for me, would drop someone easily.

We finished class doing a couple of katas but again doing each technique with the same intent of strikes we did before.

Tuesday Karate Class – 6/17/08 – Back to sparring basics.

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Since I was injured for some time, I hadn’t done any sparring drills in class before my exam for about six or eight weeks.  Oddly enough, that time away from sparring might have been one of the best things to help improve my sparring.  That might sound crazy but let me explain.

Tonight, Sensei Noia has us work on simple sparring basics.  We found a partner and lined up in front of them.  We then did a very simple drill where one of us would shift in, throw a jab and shift out, then shift in a again and throw a reverse punch and shift out and then shift in again, throw a jab and reverse punch combination and then shift out.  When I did this in the past, even the most basic movements like these felt awkward to say the least.  Since I haven’t been sparring in such a long time, I seem to have forgotten how I used to do the movement.  It is as if I am learning these for the first time again.  My shifting feels lighter, my hands are moving faster and seem much more accurate and it just feels right.  I am guessing that not sparring for that time has allowed me to forget my bad habits and come back with an open mind and the ability to learn them the correct way now.  I can’t really think of any other excuse other than that.

For our next drill, we worked on shuffle up, front leg roundhouse kick to chudon and then shuffle out, then shuffle up, front leg roundhouse to jodan and shuffle back.  Getting my roundhouse to jodan is still not there but again, the shuffle movement that used to confuse me felt so much smoother than ever before.

The next drill, we attacked our partner, then shifted to the right and attacked a new partner all the way down the line.  The idea behind this drill was to get in, attack and get out fast.

We then did a drill where we would shift in place and our partner would walk in at varying speeds and once they got close enough for us to attack, we attacked and moved out.  The idea was to work on our distance and timing.

Our final drill was really fun.  Our partner would hold a pad, walk toward us and we would attack with a reverse punch and have to stop them.  After the first attack, we would shift back and  they would keep coming and we would have to stop them again.  The idea was to punch while they were coming at us and stop them in their tracks.  My hips were really coming around for this movement and my wife said that my punches were really strong, even though she was holding two pads when I was attacking.

Although, I don’t think taking off from one certain part of Karate will help all of my problems, I do think this little break from sparring did me more good than harm.