Shotokanplanet.org

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

Let the kicks begin

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Today’s class was full of kicking basics and many of them. Sensei Noia wants to ensure that the students who are testing, have good kicks this time and tonight was a good example of those intentions.

Let the kicks begin

We did the following basics for nearly 50 minutes:

  • All from a horse stance: front punch, triple punch, rising block, inward block, outward block and downward block
  • Stationary front snap kick in front stance
  • Stationary front snap kick twice – one chudan other jodan and set it back behind on each kick
  • Roundhouse kick the front and set it back down behind
  • Hook kick to the front and set it down behind
  • Side thrust kick to the front and set it back behind
  • Spinning back kick then set it down behind – this was an interesting movement to say the least
  • Roundhouse kick to the front and spinning back kick and set the foot down behind – this was more interesting than above

All of the above kicks were extra tough since we had to set our foot back down behind us after each kick. It requires a lot of body control especially when you are doing kicks other than front snap kick.  Keeping from falling over is one important aspect that I was struggling with.

All of the following kicks were done moving forward:

  • Front kick and side kick to the front
  • Front kick, side kick, back kick, roundhouse kick set it down behind
  • Front kick, side kick, back kick, roundhouse kick, hook kick, set it down behind
  • From horse stance, the follow three moves, step across, step behind and shuffle up side thrust kick
  • Step behind side thrust kick – we did these again because they are extra strong kicks
  • Moving forward with roundhouse kick and spinning back kick

After all the kicks, from a front stance, we did moving forward, rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch, outward block with reverse punch and downward block with reverse punch.

Next came a quick round of one step sparring and then we did two katas to end the class.

More kicking is needed, at least for me

I can’t speak for the other students since 90% are a third to a quarter of my age, but these all these kicks were very hard for me to execute with clean form. Except for the front snap kicks and back kicks, most of them felt very off balance and even worse once I started to get tired.

With that said, classes like these really make me realize that I need to practice my kicks more often.

Takedowns can be painful – 1/10/09 – Saturday Karate class

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Sensei Gatch started us out with a hard warm up.  We did 2 sets of suicides and 2 sets of low walks back and forth across the dojo.

Sparring drills…

Sensei Plocharczyk took us through almost a full hour of sparring drills.  We started with some simple drills, like shuffle in and jab.  Then came shuffle in, jab and reverse punch.  We then started working on front leg, roundhouse kicks.

Sensei then made things a little harder and we did shift in front leg roundhouse with rear leg roundhouse.  After that, we did a drill, that I have never done, where we stepped in, pivoted on the front leg and ended up next to our partner depending in if they threw a front leg roundhouse or read leg roundhouse.  This drill was to help us prepare for takedowns coming up.

The idea was to step in, out of the way of the roundhouse kick, block and catch the kick, turn your partner and take then down to the ground all in one smooth motion.  Easier said than done for me though.

Takedowns…

Next came some free sparring.  I didn’t have a partner so Sensei Gatch was kind enough to beat on me for a few minutes.  The catch with the free sparring is that we could only score with a roundhouse to head or a takedown.  Sensei Gatch threw at least 15 kicks at me for the first 30 seconds but he couldn’t land them, luckily for me.  For the next round, he kinking put his big toe in my eye.  After that, he faked a roundhouse kick and took me down to the floor.  On the way down, I ended up straining my leg bicep.  Needless to say, my 220 pounds doesn’t hit the floor too gracefully but both us walked away without any serious damage to our bodies.

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.