Shotokanplanet.org

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

Reach and move from stance to stance

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This week was full of kicks again but we also worked on some intense stance drills.  Sensei Plocharcyzk was our Sensei today and he made sure that we had a good class.

We started working on a drill that Sensei Cieplik used to have us do at the start of each class.  This is the same drill that I often have the students do when I fill in for Saturday classes.  You start out in a front stance with your reverse punch out in front, you then do a stationary front snap kick, switch hands and then step back and reverse punch.  The idea is to not raise up when you kick and also have your punch and back foot land at the same time.  Sensei Cieplik used to call this his version of jumping jacks.

Breathing stances

The first drill that we worked on was breathing stances.  We started out in a front stance, while moving into the next stance, we took a deep breath in and brought our feet close together, while staying low we then breathe out and step forward into a front stance.  The key is to drop the front hip before moving forward.

We did the same but his time with an added punch.  You move forward into almost a cat stance but not totally a cat stance, staying low while breathing in and reaching with the opposite hand that is punching and then step forward while breathing out and execute the punch.   We did the same breathing patterns while doing front snap kick with front punch and front snap kick with triple punch.  For the combination kicks and punches, you breathe in before the kick and then a long breath out for the kick and punches that follow.  There is a good amount of additional power when doing these techniques with the long breaths.

After the breathing stances, we moved to one step sparring.  We did the normal one step sparring with block and counter hand techniques and then a second time using a kick as a counter attack.  I have always believed that one step sparring has a direct correlation to self defense applications but I will do into more detail later.

Roundhouse kicks

We spent the rest of the class working on roundhouse kicks.  Starting with standard kihon, moving forward with roundhouse kick, being sure to pick our leg up the side first before kicking.  For example, pick leg up to the side, pivot on the base leg, kick and step down.

For the next drills, Sensei had us pull out the big blue pads.  One partner held the pad upright and the other kicked it.  We did front leg roundhouse kick, hitting low with the instep, then front leg with ball of the foot and then front leg low, rear leg high switching between legs.  For the final drill, we did more roundhouse kicks pointing the kicking leg knee past the target.  Normally, when we kick our partner, we stop our knee from going past them to keep from hurting them but letting the knee go past the target adds a lot more power.

We finished up with some conditioning drills.  Since we had the big pads out, we put them on the floor and jump up and down, switching legs in between.  We did the same but moving side to side on and off the pad bringing the knees and arms up trying to get more height on each jump.

Class summary:

  • Breathing stances
  • One step sparring
  • Roundhouse kicks

Roundhouse kicks and combinations – 8/14/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Wail ran a really good class tonight.

Lots of roundhouse kicks…

We spent a lot of time working on roundhouse kicks.  Sensei had us start with opening our hips up by doing roundhouse kicks from a front stance but in slow motion.  We started by bringing the back leg up first, then pivoting around to the front and throwing the kick.

We then worked on some combinations with roundhouse kick and reverse punch.  Sensei added a little twist and instead of us just stepping down into our front stance after the kick, he had us step into a cat stance first, then push forward into the front stance and throw the reverse punch.  He wanted us to working on our forward motion, pushing our hips forward, instead of just falling into the front stance.  This was a complex movement compared to doing the same type of movement when doing front snap kick combinations.

Hit the pad but use the hips and the back heel…

In order to make us better understand that pushing motion from the hips, Sensei had us partner up and work on hitting the pad from the hips instead of the upper like most of us do.  He had us stand a very small distance from our partner with our hips open and our back leg bent and then straighten the back leg, push off the back heel, close the hips and throw the punch.  My lack of ankle flexibility wasn’t helping me too much but when I was able to push off the back heel my punches were much more powerful and connected.  The look on my wife’s face when I hit the pad was enough to tell me when I did the movement the correct way.

Kata from start to end…

Sensei Wail wanted us to try and apply the hip and heel connection to our kata so we started with Heian Shodan.  We then followed it up with Heian Nidan, Heian Sandan, Hiean Yondan, Heian Godan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  I could certainly feel the connection when I did my strikes the correct way but the percentage of correct moves was pretty low.