Shotokanplanet.org

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

Getting ready for rank exams – 8/19/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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This is Sensei Noia’s first class since his wedding so it was good have him back.  Congrats to him and Beth.

Sensei Noia started us up with a hard warm up again.

Hard warm ups…

He had us get a partner and one of us did squats while the other ran to the far side of the gym and did 10 push up and then run back.  We then switched with our partner they did the run and push ups.  We did that a few times and then he had us substitute sit ups for the push ups.  I was pretty warmed up at that point.

Like a kick but different…

Sensei had us get on the floor in the crab walk position.  He then had us put one leg up in front with our knee bent, we then slowly extend leg like a front snap kick.  The part that made this drill so hard was keeping the leg up and our backs straight.  We did 10 repetitions on each leg.

Next we stood facing a wall but very close to it.  Sensei than had us hold the wall with both hands and do a slow motion roundhouse kick.  The idea behind holding the wall was to make sure that we kept our body in alignment when doing the roundhouse kicks.

Hip conditioning…

The next two drills were for our hips.  We stood next to the wall, put on hand on it for balance and then brought our leg up like a front snap kick.  We then pushed our knee forward and up.  This drill really opened up the hips but it was really hard to do.

The next movement was similar but we did squats with on leg.  We started with one hand on the wall again but this time, we stood on one leg, then bent it like a squat then from the lowest point we brought our leg back up, into what was like a front snap kick and extended our knee forward and up again like in the movement above.  I said that the last move was hard but this movement was exponentially worse.

Stance training…

Sensei had us get into a good front stance and our partner then placed a pad in front of our knee.  Our partner makes sure that our knee stays near or touching the pad while we do strikes of our choice for about a minute or longer.

Next came back stance move into cat stance while our partner holds a  pad above our head.  Each time Sensei counts, we move from a back stance into a cat stance while keeping our head at the same level.  I am really lacking when it comes to this movement.  My ankles are not cooperating while doing this and I need to find some way to compensate while doing movements like these.

Finish up with some more hip work…

For the last 10 minutes of class Sensei had our partner hold a pad in front of us, we then put our leg up like a side thrust kick and we made a circle around the pad while keeping our extened leg straight.  This movement is pure torture and part way through the drill, my hips totally cramped up.   I was able to continute after a short rest but I really need to strenghten my hips if I plan on doing these drills.

Roundhouse kick warm up and kata bunkai – Saturday Karate class – 6/21/08

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Sensei Plocharczyk gave us a very interesting class today.  He had us do some things that we never did before both during our warm up and in class.

A very different warm up – Horse stance, shuffle and roundhouse kick.

We ran around the gym for a few laps and then Sensei had us line up on one side of the gym.  He then said get into a horse stance, shuffle up to the right, throw a low side thrust kick (around knee height) across the gym to the first line about a quarter distance of the gym and back.  Then, we did the same move but threw the kick to thigh level but to the halfway line across the gym and back.  Next, the same move again but to belt level height to the three quarter line and back.  We then did one more drill all the way across the gym, throwing kicks or trying to throw them to jodan level.  This warm up sound really simple but it gave my hips an excellent warm up.  I plan on doing this drill at home to help improve my hip mobility and kicking ability.

Kata bunkai…

I am calling this kata bunkai, not because it was all parts of one kata but because it was various parts of a few different kata’s.

We stood face to face with our partner.  My partner was my wife this time,  She grabbed the top of my gi near the top of my chest below my neck with her right hand and threw a wide hay maker punch with her left hand.  I stopped the punch using my left hand with an edge hand strike to her right bicep and grabbed her arm, near the bicep with my left hand.  I then moved my right foot behind her left leg and did the dropping strike from Jion to her right arm, to break her grip where she was holding my gi.  I then slid behind her, into a horse stance with still holding her right arm, threw an elbow strike with my right arm and took her down to the floor by pushing my right hip into hers and twisting as I executed the elbow strike.

Using the edge hand strike could be from many of that kata’s where a knife hand block is used, except this movement was a strike and not a block.  The arm grab with the downward dropping strike is from Jion and Sensei said that it can be done both with the right foot on the floor like a step or brining the knee up just like in the kata.  The elbow strike while holding her is the second from the last move in Jion.

We normally do not spend a lot of time on kata application but Sensei mentioned that during the summer months, he hopes to work on some more of these types of movements.  With the exception of lying on the floor looking up, I really like it.