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

Same hand block and counter – 6/29/10 – Tuesday Karate class

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Sensei Plocharczyk filled in for Sensei Noia tonight and gave us a class full of self defense drills.

Get those legs warm….

We started with some simple kicking drills.  With a partner, each of us threw alternating front snap kicks.  After that we worked on alternating roundhouse kicks.  Then came a drill where we did rear leg roundhouse followed up with front leg roundhouse.

Same hand block and counter….

We spent a good amount of time working on some same hand block and counter drills.  One of the drills, that I really liked, started with our partner throwing a front hand jab that we block with our front hand and then immediately counter with a jab.  We did a similar drill where instead of countering with a jab, we used a back fist.

The only problem with classes like these is that so much information is shared but it is hard to absorb and remember all of it.  I know that I am going to be working on those two drills going forward.

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From the ground up – 5/21/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien was giving us a little break from blenders today and had us work on some ground based self defense drills.

Warm ups with stances…

We started class doing some stationary stance training.  From there, we did horse stance with elbow strike into a front stance.  Next came, horse stance with elbow strike, leg up in front, like a slow knee strike, then step down into a front stance with reverse punch.  For the next drill, we did the same as the last drill but we did a front snap kick instead of a knee strike.

Quick hands….

For this drill, you block and front punch and throw as roundhouse punch at the same time.  As your arm blocks the punch like a rising block you turn it into a roundhouse punch to your attacker.

For the next drill, you move your head out of the way of front punch and throw roundhouse punch.  It like bobbing your head to the side and throwing a wide punch as your move.

For the next drill, we kept our hands near the center line of our body and blocked jabs and reverse punches as fast as possible.

Fight from the ground….

Sensei had us each get a partner with one of us on the floor and the other standing.  The one on the floor was to keep the standing person away and the standing person was to trap the person on the floor.  This drill took a huge amount of energy and some really tough legs and knees.  It was fun but my knees were really sore.

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Self defense – 3/26/10 – Friday Karate class

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Sensei Brien ended this session with some self defense drills today.

Simple blocks for close encounters…

We started with some simple, face to face blocks as if an attacker is standing right in front of us.  Our partner tries to grab our collar, from there, we do an open hand, double arm outward block.  Next, our partner attacks the same way but we side step and do a knife hand block.

For the next drill, our partner attacked the same way but we were able to counter attack.  For the counter attacks, we could use moves from our kata’s.  For example, one of my favorites is doing the double outward block and then doing a dropping back fist, from Heian Yondan, to the nose and face.  Another move is doing the side step, grabbing the attackers arm and doing a sideways hammer fist the ribs.

Non-lethal self defense, if done correctly…

We worked on a series of attacks.  One really nasty attack was putting two fingers in soft spot between the neck and chest and pulling down.  This does not feel good and the feeling stayed with me for a while after Sensei did it to me.  Another attack was grabbing the skin on the upper lip right below the nose and squeezing.  An alternate to the move was grabbing the lower lip and squeezing with a similar result.

One of the most interesting movements was really simple.  The attacker grabs our collar and we step in and gently slap their face many times to disorient them.  When my partner did this to me, I couldn’t do anything until it was too late.  He was able to disorient me enough to step behind and move in for a throw.  It worked the same way with him and I was able to throw a attack before he could see it coming.  That simple moves buys you at least a few seconds to attack or run away.

It was some really neat stuff and simple enough for almost anyone to learn.

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