Shotokanplanet.org

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

Just survive – 9/5/08 – Thursday Karate class

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Sensei Cieplik is back and shared and excellent class with us tonight.

Roundhouse kick with downward motion…

We did our normal warm ups and then started working on some kicking drills.  Sensei had us bring our leg up to belt level, or as close as we could get to it and then throw the kick with a downward motion toward the knee.  The reason behind this was to get the hip turned over near the end of the movement.

Sensei also explained, which I am sure he mentioned in the past, that a roundhouse kick is an extended sideways knee strike.  Thinking about striking a target with a sideways knee strike puts the roundhouse in a different perspective for me.  If I focus on the knee strike, the extension of my lower leg seems to just fly out without much thought.

With the body…

Next came some blocking and punching drills.  Sensei had us do a front stance and he explained that our front foot should be turned in a few degrees and never turned to the outside.

We worked on moving forward with various blocks and punches but instead of finishing our front stance, he had us do the block while in a cat stance and then throw the punch after springing from the back leg.  The spring from the back leg really added a lot of power to the reverse punch.  It also forced us to use our entire body when executing the reverse punch.

He also mentioned that the reverse punch is the “correct” punch.  When we walk, our hands and feet are opposite.  For example, left foot forward and right hand behind, then right foot forward and left hand behind. Sensei made the comment about our moving forward in a front stance with a front punch and if we can learn to do that with some proficiency, we should be able to Karate since our bodies are not neurologically designed to move same side hand and foot at the same time.

When doing the downward block, both arms need to come close together and the blocking hand needs to  speed up at the bottom to break an arm grab.  The idea is to do the block fast but add and extra boost right at the end of the movement when your blocking hand passes your draw hand wrist.

Zanshin…

After you are done with your fight, kata or basic, as you stand up into the yoi position, bring your weapons “hands” together in front of you and remain conscious of what it happening around you even though your battle is over..

In Karate of the past, when the attackers eyes are closed and he or she on the ground, not breathing, the battle is over.

Sport fighting has one winner but in self defense there is one survivor,

Kata, before class…

I was off to one side working on the first move of Bassai Dai before class and Sensei came over to correct me.  When doing the first move, he said that the movement is similar to breaking through a cinderblock wall with an eight pound sledge hammer.  The motion is to bring my hands UP from my side and pushing the hips forward and the hands somewhat downward.  He said that my ending hand position should be a refelction of my core.  I did the move half a dozen times and Sensei said that I was close to what what it should be but I know that really need to work on it a lot more.

Excellent class.

Slow down and finish each move of the kata – 7/31/08 – Thursday Karate class

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For some reason, kicking warm up felt different to me today.  I was just whiping the leg for front snap kicks and it felt good.

Balance when moving…

Sensei Cieplik had us work on the same drills but different.  When moving from front stance to front stance, bring the knees together, then reach first with the front foot while keeping all weight on the back foot, settle the front foot and pull yourself forward into a front stance.

Push the toes into the floor…

Sensei noticed that many of us where moving our front foot before throwing a front snap kick.  He told us to push our toes into the floor and squeeze with our then kick without moving that stationary leg.  It sound really simple but if you push the toes down the foot will not move.

Focus on the draw hand…

Sensei Cieplik has told us to focus on our draw hands many times in the past but today, it started to sink in.  If I focus on my draw hand, the punch or block feels almost automatic.

Slow down and do the kata…

Sensei told us that we need to slow down when doing Heian Shodan.  He said that most of the group finished it in 17 to 20 seconds.  We need to make the kata last at least 30 seconds if not longer.  He said to finish each movement and count 1-1000, 2-1000.  He had told us this in the past but but I am going to keep mentioning it here until I actually do it all the time.

Self defense moves…

Similar to the moves that we did with Sensei Noia on Tuesday, Sensei Cieplik had us do a movement where we step back on a slight angle, grab the attackers punching hand, pull it into us and jab at their head at the same time.  This goes along with the base, retreat and attack idea.  We start standing ready (base), we body shift on an angle and step back (retreat) and then jab (attack).   This movement is extremely powerful and I would guess that the attacker would not be feeling too well after getting with that jab.

The next movement was another defense to a front punch.  We stand ready, the attacker punches at us, we pivot our body to the side, the punch goes past and at the same time we grab the attackers punching arm and push with our other hand on their elbow.  This movement has to be timed really well to work because if the attacker has a change to tighten up the punching arm or pull back the arm bar will not be effective.

Excellent class as always.

More kata and self defense drills – 7/29/08 – Tuesday Karate class

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Super warm up…

We started with suicides to each quarter distance line and back.  Next came butt kickers across the dojo.  Next, shuffle up and kick back and forth.  After that, we started slowly moving across the dojo with our knees up with arms up, almost skipping and then Sensei Noia would say “go” and we had to sprint to the far end of the dojo.  Next came low walks front and back.  Finally, moving back and forth across the dojo, we did a shuffle with a jab, shuffle with reverse punch, shuffle with front kick, and shuffle with jumping front kick.

My body was pretty much spent by the end of the warm up.

Different kata…

We did Heian Shodan the normal way.  Next we did it from end to to start.  We then did it from the start but we pivoted on opposite foot.  Instead of stepping to the left with the left foot forward, we stepped back with the right foot.  The idea was to pivot on the foot that we would normally move and step with the foot that is normally stationary.   Doing kata like this isn’t physically harder but mentaly it is extremely hard.

Kihon with a little twist…

From the ready stance, Sensei Noia had us step back with the left leg and jab, then go back to ready and step back with the right leg and jab.  Next came ready stance, step back into horse stance and do a palm strike.  He followed that with the same leg movement into a horse stance but with a backfist.  We finished those type of movements with step back into back stance and throw a knife hand block.

Self defense – based on the kihon with a twist above…

Sensei Noia had us partner up and do one-step sparring based on the movements that we were doing above.  If my partner threw a jodan front punch, I would step back, out of the way on the inside and throw a jab.

We did the similar movements with the horse stance with palm strike and backfist.  The idea with these movements was to just move enough to get out of the way of their punch and counter almost at the same time.

With the back stance, we used our drawhand to deflect the attack and then knife hand strike them in the neck.

Doing these simple movements shows that you do not need to move a lot to get out of the way of an attack and counter.