Shotokanplanet.org

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

More self defense and a new exercise – 7/3/08 – Thursday Karate class.

by Leave a Comment

Warm up.

We did our normal kicking warm up but Sensei Cieplik added a new balance exercise.  He had us do front snap kick, side thrust kick to the side, back kick the rear, roundhouse kick to the front, front snap kick, side thrust kick to the front and hook kick to the front.  The idea wasn’t to blast out these kicks but instead, it was to help us with our balance.  This was one of the harder groups of kicking movements that I ever recall doing.

New exercise for strength and balance.

Sensei had us stand on one leg.  From there he had us raise our other knee up into the position for a front snap kick.  Next, he had us crunch (squat) our body downward, while keeping the knee up as far as we could.  From there, we straightened up and pushed our hip and knee forward into what was effectively a knee strike.  The idea was to slowly compress the body down and then open it back up while balancing on one leg.  This movement stretched pretty much every thing from the foot all the way up to core.  It might sound easy but after just three on each leg, almost everyone was moaning.

Compressed shifting.

Sensei had us start in a fighting stance but with our body compressed into a standing ball for lack of a better way to describe it.  We shifted forward from that position and then threw a jab and immediately got back into the same starting position.  We then did two shifts and two jabs, then two shift with two jabs and a reverse punch.  The last drill was two shifts with two jabs, a reverse punch and then pull back with a front punch.  It was hard to get the timing correct when doing this quickly but once the hands an feet moved at the right moment, the move became very powerful.

Self defense with a partner.

In the first drill we faced our partner while they threw a front punch.  Instead of moving away, we moved in at the same time, turned our back to them and caught their arm, right in front of the elbow under our armpit, we then stretched out with the free arm with an elbow into their neck while dropping down.  The attackers punching arm bends and as you twist your body, it locks them up for you to hit them with the elbow.

For the next drill our partner attacked with a left chudan front punch, we would then step in and block their punch to the outside with our open right hand.  The idea behind this block is as if you are taking a weapon from a holster on your side and pointing down and forward.  The key is to not let the shoulder of the blocking hand come up.  The arm bends, pushes out and down and the punch is diverted.

Kata time – Jion.

Sensei Cieplik has been doing something a little different at the end of class.  He has us do a couple of kata’s but as a cool down.  Tonight he had us do Jion.  He counted each move for us for both kata’s.  The first kata was done at a medium pace but with good power and the second kata was done a little slower but with little power.  I have noticed that after the last two classes, I am not as sore as I have been in the past and I think the cool down is really helping.  I am not sure why, maybe because Sensei was coaching us one each move, but each move in Jion tonight felt better than I remember ever doing.

Something has really changed for me over the last month and I hope it stays this way because I am enjoying all of my Karate classes more than ever before.

Saturday Karate class – 6/14/08 – The dojo floor is pretty hard.

by Leave a Comment

Sometimes, during Saturday classes Sensei Plocharczyk will have us do some self defense moves. I really like classes since I see how to apply the moves in my kata’s with more detail and explanation.

We started with a brisk warm up and then got right to it. Sensei had us get a partner and pad and line up across from each other. For the first movement, he had us both stand in a horse stance, our partner would hold the pad and we would shuffle in behind them, but only half way to get beyond their center of gravity, and throw something like a downward block but ending with the hand in the hammer fist position. The idea was to give them a hip check, get down low enough to come up under their hip, put our foot a little past their center of gravity and then hit them with the downward hammer fist and throw them down to the floor. We didn’t take our partner down but we worked on both parts of the movement, the stance and arm motions and then put it together. Sensei demonstrated the movement on my me and I ended up looking at the ceiling a couple of times which explains the title above about the dojo floor being pretty hard. The floor really isn’t that hard but I like to throw in a little drama every now and then when I type here.

Next came a movement that was very similar, except we did a ridge hand to our partners upper chest and started in a front stance instead of a horse stance. In this movement, we still used the hip check and the horse stance but used the other arm to throw the ridge hand. I seemed to be able to do the stance or the ridge hand separately but doing the movement in a fluid motion escaped me for some reason. I ended up using my upper body more than anything and I think I could get my horse stance low enough because my legs were still extremely sore from last nights class.

Next came the test of what we learned. Sensei had a couple of pads on the floor and we were able to test our newly learned skills. I was able to take down my partners but I was using more upper body power than anything. I need to spend some time working on this movement. I also think that applying Sensei Cieplik’s salad bowl movement when getting into the horse stance would help me make this movement more effective.

We also spent some time on conditioning and did a kata but I wasn’t able to squeeze the floor too well when I did Jion since my legs were screaming from last night.

It was another excellent class.