Shotokanplanet.org

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

Kick your partner – 1/8/10 – Friday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Today was my first time taking Friday class with Sensei Brien.  The dojo was really cold so Sensei made sure that we were well warmed up.

Warm up…

Sensei had us start out with some punches while standing in a horse stance.  Next, we did a lot of stationary front snap kicks.  We continued to warm but with shifting drills, first with jabs and then reverse punches.  One shifting drill that stood out was shift in with rising block and reverse punch then shift back with downward block and reverse punch.

Kick your partner….

Next, Sensei had us get a partner.  We started in a horse stance doing block punch, block punch drills.  After that, we worked on kicks.  We alternated both front leg and back leg roundhouse kicks with both feet in front.  After that, we worked on side thrust kicks and some hook kicks too.

Take the angle….

We finished up working on some shifting drills.   We stood across from our partner and starting shifting.  From there, whenever Sensei counted, we shifted on an angle but still staying in front of our partner while moving in a clockwise and then counter clockwise motion.  After that, we did the drill on our own with one partner leading and the other following.

We finished up class with some cool down stretching which felt good after all those kicks.

Do your Karate paperwork – 10/22/09 – Thursday Karate class

by Leave a Comment

Sensei Cieplik has been spending a lot of time sharing the little details that make good Karate even better.  For at least a month, he has been giving us homework and special drills to improve our stances and our movements and tonight was no different.

Paper underfoot…

Sensei gave all of us a piece of paper about four inches by five inches.  He then had us put it under the ball of our left foot and had us stand in a front stance.  From that position we slid our foot, with the paper under it, out into a cat stance, then farther into a front blocking stance, then a little more into a back stance and then repeat.  This was to give us the feeling of pushing our front leg forward and driving from the heel of the back leg.

For the next drill, we did Heian Shodan with the paper under one foot.  This gave a much different feel to the kata.  When the paper was under the front foot you could slide into the stance and when it was under the back foot you had to keep the heel down or it would slip out behind you.

Get a partner and a pad….

For our next drill, we got a partner and a pad.  Sensei had us work on a couple of different drills.  We started with reverse punch, then with sideways hammer fist and another move, for the advanced belts, where we put our hand about an inch from the pad our partner was holding and used body vibration to strike the pad.

Next, we had our partner get into a front stance as we walked around them and tested them, at various points on their body to see if they were locked or rooted in their stances.  For example, we would pull on their draw hand elbow or push on up or down on their punching hand.  We also pushed on their back leg to make sure it was locked and straight and we also pushed on their hip from the side where I was in my weakest position.  If you are not connected by your core, your stance is weak and your can easily be pushed off balance.  The core is the connection between the upper body and the lower body and if it isn’t there or weak, it will be very evident in your movements.

Lots of kata….

We moved into our kata next.  We started with Heian Shodan and went all the way to Tekki Shodan.  Sensei also gave us the option to do Heian Shodan with paper under the balls of both feet.  This was really interesting and certainly made the foot movements much more precise than when I did it without the paper.

We then worked on Jion with the paper under our feet up to the first kiai.  The first move in Jion is a real wake up if you do not drive the left leg back on the heel.

We then worked on Bassai Dai but without the paper.

Extra note for me to remember; When doing side thrust kick, kick my heel back and to the side.  I was kicking to the side and front instead of back.

Karate class so hard, even my ears hurt – 9/15/09 – Tuesday Karate class

by 2 Comments

In an effort to help prepare us for our Karate examinations, Sensei Noia has been working on our physical conditioning.  Needless to say, we have been having some of the hardest Karate classes ever.

Kata and burpees….

We started class with a run back and forth across the gym at least eight times.  This got the blood flowing and my legs warmed up for what was coming next.

Sensei Noia had us do Heian Shodan followed up with 15 to 20 burpees, after that we did Heian Nidan and another 15 burpees and then Heian Sandan, Heian Yondan, Heian Godan and Tekki Shodan with a set of burpees in between.  I was only able to do 10, 10, 5, 5, and 5 reps of the burpees.  I really need to work in this movement.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with burpees, you start standing upright, squat down low, throw you legs out behind you into the top of the push up position, do a push up, pull your legs back up into the squat position, jump up, off the floor into the standing position.  There are a bunch of videos on www.youtube.com demonstrating this exercise if you want to see it in action.  If you haven’t done burpees before give them a try, they are a really intense exercise.

Work those stances….

Sensei Noia focused on our stance training.  He had us get a partner and stood across from each other in a horse stance.  One partner put their left hand near their partners chin and punched as Sensei counted.  The other side the drill and then as one partner punched, the other side did rising blocks while holding the horse stance for 50 punches and blocks each.  We then did a similar drill but instead of a horse stance we did a shiko dachi where our toes were pointed out but our legs, thighs, were closer to parallel with the floor.

We then did a drill in a cat stance where we did a gedan knife hand block.  We then did the same stance but with the gedan knife hand block and a reverse punch.  The last drill in the cat stance was front snap kick, gedan knife hand block and reverse punch.

Next came holding a stance and counting to 10 in Japanese.  We started in horse stance, then shiko dachi, then cat stance with both left and right leg forward, back stance with both left and right leg forward and front stance with both left and right leg forward.

After 35 minutes of stance training, Sensei had us finish up with one kata.  He had us do our belt rank kata but as slowly as we wanted to do.  It took me almost four minutes to do Bassai Dai but I don’t think I could move any faster if I had to.  I might have exaggerated about my ears hurting because class was so hard but pretty much every part of my body hurts now, which is good.

Sensei Noia mentioned that we should try to practice our stances every day.  It doesn’t have to be as intense as our class but even five minutes a day will help improve our stances.