Shotokanplanet.org

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

You are gonna get hit – 10/4/09 – Saturday Karate class

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I ended up missing Thursday and Friday classes since I wasn’t feeling like myself.  I think it started on Tuesday when I couldn’t keep my focus and it seems to have stayed with me until today.  I helped out with the other classes on Friday but I didn’t feel up to training.

Sensei Gatch started our class with a warm up of suicides back and forth across the gym.

Time for kata…

Sensei had us start with Jion.  He had us do it slowly on his count.  After that, he had us do the same kata but in under 30 seconds.  Needless to say, it was not pretty.

Sensei Gatch then spent some time trying to find a way to motivate us to do our kata with more passion or heart.  He asked each of us to find something that makes us mad and focus on that while we did our kata.  I am not sure how my kata looked to everyone else but it did feel a little different.  I normally do not focus on being mad but it did feel more powerful than usual.  I am not sure about the form but my moves felt like they ended stronger than usual.

Take the hit…

Sensei had us put on our pads and work on some sparring drills.  Instead of working on the normal drills, he had us work on hitting and getting hit. For the first drill, he had us get a partner and then when he said go, we both shifted in as fast as possible and then hit each other with a reverse punch.  The goal was to hit our partner before we hit them but in the end, both of us got hit.

The next drill was for us to free spar and keep hitting each other without stopping.  In normal point sparring, we hit and then stop when we get our partner or they get us but this time, we were to keep going until Sensei said stop.  The idea was not to make your partner puke but it was to have them and us take many controlled but stonger than normal hits to the body and light hits to the face.  Even Sensei Gatch put on the pads and jumped in with us.  I ended up hitting him maybe three times for the 15 or 20 that he hit me but netier of us stopped after being hit.

I wish that we had more classes like this since I feel that I don’t get hit enough when we do the point sparring drills.  I was able to commit to my attacks and not hesitate like I do when I spar for points.

It was a good class.

Elastic band kumite – 9/26/08 – Friday Karate class

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This class was intense.

Sensei Noia had us warm up with a jog back and fourth across the gym five times.

It’s all about the band…

Next, Sensei Noia had us get a partner and one of us took an elastic band. Our partner held the band around our hips and we shifted across the gym.  Shifting with the bands around our hips really stresses the calf muscles in a different when shifting without resistance.

Next, one partner took one handle of the elastic band and I took the other.  We stood back to back and my partner had the handle in his left hand and my handle was in my right hand.   One of us would shift in and reverse punch, then our partner would do the same.

Next, my partner put the band through the back of my belt and I then had to double shift forward and throw a jab and reverse punch while he pulled against me.  My calves were screaming at this point and were just short of cramping.

Free sparring…

Next came a few mintues of free sparring.  After not having the band around my waist or hooked to my belt, I was able to shift in and out with more distance and spring than before.  I need to find some way to incorporate this training into my home training.

Kumite and body conditioning drills – 7/5/08 – Saturday Karate class.

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Sparring basics…

Sensei Plocharczyk started us out with some very basic moves.  We paired up and started off shuffling in and throwing a jab.  Next we shuffled in and threw a reverse punch.  This was a good warm up for all of us.

Time for more advanced kumite drills…

The next moves built upon the warm up drills that we just finished.  Sensei had us work on making our partner create an opening for us to attack.  For example, we would throw a jab to their head and when they would go to block it, we would change the attack, midstream, and throw the jab or reverse punch to the stomach.  I know this sounds really basic but getting the timing correct isn’t very easy and switching from one attack to another in a split second is not simple by any means.

We spent 90% of class working on those drills and using different fakes and attacks to create openings to trick our partner and open them up to attack.  I also realize that I still have a lot of work to do on my kumite skills.

Stronger body equals better Karate…

Sensei Plocharczyk setup a conditioning circuit course for us to finish up with.  The circuit consisted of 8 exercises which included;

  • Push ups with our feet up on the bleachers and our hands on pads raised up about a foot off the floor.
  • One leg squats where we squat down and touch our butts to bleachers and stand back up then do the other leg.  This counts as two stations.
  • A sideways shuffle sprint with a forward  and backward sprint.
  • Moving in and out between eight groups of pads doing a shift in with reverse punch both to the left and right.
  • Squats
  • Doing the plank and holding for 30 seconds.
  • An open space to do one kata.

Sensei had us spend 30 seconds at each exercise station.  For example, when doing the pushups we had 30 seconds to complete as many as possible.  I was able to do 20 and was pretty happy with that since most people didn’t make it over 10.

We didn’t have enough time for everyone to make it through all eight of the stations but it was a real challenge just getting through six of them.

One thing that I always find interesting about Sensei Plocharczyk and my other Sensei’s is that they don’t just make up these drills for the students, they actually do them or even harder drills themselves.  It is certainly nice to know that my Sensei’s work themselves just as hard or harder than they work us.