Shotokanplanet.org

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

Exam preparation part 2 – 12/8/08 – Monday Karate class

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Sensei Brien has taught some hard classes in the past but today was an all time high.

14 minutes of torture…

Sensei had us go through all of the basics for our upcoming test with no break.  We started with horse stance punches and blocks, right into moving forward and back with front punch and triple punch, then right into all combination’s forward and back and then the various kicking movements.  At one point, I was not able to catch my breath but somehow I endured through all 14 minutes without stopping and putting every ounce of power and spirit into each move.

kata…

After the torture was over, Sensei had us work on our kata.  He had us do our kata as a group a few times and the he had us go up in front of him by rank to do our kata.  I felt pretty good because he told me that I did good.  Getting a good from him or any of my Sensei’s makes me feel pretty good and this was no exception.

Anchorman…

Since some of my fellow students are testing for Shodan, Sensei had us work on some anchorman sparring drills.  I feel much better about this drill than I have in the past for some reason.  I am not sure if it is because what I have been working on with my free sparring or what but I sure feel that my confidence in sparring game is going up.

It was a really good class and one that I feel shows how hard I have been training since my last test.

Torture is the only word I can use – 10/17/08 – Friday Karate class

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Just when I thought it was safe to go to class, Sensei Noia thought up a new form of torture.

All conditioning…

We started with five suicides across the gym.  Next came 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats.  After that, we did low walks back and forth across the gym.  Then came another 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats.

We then stood in two lines with a tape line in front of us.  From there, we had to jump, side to side, over the line for the length of the gym.  Next, we had to crisscross our feet over the same line.  Then came another 30 push ups, 30 crunches and 30 squats and somewhere else, we had to 10 more of each to complete a total of 100.  There we a couple of other drills on that line but my mind is too fuzzy to remember them.

We finished with some shifting drills.  We stood by the same line, shifted in and then out on an angle.

With the exception of the shifting, we did very little Karate but it was great to see how hard everyone worked.