Tuesday Karate Class – 4/29/08 – Two classes, twice the work.
What great classes. I know that I say that lot since almost all of the classes that I take are great but some days are greater.
First class:
We started class with a good warm up and then Sensei Noia called everyone over to go over exam results for the past weekend. My son tested on Sunday night and he was a 4th kyu with two black stripes. For those of you that are not familiar with my club, the kids work on a stripe system. The younger kids need six read stripes to move up to the next rank and the older kids, like my son, need four black stripes to move up. My son really pushed himself at the test on Sunday and I feel that his spirit was better than ever before. His examiners agreed and he ended up receiving three black stripes which moved him up to 3rd kyu, brown belt with one black stripe. I am extremely proud of him and hope that he continues to progress like he has over his past few tests. On a funny note, he is now a higher rank than my wife and I since he has one stripe on his belt and the adults move up half rank or full. He is excited to be able to line up ahead of us again.
After that came the hard work. Sensei Noia had doing kihon for most of the class. We did all of the movements for our examinations. Combination blocks and punches moving forward and backward, back stance, knife hand block, front snap kick with spear hand, inward block, into horse stance, elbow strike and backfist were just a few of the movements that we did. We also worked on our kicks, moving forward double front snap kick, roundhouse kick and combinations such as front snap kick, side thrust kick, back kick, roundhouse kick and finish up with a reverse punch. That movement used to be so hard for me, it still is but less hard than before.
We finished up class with some kata. We did Heian Shodan and then moved into our own belt kata. Sensei Noia had us do Heian Shodan very slowly and then we did a full out kata of our own. I did Jion and felt strong up to the first kiai but did feel to well on last third of the kata, it wasn’t awful but it didn’t feel like my best either.
Second class:
I wasn’t going to take second class but my son had missed a class while he was out sick the week before so he wanted to take it. Since the last class is reserved for brown and above, he was now able to take it and he wanted to take advantage of his new rank. I was sitting on the side watching him and Sensei Noia split the class up into two lines. I noticed that they were on person short of 20 so I asked Sensei if he wanted me to help and even out the group. Sometimes, I always love to extra Karate whenever I can but I didn’t know what was coming when I offered to step in. Sensei Noia had us get into a low front stance, had our partner sit in the floor, hold are back foot in place with their leg and put their finger on our knee to keep us in the right stance. While were were holding this stance, he had us do three sets of ten block and punch combinations paying extra attention to our hip rotation. It was very hard. Holding that stance for that amount of time took more mental focus than physical but either way, it was tough. Next, we did the same thing with a different block and then again for a total of 180 combinations while holding a low front stance. This took close to 35 minutes to complete and my legs were screaming.
After that, we finished up class with some conditioning exercises. I couldn’t do all of the pushups because my ribs were still sore but I ended up doing over 20.
We then did some v-situps and Sensei called us all over to talk to us. He made some very good points and said that we should not hurry to get to black belt. We should spend as much time as we need, train hard and work toward that goal but don’t get caught up in moving up in ranks just to move up. I have been content in moving up a full rank each time I have tested since I taking taking Karate almost four years ago but once I made it to 3rd kyu, about six months ago, I am starting to realize that I really like to train. Even if I stay 3rd kyu for some time, I don’t see that as a bad thing any more. I enjoy Karate itself, training and assisting with class so no matter what rank I am, I am doing all the things that I set out to do and getting my black belt is still a goal but not the end all be all any more.
Tuesday Karate Class – 4/22/08 – Kihon and Kata.
Good class.
We spent most of the class working on kihon and a lot of it. We went through all of the moves that are required for our test.
One thing that I realyl enjoy is that Sensei Noia has us start with the most simple movements. I feel that this is extremely important since the simple combinations are fundamental movements that need to be practiced no matter what rank you achieve. I have always felt that I never spent enough time working on the combinations over the last few years and intend on adding them to my training outside the Dojo going forward. If I had spent more time working on the kicking combinations, my kicks might be than they are today.
We did moving forward and backward, rising block, downward block and inward block with reverse punch. We then did one of my favorite movements, outward block with jab and reverse punch. I really like the feel of that movement since it makes my hips work like they should. We also did inward block, horse stance with elbow strike and reverse punch. I need some work on that movement but it has improved. Next came back stance with knife hand block, then we added the nukite and then we added the front snap kick both forward and backward. The movement with the front snap kick added has always been hard for me but I am starting to finally get the hang of it.
We then worked on our kicks. We did double front snap kick, then double roundhouse kick, then front snap kick, side thrust kick and back kick combinations. After that came front snap kick to the front with a side thrust kick to the front. Next came side thrust kick to the front and roundhouse to the front and then the same move but in reverse order.
We finished up class with some kata. I did Jion first and both Sensei Noia and Sensei Plocharczyk said that I did the best front punch that they have ever seen me do at the point of the first kiai in Jion. I will remember that compliment for some time. Next, Sensei Noia had me do Tekki Shodan and another Jion since we might be asked for an additional kata at our exam. Sensei Gatch said that my Tekki Shodan was really good so overall, the day turned out great.
Sunday Karate Tournament – 4/20/08 – No medals for me but fun for all.
I entered this tournament, even though I shouldn’t of because of my ribs. Luckily, I didn’t hurt myself too much.
I entered both the kata and kihon events. I went up against that same group of people as always, which is good, since all of them are great people. After entering 14 tournaments over the last three and half years, you really start to build friendships with your competitors. Even though some of us win or loose, we all have respect for each other and no bad will when one or the wins.
I do these tournaments for fun and if I win, that’s great, if I don’t, no big deal. I used to get really mad when I would not win but now, I just do it support my club and since I am going to be there anyway to watch my son compete, I may as well do it.
For the first time, when I did my kata, I had a smile on my face during most of it. It was really funny, Sensei Cieplik has often told us to do our kata with a smile and this time, I did both of them with a smile. It wasn’t a constant smile but it was there during many of the moves. I didn’t win and I zoned out a few times but it was fun for me and I hope that I can keep the same feeling the next time I compete.
My son did better, he won a forth place medal in kata. He did Jion and even though he is a 4th Kyu and should be doing Tekki Shodan or Heian Godan, he had his mind set on Jion. I think he would have placed higher if he would have done Heian Godan but he was happy with his place and so was I and his mom.
Sadly, my wife was not able to compete because of some issues with her back but once she gets over those, I am sure she will be back to her winning self like before.
My wife, son and I also volunteered to help out with the tournament. We helped in the staging area and had to line up the competitors and take them to their rings when the time came. Their stagging area is run extremely well and without the hard work of Beth Rechenmacher, it would never be pulled off. I have a lot more respect for the people that make these tournaments possible and am glad that I was able to be a part of it. My wife and I also had the chance to help score one of the kumite matches. It was really interesting to see how it’s done.
Even though, I didn’t win any medals, I think I still won by learning some new stuff.
Friday Karate class – 4/18/08 – Lots of kihon and pushed in ribs.
I went to see my chiropractor, Doc Pusateri today and found out that I had a pushed in rib and my ribcage was torqued on my left side. He just put his finger on my side and knew from my yelp what was wrong. He was able to put the rib back in place and un-torque my ribcage in about five minutes and then he worked on my parts like always. The pain was almost totally gone by the time I walked out of his office. It was still there but only about 10 percent of what it was just a little while before.
I helped out with the two classes before mine like I do every week and wasn’t going to take my class since I didn’t want to hurt myself again. I couldn’t just sit and watch so I ended up doing kihon for about half the class but I took it easy because Sensei Noia said to. The combination moves did stress my ribs somewhat but not enough to cause any real pain like I felt in class last night. We did some kicking combinations too and those are starting to finally improve. I didn’t use any power on my moves and I did notice that my form improved a great deal. I am going to have to evaluate my power output and consider taking it down a notch to improve my technique.
We finished up class with kata and I did Jion. Again, it was a weak version of Jion, at least for me but I was able to complete the entire kata without too much pain.
Thursday Karate class – 4/17/08 – Good class but painful.
I guess the title is a little deceiving. What we did in class is what I would normally call painful but because of my ribs, it was.
We started our normal warm up and Sensei noticed right away that my kicks were off. My foot was not too sore but bad enought to throw off my warm ups and my kicks at the start of class. After a while, when I was warmed up, my foot started to feel better though.
My ribs are worse than they were yesterday and it made for a bunch of really painful kihon movements. Any combination where I have to twist my hips was very painful.
One of the points that Sensei Cieplik, that really stuck in my mind, was to RELAX. He made the comment that we are too stressed and that if we want our Karate to be better, we should relax. Just let is go as he often says when we are doing our basics. He has told us this many times before but for some reason, it stuck in my mind tonight.
Sensei has often told us this in the past but it is starting to become more important to my training. He often says, when we are doing our kiohn, we need to; Practice, Persistence, GENTLE, Patience. Practice our Karate as often as we can. Be persistent and strive to do it correctly even if we don’t get it right away. Be GENTLE, typed in caps to express the importance here, to our bodies and do what is within our physical abilities. And have patience when trying to master our moves or ranks in Karate.
There is a lot of good advice in those four simple words and I am starting to understand them more as I gain more experience. When I started Karate, I was so focused on getting my black belt as fast I could but as I am learning more, I realized that I still have a long way to go and that I need to follow those four simple words above. Since I received my third Kyu, I am more interested in learning more details that I am about getting my Shodan. I still want to get my black belt one day but my goal of only doing that has changed along the way. It’s not like I am going to quit Karate after I get my black belt so I am going to take my time and enjoy myself and learn everything I can along the way. When my black belt comes, it will but I am no longer worried about the destination and am more interested in the journey.
Another great point from Sensei, while we were doing some basics in a back stance is to think from behind. The children often only think with the muscles in front such as abs, chest, quads, arms and shoulders where the adults can think from their back, rear shoulders, hamstrings and lower back. Children normally only think from the muscles they see where adults can use the muscles they cannot see behind them.
While doing some work with Tekki Shodan, Sensei mentioned that we should try to punch with our eye behind our elbow when doing the hook punch type movement. If I understand this correctly, the idea is that if we drive from our elbow the movement will have power but if we use our fist, it will not be as strong.
Another excellent point that I should have been doing for ages is to squeeze my heels together in horse stance. I know that Sensei has said this in the past but it didn’t sink in until tonight. Squeezing the heels and tightening the butt and hamstrings makes the stance a whole different thing to me. It puts my hips and legs in correct position and helps me keep my back upright instead of leaning forward.I spent some time after class talking to Sensei about what happened with my ribs on Tuesday and he gave me some good advice. “Don’t get hit” he said. At first, I was wasn’t sure what to think but then he explained something to me about one of his students that takes his Iai-Tate Do class and said that he keeps his elbows at his sides at all times. Keeping the elbows in protects the ribs and he can block any body attacks with his hands. If someone attacks his head, he just moves back. In essence, the idea is to stay in close to the opponent and worry about blocking only the torso with the hands. I am not going to be sparring until my ribs are fully healed but I plan on trying this advice then.
Even though I was really sore, it was still and excellent class as always.
