Tuesday Karate Class – 6/17/08 – Back to sparring basics.
Since I was injured for some time, I hadn’t done any sparring drills in class before my exam for about six or eight weeks. Oddly enough, that time away from sparring might have been one of the best things to help improve my sparring. That might sound crazy but let me explain.
Tonight, Sensei Noia has us work on simple sparring basics. We found a partner and lined up in front of them. We then did a very simple drill where one of us would shift in, throw a jab and shift out, then shift in a again and throw a reverse punch and shift out and then shift in again, throw a jab and reverse punch combination and then shift out. When I did this in the past, even the most basic movements like these felt awkward to say the least. Since I haven’t been sparring in such a long time, I seem to have forgotten how I used to do the movement. It is as if I am learning these for the first time again. My shifting feels lighter, my hands are moving faster and seem much more accurate and it just feels right. I am guessing that not sparring for that time has allowed me to forget my bad habits and come back with an open mind and the ability to learn them the correct way now. I can’t really think of any other excuse other than that.
For our next drill, we worked on shuffle up, front leg roundhouse kick to chudon and then shuffle out, then shuffle up, front leg roundhouse to jodan and shuffle back. Getting my roundhouse to jodan is still not there but again, the shuffle movement that used to confuse me felt so much smoother than ever before.
The next drill, we attacked our partner, then shifted to the right and attacked a new partner all the way down the line. The idea behind this drill was to get in, attack and get out fast.
We then did a drill where we would shift in place and our partner would walk in at varying speeds and once they got close enough for us to attack, we attacked and moved out. The idea was to work on our distance and timing.
Our final drill was really fun. Our partner would hold a pad, walk toward us and we would attack with a reverse punch and have to stop them. After the first attack, we would shift back and they would keep coming and we would have to stop them again. The idea was to punch while they were coming at us and stop them in their tracks. My hips were really coming around for this movement and my wife said that my punches were really strong, even though she was holding two pads when I was attacking.
Although, I don’t think taking off from one certain part of Karate will help all of my problems, I do think this little break from sparring did me more good than harm.
Monday Tai Chi class – 6/16/08 – A new movement.
I was not sure what to think about my Tai Chi classes. Even though they are interesting, they do feel slow compared to my Karate classes. I knew that going into it and one of my reasons for taking it was to slow down and relax but I was still a little unsure about it.
Tonight was a little different. We have been doing the same movements for all of the classes and although I feel that I am progressing, I am used to doing something a little different. Tonight, we did the same movements, called our preparation movements, like we do each week but after we finished those, we did one of the first movements in our first form.
A form in Tai Chi is much like a kata in Karate. It is a series of movements with a meaning behind them. It can be a type of self defense movement where the person uses the opponents energy against them. It can also be considered an exercise or a way, that some feel, to increase the flow of energy in the body.
After doing this first, simple movement, I am starting to understand a little more about what we are doing. The movement reminds me of a short back stance with a knife hand block although the movement is distinctly different. Instead of using power and force, we slowly move into this short stance and turn our body at a 45 degree angle. The front hand is held below chin level and loosely open and the other hand is about rib height and loosely open. We then move from facing forward and then into the 45 degree angle while lowing our stance. I cannot remember the name of the movement and I will ask again in my next class but to make a long story short, I am starting to become more interested now that I am seeing some of the movements that I will be learning as time goes on.
When I started taking this class, I thought that it would be much easier than my Karate training but I am finding that the movements are so different and using different muscles, it is much harder than I expected. I do feel there is some benefit to my Karate training by taking these Tai Chi classes and I think I will keep it up for a while longer before I decide if I want to keep doing it or not.
Saturday Karate class – 6/14/08 – The dojo floor is pretty hard.
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.
Friday Karate class – 6/13/08 – Squeeze the legs kata.
I didn’t go to class yesterday since both my wife and I weren’t feeling well. Her back was really sore and my hip was so sore that walking hurt a great deal. I was really looking forward to Thursday class but I don’t like to take class when I cannot put everything into it.
Both my wife and I went to our chiropractor, Dr. Pusateri, today and luckily, he was able to fix both of us. My wife’s back was messed up and my right hip bone was pointing down, causing most of the muscles in my right leg to turn off. It was really making front stances very painful and most of my front kicks were way off because of it. Dr. Pusateri got everything back in place and working again so things are good.
Today was an excellent class. Sensei Noia asked who wanted to do kumite and who wanted to do kata. I choose kata again since my body was put back together this morning. We went off to one side with Sensei Plocharczyk and he took us through a different kata workout that I never recall doing in the past. Sensei started us off with Heian Godan but instead of just doing the kata, he told us to squeeze the floor with our feet and legs. As we did each move, Sensei walked around and checked to make sure that we were squeezing the right muscles. He would try to push us out of our stance and then check to make sure that our core was tightened. This doesn’t sound too hard, right, but it was torture. We would hold a stance for at least 15 seconds and sometimes up to one minute if he had to correct one of us. We did the same for Tekki Shodan and Jion too.
When working on Jion, Sensei gave me some things to work on. When I go from the first move into the second move, I am coming up out of my stance. When going into the horse stance with palm strike, I am turning on the ball of my foot instead of the heel. When moving into the first outward block, before the front punch, I am locking my back leg after my block is executed. Going from the front punch into the downward block, before the three stomps, I am raising up.
Sensei also had us do an interesting drill where we sit on a swiss ball and punch a pad that our partner is holding. I had an extremely hard time sitting on the ball with my feet behind me. My hips were screaming. I think I need to start sitting on the swiss ball again while I am typing on the computer here. Maybe it will help my flexibility. We did another drill where Sensei had us sit on the swiss ball, hold a pad and twist from side to side while our partner held our feet. It is a great core exercise and I could really feel it.
I plan on spending the next six months working on making all of my stances in my kata and basics like they were tonight. I walked through my moves for such as long, it is too bad that it took me almost four years to finally get it right. It wasn’t that I didn’t here this in the past but it just didn’t sink in until now.
I have to admit a funny thing. Every time I change rank, I learn something or realize something new that I have to work on. I know that there is no magic in rank advances but it always seems to make me understand something better each time my rank changes. Maybe my mind is clearer since the exam is over and there won’t be another one for at least six months now.
Tuesday Karate class – 6/10/08 – The exam results are in.
I ended up taking off from Tai Chi yesterday since I was still having a little bit of trouble with my hips from the exam on Saturday. I pushed things so hard that my hips were aching and walking was a little rough at times.
At the begining of our class today, Sensie Noia told us our results from our exam. Both my wife and I received a kari, a half rank, so we are both considered 2nd Kyu but have areas that we both need to improve on. I am satisfied with the result and if any thing, it will make me train ever harder than before.
Class was good tonight. We spent most of it working on kumite drills and it good was good to do it again. I haven’t done any sparring in class for almost two months, since my ribs were hurt, and I feel it really set me back. My feet felt heavy when I was shifting and I was having a very hard time doing simple reverse punches when shifting in to attack. One thing that I did notice is that my right leg roundhouse has improved a good amount. Doing the roundhouse with my rear leg when shifting in or with the front shuffling in felt better then ever before. It had good height and I was able to snap it back faster than ever before.
Sensei Noia had us working on basic sparring drills. Shift in and jab, shift in reverse punch and shift in roundhouse. Since most of us haven’t been sparring too much, he always starts us off with the basics after exams are over and I glad that he does.
One drill that I like is where he has one of us hold our hand up and the other attacks based on where our partners hands are placed. For example, if our partner puts a hand under in front of their face, we throw a jab or reverse punch at it. If they put both hands on their side just above belt level, we throw a roundhouse kick. It is a good drill to help with focus and reaction time.
It was a good class but I know that I really have a lot of work to do on my sparring.
