Defending against knife attacks and sparring drills – Tuesday Karate class – 6/24/08
Summertime sparring and lots of it.
We started out with some simple sparring drills. Sensei Noia told us to get a partner and had us work on our kicks first. We shuffled up to our partner and threw a chudan, front leg roundhouse kick and then shuffled out. Next we did the same thing but the kick was to Jodan. My kick wasn’t jodan but that’s another story. Next, we shuffled up and threw a fake roundhouse and immediately followed the fake with a reverse punch.
The idea of this drill was to get our partner to create an opening from our fake so that we could attack the area where their guard was down. In order to make this work, the fake had to be extremely fast, the same speed as if you were really throwing the kick so that our partner could react and create the opening that we were looking for.
The next drill we worked on was getting in for the attack and getting out even faster. Some of us have the tendancey to throw an attack and just stay there instead of getting out of way. We moved down the line to a new partner for each attack, while they blocked, if they could, and countered only. Some people were really fast on the counter attacks but I was able to move out of the way faster than usual.
Our next drill was more like free sparring. We went back to our original partner and worked on our fakes and attacks while our partner worked on blocks and counters, then we switched.
I feel that my time away from sparring has really helped me forgot many of the bad habbits that I picked up before. I certainly feel that I can get out of the way much faster than I was able to in the past.
Defending against knife attacks
I saved the best for last here. This was the first time that I was in a class where Sensei Noia showed me these movements.
As always, Sensei Noia explained that if some puts a knife in your face, run and run fast if you have the option. It’s okay to be a hero but you don’t want to be a dead hero so get out of there if you can. If you cannot run away, there are few options but the outcome depends on the skill of your attacker and your own skills. I cannot stress enough, if you can run away, do it.
I started out with a partner and she held the rubber knife to my throat. I then raised my arms as if to say, I give up. From that postion, I quickly moved to the outside, while pushing my partners arm that was holding the knife awayfrom me. The movement that I did next was a jodan punch to the neck while still holding my partners arm.
We also did the same move to the inside which seemed a litte more complex to me. When I moved to the inside, I had to push my partners arm away and grab it with my other hand, from that position I was able to throw an elbow strike, much what seemed like the second from the last move in Jion. From that point I could easily have gotten my shoulder under my partners arm and bent the elbow in the direction it shouldn’t bend.
Sensei Noia had a few different disarms that he demonstarted but I was just amazed at how quickly and effortlessly he could execute them. No matter what knife attack his partner threw at him, he was able to respond and get out of the way of the blade. Of course, it is easier when the blade is rubber but the way he moved was almost as if it was second nature. I hope that someday, I can move with 10% of his speed and precision.
Roundhouse kick warm up and kata bunkai – Saturday Karate class – 6/21/08
Sensei Plocharczyk gave us a very interesting class today. He had us do some things that we never did before both during our warm up and in class.
A very different warm up – Horse stance, shuffle and roundhouse kick.
We ran around the gym for a few laps and then Sensei had us line up on one side of the gym. He then said get into a horse stance, shuffle up to the right, throw a low side thrust kick (around knee height) across the gym to the first line about a quarter distance of the gym and back. Then, we did the same move but threw the kick to thigh level but to the halfway line across the gym and back. Next, the same move again but to belt level height to the three quarter line and back. We then did one more drill all the way across the gym, throwing kicks or trying to throw them to jodan level. This warm up sound really simple but it gave my hips an excellent warm up. I plan on doing this drill at home to help improve my hip mobility and kicking ability.
Kata bunkai…
I am calling this kata bunkai, not because it was all parts of one kata but because it was various parts of a few different kata’s.
We stood face to face with our partner. My partner was my wife this time, She grabbed the top of my gi near the top of my chest below my neck with her right hand and threw a wide hay maker punch with her left hand. I stopped the punch using my left hand with an edge hand strike to her right bicep and grabbed her arm, near the bicep with my left hand. I then moved my right foot behind her left leg and did the dropping strike from Jion to her right arm, to break her grip where she was holding my gi. I then slid behind her, into a horse stance with still holding her right arm, threw an elbow strike with my right arm and took her down to the floor by pushing my right hip into hers and twisting as I executed the elbow strike.
Using the edge hand strike could be from many of that kata’s where a knife hand block is used, except this movement was a strike and not a block. The arm grab with the downward dropping strike is from Jion and Sensei said that it can be done both with the right foot on the floor like a step or brining the knee up just like in the kata. The elbow strike while holding her is the second from the last move in Jion.
We normally do not spend a lot of time on kata application but Sensei mentioned that during the summer months, he hopes to work on some more of these types of movements. With the exception of lying on the floor looking up, I really like it.
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