Pad drills, hitting stuff is good – 1/31/09 – Saturday Karate class
Sensei Plocharczyk had us work on some contact drills.
Hit the pad…
I have always felt that we do not hit thing enough and Sensei Plocharczyk felt the same way today. We spent the entire class hitting pads with a partner.
We started with simple drills like reverse punch. Next we worked on using the outside edge of our hand to strike the pad. After that came hammer fist and we finished up with elbow strikes.
All of these movements are extremely powerful and when the hips are behind the moves, they feel deadly.
It was an excellent class and I hope we have more like these in the future.
It does not get much better than this – 1/29/09 – Thursday Karate class
I can honestly say that the classes with Sensei Cieplik are always excellent but tonight was above and beyond.
It’s electric…
The entire class felt electric. Every part of class felt just right even though it was a really hard class overall.
Sensei Cieplik had us start with an extended kicking warm up because the dojo was very cold. He then gave us a hard combination kicking drill with front snap kick, side thrust kick to the side, back kick, roundhouse kick, hook kick, front snap kick and side thrust kick to the side. All the hip movement was a killer but I was more than well warmed up.
Kumite drills…
Next came some kumite drills. We started in high stances and did shift, stop and then jab. Next was shift twice and jab and then shift three times and jab.
Next, Sensei gave us a little brain workout. We did step forward with reverse punch and then step backward with reverse punch. After that came step forward two times and three times with reverse punch on each step.
Horse stance with attention to the foot work…
Sensei had us get into a horse stance and step sideways into another horse stance while trying to keep out moving toes on the floor. The idea is to keep contact with the floor while transitioning from one foot to the other. We also did the same movements with both side thrust kick and side snap kick.
Stance drills with a twist…
This was an interesting drill. We did a back stance with an outward block and from the position a downward punch
The next drill was fron stance, pivot on heal, turn into cat stance an push forward back into a front stance. The reason again was to make sure that our stances were grounded and for us to attack with our legs.
Mucho kata…
Sensei had us do a lot of kata. We started with Heian Shodan and went up from there. We did all of the Heian katas, Tekki Shodon, Jion, Bassai Dai and Kanku Dai.
It was a great class.
Kihon, kata and kumite – 1/26/09 – Monday Karate class
This was an excellent class. Sensei Brien covered all basics and I really enjoyed it.
Basic and Kumite kihon…
This was a good drill. We started with moving forward reverse punch in a low stance and making sure that we were grounded. Next, we did the kumite version using a shorter stance and not paying extra attention to being grounded.
We also worked on some kicking drills with the same concept. Moving forward with low stances and full basic roundhouse kicks. After that, we did roundhouse kicks starting from a high stance and not brining our leg around, like when doing basic roundhouse kicks.
Not being in the low stances while doing the kumite drills makes the movements much faster but with less power, at least as far as I could tell.
Kata with bunkai…
We spent the next part of the class working on kata with bunkai. Sensei Brien wanted us to imagine that we were fighting an actual opponent and figure out how the attacks would be executed on an attacker.
One of the more interesting applications was for Heian Yondan. Near the end of the kata, the move with the reach and the head grab: Instead of picturing the opponent facing you, look at them as if their back is to you. From this point, you grab their head and knee them in the back, attacking the spine. This is not a nice movement but I am sure that it is effective and hopefully one that none of us will need to use.
kumite drills….
We finished up with some kumite drills. One drill was reverse punch followed with a roundhouse kick and another reverse punch. This was a bit of a complex combination but it felt effective when the timing was right. Next, came hit front hand of your opponent to move it out of the way and step in with reverse punch. It seems, just hitting the hand of your opponent takes their focus away for a split second, enough to create and opening for the reverse punch.
The final drill had our opponent shifting in with an attack and as they come in, you shift back and sweep their front leg and then step in with a reverse punch. This is a really effective move and totally takes away your opponents drive to attack.
Shift, shift, boom – 1/24/08 – Saturday Karate class
Sensei Plocharczyk gave us some old standard sparring drills and a couple drills that I have never done before.
Timing is everything…
We started out with some simple sparring drills. The first drill was shift in and try to reverse punch our partner while they block. The next drill was shift in and attack and our partner could block and counter at the same time. What I mean by the same time is the block and counter happen almost instantaneous. For some reason, my timing was better today day than when I have done this drill in the past.
Tap sweeps…
Sensei had us work on our sweeping techniques. i do not recall ever doing these drills before. The first drill had us us and our partner holding our shoulders facing each other. The partner going forward would hook the front foot of the other person at the moment that the shifted backward. Getting the timing right on this drill was not easy for me but I started to get the hang of it after many tries.
The next drill was similar but this time, we would stand sideways and our partner would face us and pull out front leg forward as they shifted backward. This was a little painful for me since my flexibility is not the greatest but I got through that drill without much damage.
For our next drill, it was time to see what we learned. The idea was to face our partner, while holding their shoulders again and we would try to sweep and take down our parnters. The idea was not to use our strength, instead we needed to use of sweep and our hip postition. It’s easy to muscle a partner down to the floor if they are not as strong but doing it on pure technique, is much harder.
Excellent class is all I can say – 1/22/09 – Thursday Karate class
Sensei Cieplik had us start with a lot kicks for our warm up. It is normally cold in the dojo so the extra kicks do help getting our body temperature up. He often gives us some interesting combination’s and today’s special group was front snap kick, back kick, roundhouse kick, hook kick and front snap kick.
Next came a few more kicks with front leg front snap kick with rear leg front snap kick. The next move was front leg front snap kick and then put that leg behind and do a rear leg front kick. That was a real brain twister. After that came knee strike followed with front snap kick. That move sounds easy but the idea is the do the knee strike, pull the hips back and then do the front snap kick. It’s actually two moves not one.
Now that we are warm…
This was one of the neatest drills that I have done. We started in a high front stance, then threw a front hand jab, then a reverse punch, then a front snap kick and from that position, keep the knee up from the kicking leg, squeeze the elbow of the opposite arm to that knee, tense the core and turn 180 degrees on the ball of the support foot block and then finish with a reverse punch.
Next, we spent on time working on our back stances with knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite.
Kata…
We started with Jion. Sensei had us work on the transition from the high and low double block into the horse stance with hook punch. Instead of shifting when doing that move, Sensei said to pivot on heal of the front leg from the back stance into the horse stance. The idea is to pivot, drop down and then settle (lock the core) into the stance.
We spent the rest of the class working the Heian katas.
