Kata time – 1/20/09 – Tuesday Karate class
I ended up taking the earlier class today and spent the entire time working on kata with Sensei Plocharczyk.
Hard warm up…
We started with a hard warm up. We jogged back and forth across the dojo twice, then we did butt kickers across the dojo. That was easy compared to what came next. We started with 10 pushups and situps, then we did nine and nine of each, then eight and eight all the way down to one and one of each movement. We ended up doing 55 of each movement in a short time. I was pretty much spent after the warm up at that point.
Lots of kata…
Sensei then had us start with Heian Shodan as a warm up and then Jion. Next came Heian Nidan and then Bassai Dai. After that came Heian Sandan followed by Bassai Dai with no hands. Next came Heian Yondan followed with Jion. After that was Heian Godan followed with Bassai Dai. Next was Tekki Shodan, Jion, Bassai Dai and another Bassai Dai.
We then did 25 lunges in place followed with one more Bassai Dai.
Very hard class but very good.
Shift, shift and attack – 1/19/09 – Monday Karate class
Sensei Brien had us work on some simple sparring drills for the entire class. Since my sparring has not kept up with my kihon and kata, this type of class is always welcome to me.
Various sparring basics…
We started with shift forward and jab. Next came, shift forward, reverse punch, shift back, shift back again and reverse punch. Next was shift, shift reverse punch. After that we did a little more complicated combination which consists of shift in, reverse punch and roundhouse kick. That last drill was particularity interesting to me since I couldn’t think of doing a it before because of my lack of flexibility. I was flowing very smooth for me today and I was pretty happy with what I was able to do.
Sensei Brien said that we need to learn to read our partners mind on when they are going to attack. We spent a good amount of time working on just that. As soon as we felt that our partner was going to attack, we would try to attack first. I had a couple of different partners and some of them had tells where as others had to move before I reacted.
It was a good class.
Focus on the pad – 1/17/08 – Saturday Karate class
Sensei Plocharczyk gave us a good kicking class today.
Hit the pad not your partner…
We started out with a drill where our partner hold a focus mitt and we do a front leg roundhouse kick. Next came from leg roundhouse followed with a rear leg roundhouse. The next drill was front leg hook kick and rear leg hook kick, which was much harder than the other two drills.
Conditioning drills…
Sensei had us work on some conditioning drills. For one drill, Sensei had us put or focus mitt under our chest and do pushups. Next came a drills where one partner did a pushup on the focus mitt, then picked it up with one hand and passed it across to the other partner and he or she did a push up. We did 20 each of those.
After that came some partial pushups. We started with a hold in the top position, next in the middle position and the next our chest was about two inches off the ground. We held each postion for 15 to 30 seconds.
The final movement was, lay on our back, bend one leg and keep the other straight, put the foot of the bent foot in our partners hand and hold up our body with the strength of that leg and just our shoulders in the ground. It was all core work and a really good exercise.
Kicking basics – 1/13/09 – Tuesday Karate class
This class was a little different today. Sensei Noia had spend almost the entire time working on kicks.
Combination kicks…
We started moving across the gym doing combination kicks. Front leg front snap kick, front leg roundhouse kick, front leg hook, front leg side thrust kick, rear leg roundhouse and front leg and front snap kick. It was a hard group of moves and I ended up really hurting my left hip trying to keep up with all younger students. I don’t think I need to keep up with them in the future.
Kick that pad…
I ended up sitting down for a few minutes after I hurt my hip but then jumped back in for next drill. Sensei Noia had us get a partner and a pad drills. He then had us throw front leg front snap kicks at our partner holding the pad. Oddly enough, my hip popped and felt much better after the first kick so I was able to continue going forward. We spent a good amount of time working on this drill.
Next, we stood in a front stance and did reverse punch to the pad our partner was holding. I was working with one of our younger students and could not put a lot behind my punches so I focused on my hip rotation and my form instead of my power. I really need better hip rotation so this wasn’t a bad thing for me.
Good class overall.
Takedowns can be painful – 1/10/09 – Saturday Karate class
Sensei Gatch started us out with a hard warm up. We did 2 sets of suicides and 2 sets of low walks back and forth across the dojo.
Sparring drills…
Sensei Plocharczyk took us through almost a full hour of sparring drills. We started with some simple drills, like shuffle in and jab. Then came shuffle in, jab and reverse punch. We then started working on front leg, roundhouse kicks.
Sensei then made things a little harder and we did shift in front leg roundhouse with rear leg roundhouse. After that, we did a drill, that I have never done, where we stepped in, pivoted on the front leg and ended up next to our partner depending in if they threw a front leg roundhouse or read leg roundhouse. This drill was to help us prepare for takedowns coming up.
The idea was to step in, out of the way of the roundhouse kick, block and catch the kick, turn your partner and take then down to the ground all in one smooth motion. Easier said than done for me though.
Takedowns…
Next came some free sparring. I didn’t have a partner so Sensei Gatch was kind enough to beat on me for a few minutes. The catch with the free sparring is that we could only score with a roundhouse to head or a takedown. Sensei Gatch threw at least 15 kicks at me for the first 30 seconds but he couldn’t land them, luckily for me. For the next round, he kinking put his big toe in my eye. After that, he faked a roundhouse kick and took me down to the floor. On the way down, I ended up straining my leg bicep. Needless to say, my 220 pounds doesn’t hit the floor too gracefully but both us walked away without any serious damage to our bodies.
