Time for Self Defense – 8/31/08 – Monday Karate class.

Since this was the last class of the session, Sensei Brien let us spend the entire class working on a couple of self defense drills.

WARNING – what I am typing below is real life and you must use your head if you are ever involved in a threatening situation.   Always use your head and if possible, don’t get into threatening situations in the first place.  I will not be responsible for anyone using what I am sharing here as an excuse for hurting, maiming or killing someone else and if you get in trouble with the law or get hurt yourself or worse, it is your own fault.

Below is a link to Self Defense on Wikipedia if you are interested.

Self Defense

Rules of engagement….

Sensei Brien gave us four rules if we are ever in a threatening situation in the following order.

• Run
• Hurt
• Mame
• Kill

Run:

If you are threatened and or being attacked, your first line of defense is to RUN AWAY.  If you can get away, then do it.  This should be common sense but so many people try to fight there way out of a situation when all they had to do was run the other direction.  I cannot stress this enough and I really do think if people would just run away or at least try to get away, there is a chance of them not getting hurt.  I would much rather be alive and called a wimp or a chicken than a dead tough guy.

Hurt:

If and only if running not an option, then your next line is to hurt your attacker so that you can run away.  Sensei explained hurt as stunning your attacker without causing harm such as broken bones, gouged eyes or anything more than stopping them for the moment so that you can run away.

Maim:

This is a little more complex.  If running is not an option and hurting does not work and your attacker is has you trapped, using extra force like breaking bones, blinding or leaving deep wounds might be needed.  This can get really tricky when it comes to laws and there is point where if you maim someone, you could be considered the aggressor if you use more force than necessary to escape harm.

A good example that Sensei gave was breaking a persons finger would maim them but breaking all five fingers on one hand would make you the aggressor at that point since chances are you could have escaped after breaking one finger.

Kill:

This is the absolute last resort but it also means that it is either you or your attacker that is going to walk away alive.  That means one of you could be dead and that could be you if you don’t use everything in your power to stop them.  When faced with an attacker that is intent on killing you, chances are you will still get, hurt, maimed or even killed in the process.  There are also many legal consequences and depending upon where you live, you could be the person up on charges for murder.   Granted, at least you are still alive but you better be really sure that you had absolutely no other choice because the law might not see it your way.

Simple but effective drills to help escape from an attacker…

Sensei had us start with a very simple drill.  He us get a partner and had that partner grab us from behind like a bear hug.  From this point, he had us shift our hips to one side and then do a downward hammer fist to our partners groin.  After that, we turned our body and raised our arms to break our partners hold.

There are also some other things besides a hammer fist to the groin that can used.  For example, pinching the inside soft tissue of your attackers leg will certainly help loosen their grip.  A stomp to their foot is another option too.  Another option is to grab their thumb and bend it quickly and hard to break their grip.

What time is it….

The next few drills we worked on were very simple but also very effective.  For this drill, my partner grabbed my right wrist with his left hand and held on very tight.  In order for me to escape, all I had to do was turn my wrist and raise my arm in front of me as if I was looking at my watch to see what time it is.  Also, when someone grabs a persons wrist the person being grabbed has a tendency to make a fist but if you open your hand as your are moving your arm to break away it will be easier to escape their grip.

Another drill that we worked on was cross arm grab.  My partner grabbed my right hand with his right hand across his body.  Instead of trying to read my watch, I pulled my hand up and then pointed it behind me over my shoulder.  This puts the attacker in a very uncomfortable position, twists their arm and moves them to the outside of your body so that you can run away.

Real life is not pretty…

Sensei finished up talking about real life situations and how they are not pretty and nothing like you see in the movies.  He made some very good points and some that all of us should keep in mind.

Avoiding threatening situations is easy if you aren’t there in the first place.

A really good example that Sensei gave us was for the ladies going to the restroom alone at the shopping mall.  The restroom at most shopping centers are located out of the way, away from heavy traffic most of the time and it wouldn’t be hard for a would be attacker to hide inside one of the stalls in the restroom and wait for someone to come in alone.  He made it very clear that ladies should never walk into the restroom alone even if you think you are safe.

Another good example is using gross things to help escape your attacker.  He told us a story of a criminal who overpowered and  attacked a young women.  As he retrained her and pinned her shoulders to the floor she stuck her finger in her nose and wiped it on her attackers lips.  This immediately broke his grip, she was able to kick him in the groin, knock him down and stomp on his head to knock him out until she could get the police.   The biggest, strongest and meanest men in the world can be broken down by something as simple as a booger so look for the simple things if the need ever arises.

This was a mentally brutal class and Sensei gave us a hard, clear look at real life that many of us never really see in our classes and hopefully we will never see in our lives.

Kata details – 8/27/09 – Thursday Karate class

After our warm up, Sensei Cieplik had us start class with some kihon doing normal block and strike combinations along with some kicking drills.

Fast Kihon…

We moved through our kihon drills really fast.  Sensei had us start moving forward and back doing rising block with reverse punch, downward block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch and outward block with reversse punch all in high speed.  Normally we pause between each combination of moves but this made it interesting.  I was panting like an old dog.

We also did some kicking drills and spent a good amount of time, moving in a horse stance doing side thrust kicks, side snap kicks and sideways front snap kicks.

Heian Shodan all the way to Kanku Dai…

We spent a great deal of time working on Kata all the way from Heian Shodan to Kanku Dai.  The bad part is that there was so much information, I can hardly remember all that Sensei shared with us.

We normally do one Heian Shodan for a kata warm up and then Sensei has us do it again but with something different.  Today, we did the kata but for the last four moves we did a gedan level shuto instead of chudan shuto.

In Heian Sandan, when doing the side snap kick with back fist, hold the movement and then turn the head to look the other direction, then switch hands and move into the back stance with knife hand but pay extra attention to the elbow strike.

In Heian Sandan, keep the head looking forward when doing the three horse stance moves with block and back fist.

In Heian Yondan, pull the left leg in half way before during the second side snap kick.  Also, after the head smash, look behind and then move into the back stance with knife hand block and pay extra attention to the draw hand elbow strike.

In Heian Godan, stop and pause after the jump before moving into the front stance with double outward block.

In Jion, when you come back into the yoi position, take your time.  This is your rest.  Also, Sensei mentioned that that movement can be done like the end of Kanku Dai and both hands come up high and then move into the ready position.  It’s hard to explain in text but your body looks like a Y and then your hands cross and end up down at each side but a distance away from the sides of the body.

I am sure that I forgot some information here but hopefully this covers most of it.

Things we do not often do – 8/20/09 – Thursday Karate class

This was a fun class.  Sensei Cieplik had us do things that he said we don’t often do.

Mentally challenging….

We did the normal warm up with our kicks and then moved right into our kihon drills.

Sensei wanted us to work on things that we normally don’t do.

We started moving forward and back in a back stance with rising block.  Still in a back stance, we did inward block and then gedan shuto.  The movements themselves weren’t too hard but getting the mind to do them was.  It just goes to show how we get in a pattern of doing the same movements.

Next, we did front snap kick, then block with the same leg while turning 90 degrees and put the kicking leg behind us to move into a front stance.  Next, we did the same move but after putting our back leg down, we did a reverse punch.

For the next drill, we did a front snap kick but to three targets.  We kicked to the left rib area, right rib area and the center without putting the kicking leg down.  The idea was to not twist the hips to kick to the outside center targets.

Back snap kick….

Here was a move that I never remember seeing until today.  We started in a horse stance looking right, we then slide the front leg backward half way, then push the back leg behind into low front stance, with the leg straight and then snap our heel to our butt, much like how we snap our kick back after a front snap kick.   This kick is meant to be used on an attackers groin and I am sure it would be really effective.

We finished up doing a kata, the name of the kata escapes me, from another style of Karate.  It was a very flowing kata and a lot of fun.

Hardest class ever – 8/18/09 – Tuesday Karate class

After five years, I believed that the hardest classes were behind me.  I thought that since I was this far along I could take any type of punishment after some of the classes that I had in the past.  We can throw that idea out the window.  Sensei Noia gave us one of the hardest, if not the hardest, classes that I remember ever having.

Not for the weak hearted….

We started with the usual warm up by jogging back and forth across the gym eight times.  After that, we did low walks but with a little twist.  We did low walks to the quarter line then 10 squats and back to the start, next we went to the half line and did 10 more squats and back, then we went to the three quarter line and did 10 more squats and back and finally, we went to the end of the gym and did, you guessed it, no, 20 squat this time and back to the start.  My legs were calling me some really nasty names at this point.

For a rest, we all spread out and did a very slow kata of our choice.  I did Heian Shodan since I always like to warm up with that kata whenever I have a choice.

Next, we were supposed to do bear crawls to the quarter, half, three quarter, end and back but I ended up doing low walks again since my coordination for bear crawls is not the best.  Instead of doing squats at each distance, we did 10 push ups at each quarter line and 20 at the end.

For another rest, we did another kata.  This time I picked Heian Yondan since I always like doing this kata.

Low walk kata….

For the rest of the class, we did low walks to each line again but this time we did a kata and then jogged back to the start line.  I did Heian Nidan first, Heian Sandan second, Tekki Shodan third and Bassai Dai at the end.

I think there might have been a couple more katas somewhere in the mix but I might have blacked out or am just trying to block it from my mind.  The moral of this story is, just when you think you have had the hardest training day ever, your Sensei might just prove you wrong.

Block and counter – 8/17/09 – Monday Karate class

Sensei Brien had us work on sparring basics today.

Block and counter….

We spent much of the class working on basic block and counter drills.  Our partner would shift in, reverse punch and then shift out.  As they threw reverse punch and started shifting out we would throw a roundhouse kick.

We also worked on the same type of drill but the attacker was allowed to throw another attack after the roundhouse kick counter and then we were able to throw a reverse punch after the roundhouse kick.

The idea was to continue throwing attacks and counters until someone scores.   Sensei also made that point that throwing that counter attack even after getting hit by an opponent could mean a point in a sparring match for you and not your opponent if it is better than theirs.  There is a chance that even though they hit you, the referee might not have seen it or it might not have met the needed criteria for a point in a  sparring match.

We didn’t do a lot of different drills today but this was a great refresher.