Anchorman and free sparring – 9/29/09 – Tuesday Karate class
Sensei Noia gave us a hard class today. I don’t remember sparring this much in a long time.
Anchorman….
We started class with a few minutes of free sparring to get warmed up. Next, we lined up for Anchorman. Oddly enough, I was more at ease this time than in the past. I just went up there and sparred. I got hit a few times and end up hitting a few but this just felt much easier than before. The group of students in my line was all experienced black belts and even though they are all really good, I didn’t feel out of place for a welcome change. Maybe they were all being nice to me for some reason.
Sparring drills…
For our next drill, we worked on specific techniques. We started with a drill where we could do any attacks but we could only score with a head high kick. Needless to say, unless my partner or I was going to lay down on the floor, neither of us were going to score. Since we tied, we each had to do 15 pushups. For our next drill, we needed a chudan high kick to score. Oddly enough, neither my partner or I scored so we ended up doing 15 more pushups.
Out of the ordinary sparring drills….
We spent some time on three really interesting drills, one was a close distance drill, another drill with our arms tied up and the last drill holding on to our partners front hand.
For the first drill, we stood within arms reach of each other and had to spar from the distance for the entire time of the drill. Being that close didn’t me too many kicking options but the front hand jab was really flying both to my partners body and head. We also took advantage of the short distance and returned the favor.
For the first drill, one of us had our arms tied with our belt at the elbows. We could block with either hand but we had to stay in place. Both my partner and I hit each other but some of the blocks were effective.
The last drill was where we grabbed our partners hand, left to left and had to spar from that distance. We could use our left hand for blocking but we could not attack with it. Fighting in the close range was not easy by any means but pretty cool. There was not much that could be done without getting hit back since creating an opening on your partner created an opening for him.
Kata….
After close to 50 minutes of constant sparring, we did kata. Sensei sent us out for three kata’s. The 1st kyu’s did a Heian kata, Sensei told me to do Heian Godan, then we did Bassai Dai and we finished up with Jion. I felt like my kata was not my best because my legs were shaking and I had almost no breath left but I was able to finish all of them without falling down.
It was a great class but there seems to be a trend where the classes are getting hard and harder, which is good.
Time to get ready for Karate exams – 9/28/09 – Monday Karate class
Sensei Brien had us work on our examination preparation. Exam time is right around the corner and Sensei wants to make sure that we are prepared.
20+ minutes of really hard work….
Sensei had us go through the entire kihon part of our exam. It included the following:
- Horse stance with front punch, double punch and rising block.
- Moving forward and backward front punch
- Moving forward and backward with sanbon zuki
- Moving forward and backward with rising block and reverse punch
- Moving forward and backward with downward block and reverse punch
- Moving forward and backward with inward block and reverse punch
- Moving forward and backward with inward block, elbow strike and backfist
- Moving forward and backward with knife hand block, front snap kick and reverse punch
- Moving forward and backward with front snap kick and front punch
- Moving forward and backward with double front snap kick
- Moving forward and backward with double roundhouse kick
- From horse stance, moving sideways with side thrust kick
- From horse stance, moving sideways with side snap kick
- Shifting forward with front hand jab
- Shuffle up with reverse punch
- Moving forward with shift and jab followed with shuffle and reverse punch
Sensei had us do all of those movements with less then 10 seconds rest between them. The last time we did this, I was ready to fall down but today, it was hard but much easier than the last time we did this in class. We also did more moves in each group than at the test. Normally we do five of each group of movements but Sensei had us do six or more for some movements which was a little hard then what we would see at our test.
Sensei suggested that to prepare for our exam, we should do sprints and not long distance running since our movements are anaerobic by nature and not aerobic.
Kata with spirit, even though you are tired….
After a few minute rest, Sensei had us do our kata. He was looking at the speed of the kata and the spirit that we had when we did it. He made the point that many people, when tired, start the kata with a lot of spirit but soon the output level drops and the spirit goes way down. Another point he made is that people speed up their kata just to try and get it done because they are tired.
Sensei had us do our kata twice more but taking those points into account.
One step kumite….
We spent the rest of the class working on one-step kumite. Sensei wanted us to work on doing the block and counter attack like we would de-ai. He wanted us to sense when our partner was going to attack, block extremely fast and counter attack before they finished their attack. Not too easy a task to perform but if we can get it, it will help improve not only our one step but our free sparring and self defense.
It was a very tough but good class.
It’s all about the details – 9/24/09 – Thursday Karate class
Sensei Cieplik shared some Karate details with us tonight.
Use the hips….
Sensei had us work on a different kicking drill tonight. He had us stand in a ready stance, put on foot forward, much like a cat stance, push our hips forward and tighten our glutes as if we were doing a front snap kick. Next, we pulled our leg back and out to the side and bumped our hip out about an inch on side of the leg that we were holding out. Next, we put our foot behind us, straightened our leg and pressed that heal down as if we were doing a back kick. Next we brought our foot to the front but our hip over and pivoted our back foot as if we were doing a roundhouse kick. We finished up by bringing our foot back to the front just like the first move we did above. The idea behind this was to help us understand the feeling of what our hips should be doing on the various kicks.
Work those stances….
Sensei gave us a drill to help us work on our stances. We started in the ready stance, moved into a cat stance, put the same leg behind us, then moved back into a cat stance, put the same leg in front, back into the cat stance, repeat the two moves above and then bring the leg back into a cat stance once more and step out to the side into a horse stance. The concept behind this was to keep our weight loaded on the support leg while moving into the stances and when we put the leg behind, we pushed with it and when we put the leg in front, we pulled with it. Another very important part is that is helps us maintain posture and keep us from moving with the shoulders instead of the hips. Sensei suggested that we do this movement a little each day and next week he is going to give us another drill that helps our back stances.
Another drill, started in a front stance, we then push backward off the front leg and as the back foot hits the ground and the leg straightens, we throw a jab. This creates a feeling of scary power. And even though you are moving back the power feels as if it is projected forward.
Partner up and use that draw hand….
Sensei had us get a partner to work in some draw hand drills. Sensei explained that most people will tense up if someone pulls in their front hand. If they tense up, you can use that against them and pull yourself and your punch into them. I stood in front of my partner with his front hand out, I then pulled in his hand with my front hand in which he tensed up, which becomes my draw hand, and then shifted in and reverse punched them. I used his reflex action against him to make my punch stronger and faster. I don’t recall ever doing a drill where I actually was able to us my draw hand to pull someone into my punch and this feeling was different than anything I recall doing in the past.
We finished up class with some kata. Sensei had us do Heian Shodan using the feeling that we had from the drill above when we had a move that needed the draw hand. This adds another dimension to a simple kata. We then did Jion and Bassai Dai to finish up for the higher belts and the lower belts worked on H1-H5.
Parts of Jion – 9/22/09 – Tuesday Karate class
Very hard class today. Sensei Noia not only made the class physically hard, it was mentally hard for me.
Get your pads on….
Sensei Noia gave us an interesting warm up tonight. After we bowed in, he had us get our pads on and get a partner. He then had us do about five minutes of free sparring to get the blood flowing. We started with one partner and then got a different partner. I have to really work on blocking backfists. My second partner must have caught me half a dozen times with her backfist. When I would move into attack, she would just step back and put the backfist about a half inch from my face.
After the free sparring, Sensei had us race our partner back and forth across the gym about six times.
Get your focus mitt…
For this drill, one partner held the focus mitt in front of them with it flat and their palm turned up. We then stood in front of them with our left hand on their right shoulder and our right hand above our head. We then did the dropping strike from Jion but instead of stepping forward, we stepped back away from our partner so that we didn’t hit them. The draw hand was the key to my power. If I just dropped my arm and down into a horse stance there was power but the pulling the draw hand back made a lot more. We did the drill with both arms.
Next, we did the same movements but without our partner and moving just like the way they are done in Jion.
The next drill was the double block, downward and upward into the rising elbow strike from Jion. For the first move, your partner held the focus mitt at about thigh level and we did the double block striking the pad on the downward block. Next, our partner held the pad higher up and we did the rising elbow strike. A lot of people call that move a block but I like to think of it as a strike, the way that Sensei Cieplik explained it to me.
The next drill started in a cross leg stance with the x-block. From there we stepped back and did the double downward block, then stepped forward into the double outward block and then into the over head x-block. We did these movements both separate and in groups but it seems like we spent a lot of time on cross leg stance. After doing these moves many times, we added the outward block and stepping forward front punch. The theme tonight for these moves was speed. Sensei made us do many moves over again because we were moving too slow.
We finished up with some full kata. Sensei had us do Jion as he counted, moving like we did in the drills above. For our last kata, Sensei Noia let us do our own kata but he gave us a choice of doing however we wanted. This meant we could do it all out, slow speed, fast speed, lots of power, low power, just hands, just legs or however we wanted. I ended up doing Bassai Dai at a speed as fast as I could with less power.
It was really helpful working on Jion like this and I hope that we have a class like this but with the focus on Bassai Dai soon.
Common and not so common kihon – 9/17/09 – Thursday Karate class
Another excellent class. A lot of learning and a lot of energy was what Sensei Cieplik gave us today.
Common kihon…
Sensei had us work on many of our common kihon movements but also a couple that we don’t work on too often.
As part of our warm up drill, we do a movement that starts with our reverse hand out in front, we then switch hands as we throw a rear leg front snap kick then step back and set our kicking leg down behind us and throw a reverse punch. Sensei calls this his form of jumping jacks.
We started moving forward and backward with downward block with reverse punch, then rising block with reverse punch, inward block with reverse punch and outward block with reverse punch. We also did moving forward and backward with back stance and knife hand block. The next drill was moving forward and backward in a back stance with knife hand block, front snap kick and front stance spear hand.
We also worked on our kicks. Moving forward with front snap kick and front punch. From a horse stance, moving sideways with side snap kick, side thrust kick, front snap kick to the side, roundhouse kick and hook kick. Doing the roundhouse and hook kicks from a horse stance are something that I don’t recall doing before.
Not so common kihon…
One of the less common drills we did was moving forward and backward with reverse punch. We don’t often do this drill but it mimics the way that we walk and instead of reverse punch Sensei often calls this correct punch.
Another move that we have done only once before is the back snap kick. This is neat kick. You stand in a low front stance with your back leg straight, you then snap your heel of your back leg to your hamstring. If something, like the groin or tailbone of an attacker is in the way of that heel, it becomes a really effective weapon. The idea is to not chamber the kick, instead you kick from the ground.
Another movement was stationary jab then step forward with reverse punch. The key to this drill is to open your hips when throwing the jab then step forward and close your hips with the reverse punch. When you do the jab, it makes your roll your upper body over your front leg which assists the stepping forward motion that closes the hips for the reverse punch. Sensei said that this was a JKA drill that they spent a lot of time working on.
Kata…
We ended with some kata. We did Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan and Heian Sandan.
Finish up with some partner stretching…
After kata, Sensei Cieplik handed the class over the Sensei Wail who had us finish up with some partner stretching. One partner laid down on the floor and the other stood on our gi leg and picked each leg up first toward our head, second to the outside and last across our body. The stretches felt really good and I was able to get in and out of the car easier then usual on the way home.
