Slow but perfect form – 11/24/09 – Tuesday Karate class

Have you ever had a class where you worked so hard you thought your legs were going to fall off?  Today was one of those days.  Luckily, my legs didn’t fall off but it was close!

Even the warm up was hard…

Sensei Noia has us start running from quarter line to quarter line and then doing squats at each line.  After that came low walks to make sure we were all warmed up.  It worked.

Move very slow but with perfect form…

We started moving very slow with front stance and different blocks.  We did downward block, rising block, inward block and outward blocks.  After that came front stance with front and reverse punch.  We then moved on to back stances with various blocks.  We a lot of repetitions and held our stances for what seemed like a a long time between moves.

We followed this up with a drill where when Sensei counted, we did a different stance each time.  For example, we started in front stance, moved to cross-leg stance, then into back stance and finished with horse stance.  This was extremely hard for some reason.  The part that made it progressively harder was Sensei started counting and we did one move per count.  After that we did all four moves for each count of one back and forth across the dojo.

We finished up class with kata.  We did our belt kata and then Sensei gave each of the 1st Kyu’s a Heian kata or Tekki Shodan to do.

Work on what you need to work on – 11/23/09 – Monday Karate class

Sensei Brien had us work on our exam preparation again.

Work on what you need to fix…

This was an interesting class today.  Sensei Brien had us work on some kicking drills as other kihon for a warm up but then he had us do something very different.  Sensei told us to work on kihon that we need to improve.  I had more than enough things to work on but this was a really neat concept.  I worked on moving forward with front, side and back kick, moving forward and back with inward block, elbow strike and backfist and moving forward double roundhouse kick.

One point that Sensei made about doing double kick movements is for us to keep the energy going from the end of the first kick to the start of the second kick.  As the foot touches the floor, after the first kick, we should be getting ready to throw the second kick.  The idea is to have the movements flow together.

Next, we worked on kata.  Again, Sensei told us to work on the parts of the kata that we need to improve.  He gave me some excellent advice for the end of Bassai Dai.  Sensei told me to use the draw hand to imagine blocking a punch and then strike with the knife hand block.  This gives the movement a whole different feel.  Instead of hopping into the last move, thinking of the block gives the movement direction and makes it feel move focused and rooted.

It was really different and I got a lot of out of it.

If you stop, there has to be a reason – 11/19/09 – Thursday Karate class

Sensei Cieplik made a really interesting point today.  He said that if you stop, there has to be a reason.  The point he was making is that if there is a pause in a kata, there is reason for it.  The concept is deeper than those few words but it could mean that your opponent is finished and now you can stop.

Basics are the key…

We spent some time working on kicks today.  We started with knee strike, followed by front snap kick.  The hip had to reset between the knee strike and kick.  If the kick is executed at the end of the knee strike it will be much less effective because the hip is already extended forward.

Next, we worked on roundhouse kick.  Sensei didn’t seem to like our roundhouse kicks so he had us do something a little different.  We did a stationary roundhouse kick to the front but on the retraction, he had us keep our leg straight until it was almost ready to be set back down behind us.  This was a pure hip exercise and not the easiest movement for me to perform.

We also did stepping sideways, side thrust kick.  Then side snap kick and a combination of both.  We also did side snap kick to the side but with our toes pointing to the side, like a front snap kick.

The next drill was a stance training drill.  We started in a back stance, then turned our front foot out to the side and stepped through into another back stance.  Turning the foot first makes this movement a little slower for me but much more technically correct because it forces me to turn on my heel.

Kata from start to end….

We worked on kata for a good amount of time.  We did all of the Heian kata’s along with Tekki Shodan, Jion and Bassai Dai.  The Shodan’s and above also did Kanku Dai.

Some key parts of the kata work was:

In Jion, when going from the back with outward and downward block into  standing , think of the next arm motion as an elbow strike instead of an assisted block.

Sensei had some of us 1st Kyu’s work on the yama zuki from Bassai Dai.  He wants us to punch from the hips and the drill he had us do was punch a pad that he was holding against the wall.  The movement always feel different when we actually hit things.  The idea is to strike with the bottom hand and almost lock the arm to the body and drive the hand into the target by pushing from the hips.  The top hand just stays there kinda loose and the bottom hand does all the work.

Excellent class again!

Move faster than your partner – 11/17/09 – Tuesday Karate class

Sensei Noia packed a lot of work into this class today.  I can hardly remember all of the drills that we worked on but I will do my best.  We started our warm ups running and shuffling from one line to another.

Horse stance with your partner and then the band came in….

We started out in a horse stance across from our partner and did many punches and blocks.  Then we switched to a square stance and did more punches and blocks.

Next, we worked on some elastic band drills.  Both partners stood facing each other with one holding the handles and the other with the band around their waist.  We both stepped back into a front stance and held it while the partner with handles pulled them back to their sides.  If you weren’t gripping the floor with your feet and squeezing with your leg muscles, you were falling over.

We then did another drill where our partner faced away from us, while we held the band, they stepped into a front stance and did a punch or a block while we kept tension on the band.  The drills with the bands are always really hard but effective.  Walking after those was not too easy.

One-step, more basics and kata….

After the band drills, we worked on some more basics.  We worked on moving forward and back into back stance with knife hand block.  The idea was to move faster then our partner.

For one-step sparring we did, front punch to face, front punch to stomach, front snap kick, side thrust kick, roundhouse kick and spinning back kick.

After that, we finished up class with some kata.

Karate exam preperation – 11/16/09 – Monday Karate class

Sensei Brien had us start out in a horse stance with many punches and blocks to get warmed up.

Functional kata basics….

I cannot really describe this any better way than I did above.  Sensei had us do various moves from various kata’s.  For example, we worked on:

• Back stance with front snap kick and spear hand.
• Front stance with side snap kick and come down into back stance with knife hand block.
• Standing with side snap kick, then come down with elbow strike.
• Horse stance with crescent kick and elbow strike.
• Same move as above but stop a inch short of the elbow strike to engage our core better.

Some kicking and more kata parts….

After a short water break, we got a partner and worked on a really cool kicking drill.  We stood next to our partner and gabbed hands.  From there, one partner did a side snap kick under our partners arm, then a side thrust kick and then a hook kick.  This really worked the hips.

For our next drills, we did parts of our kata.  We stayed with our partner and did yama zuki (u-punch) across the floor.  We also worked on the low sweeping block after the third yama zuki.  Another drill was from the double inward scissor strike and shift with front punch.   We finished up with an entire kata.

I really enjoy these functional classes and hope that we continue to do them even after examinations are over.