Denver Colorado Karate Classes Blog

Monday, July 7, 2008

After doing 50 jumping jacks, we lined up into four lines of about 5 people each. The Sensei wanted to continue the warmups but with a different twist. Some of the exercises we did were push-ups but having to move your body sideways (to go to the other side of the room) and then do a push up. Move sideways, another push up. Then we have to drag ourselves on the ground without any aide of our legs. It was all upper body. It was hard but my breathing was 100% fine and recovered fast. Others were not so lucky. We did a few more of these line drill exercises before moving over to the lesson.

Tonight we did our DM’s starting from the kneeling position. Some DM’s were easy to do and some were difficult to execute. Then we did some ground work on flipping the person on top of you to becomming the person now on the bottom.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

After a pulmonary embolism, you have that feeling that you can get an emboli symptom during or after a hard workout. The probablity of that happening is almost next to zero but it’s there in your head.

Tonights workout started with Count Downs starting at the 13 count. We had to do jumping jacks, push ups, squats, crunches and then mounatin climbers. That’s a total of 455 repititions of 5 exercises. I paced myself with a teen next to me and near the end, I was about 5 seconds behind him. We were both well ahead of the group. My breathing was excellent and was on pace. Others in the class were gasping and making loud grunts I guess to simulate they were trying real hard. When it was over, I recovered real fast in about 3-4 minutes.

After that we started off with some line drills forward and backwards doing various kicks. Then we did some pad work doing some thrust kicks and some roundhouse kicks.

Monday, June 30, 2008

I was off on vacation all last week. Tonight was pad night. Starting off with hand work - front knuckle, back fist (then with opposite hand shuto) then kicks — front ball, , DM 6, DM 7 and spinning back kicks.

Monday, June 16, 2008

After the requisite warmups (did more than usual tonight), we did some 2-3 punch, kick routines while half mooning forward and backward. Pretty much did those exercises OK with minimal fumbles. Then we formed into groups of 5 with 4 people angled at 45 degree angles in relation to the person in the middle. The Sensei would call out an angle with that person punching in at you. The person in the middle had to react and do a quick DM. I stunk at it. I kept wanted to do a kempo and using knees to the gut and face.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I missed Monday’s class due to being out on business. The class started off with 50 JJ’s, 50, crunches, 50 push-ups, 25 squats, 20 deep knee bends and 20 leg raises, plus some strethching at the end. No apparent problem aerobically. Then we went into two-punch combos while half mooning backwards and forwards. Some ending moves was with a grab and knee to the gut. After that we did out top 10 DM’s in rapid succession. I started off at #12 and ended at #26 for a total of 11. #15 the guy rolled off my knee, spazed on #19 and on #26, I kept wanted to do#21 because they both start off the same way. Then we suited up to do some light sparring. Our left hands were tied to the belt to simulate having to fight with one arm.

When the class ended, I did an hour private lesson working on 10 point blocking, how to apply 10-point and we did Pinan #1-#3 and kata 1 left handed. Kata 1 is a bit rusty but did the others very well.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Missed Monday’s class due to being in DC. Tonight’s class started off (after warm-ups) doing some hand/kick combos for both right and left sides. Then on our backs/side to do some kicks when simulating trying to defend yourself while on the ground. After that we partnered up to do some buddha palm (stage 3 for me and some others). There’s one person in the class with a bit of an ego problem and really tries too hard to look good. In buddha palm, this person was with me and he/she tried real hard and fast to hit me (not hard but break through the defense). I am pretty good at this and basically blocked everything. Then it was my turn to throw some combos and I was at about 3/4’s speed and broke through the persons buddha palm defense. I was open hand and lightly tapped the person on the head, side of head and chest a few times. At the end, the person was clearly frustrated that I penetrated so many times.

After that we did some ground work by partnering up with one person on the ground while trying to repell the other person. Fighting on your back stinks.

The next half hour was the private lessons and we did our kata’s (need to slow down) and defense manuevers. I did them with take downs but with deliberate slowness.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I missed a few classes due to traveling and I wasn’t sure if the dojo was open in Memorial Day so I stayed home. Last week I was in Florida and my running still feels uncomfortable after about 1 mile/10 minutes into the run. My breathing doesn’t plateau and get into a rhythm. It just gets more and more harder to maintain the same pace. Could be a combo of not running consistently for the last six months and clots dissolving in the lungs.

Tonight’s adult karate class and private lesson was a mixture of timing, strength and fitness. Having to do 30-40 crescent/reverse crescent kicks was hard but not aerobically difficult for me. 4 months ago I would have gassed out in the 2nd set of 10 kicks. Tonight we also did 1 for 1 3-6 hand combos while in the horse stance and half mooning forward and backwards. That took some coordination to maintain rhythm and concentration.

Overall, it was a good 1 hr, 45 minute workout.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Tonight’s theme was nothing but leg applied to different applications. First we started off with pad work doing instep, round house and cresent kicks. Then we did front ball, thrust and spinning back kicks. Then we partnered up to do our DM’s while the attacker was throwing a kick and then a punch. After that, it was running through our kempos and I am so rusty on the kempos and need to do some extra work on them.

May 5, 2008

The entire class training was in slow motion tonight. Warm up exercises were done slower (except jumping jacks) and then were partnered up to do our top 4-5 DM’s at 25% of normal speed. This would force you to do the technique using proper form and it also taxes the muscle groups a bit differently that going full speed.

After that we did kumite in slow motion too. Kind of like Tai Chi and it allowed you to focus on your technique and targeting again.

I liked the change of pace and we should do this once a month.

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Tonight’s karate adult class consisted of partnering up and doing wrist lock techniques when some grabs your shoulder while face to face and if someone grabbed your shoulder while behind you.