Denver Colorado Karate Classes Blog

Monday, March 27, 2006

Tonight’s adult karate class consisted of the lesson on how to adopt your defense maneuvers to different types of attacking strikes.

Basically we were to use a combination of blocks and kicks to ward off an attack. The first combo was defending against one punch and one kick. Then it progressed to two punches, a roundhouse kick to the head and a side blade to the knee.

With these combo’s coming in at you, you had to defend against the attack using simple hand and/or arm blocks which are very similar to how you defend against a club attack.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Tonight’s warm-ups consisted of countdowns. My favorite. Starting at 8, we had to jumping jacks, crunches, squats and then push-ups. Doing the math, it’s a total of 144 exercises. Around the 5th set, I began to get into a rhythm. Out of 13 in the class, I was the first to finish and did all the exercises fairly clean with no short-cuts. Being the oldest in the class, I didn’t mind coming in first.

Then we moved on over to doing our basic 8-point blocks having a partner punch in on you. After doing that a few times, we stepped up the pace and did the same thing but this time, the person punching in was to do it with intensity and speed. The person receiving the punch is to block the strike using all 8-pt blocks but you can shuffle your feet in, out or even step to the side in order to evade the punch. The basic rules we had to follow were 1. block the punch, 2. keep the hips aligned with the target and 3. make sure your feet are grounded in a good half moon stance.

BTW — we were advised to wear arm pads. Mine are at home.

After that, we carried over the same principles to incoming club attacks. First did box steps blocking side-arm swinging clubs and then to an overhead club coming directly at your head almost full speed using a cross-arm block or just a basic right arm forearm block (block #5). Then we did a box step exercise using a scissor block, sweeping the hand holding the club into the groin and then following up with our own closing move to incapacitate the attacker.

My finishing move (while the attacker is bent over at the waist with one arm between their groin) was to use my left hand and reach over their head grabbing on the chin. Then stepping away from the attacker by opening the gate with my left foot while still holding onto the attackers chin. This torques their body to follow yours while exposing their entire neck to accept your right hand shuto to the wind pipe. Ouch!

Monday, March 20, 2006 - 7pm Adult Karate Class

Our warm consisted of the usual push-ups, jumping jacks, etc.. with our Forms mixed in between each exercise. I flubbed the opening sequence of Pinan #5 but right back into the groove 6-7 moves later into the form.

Then we paired off into doing some basic kicks with our front and rear leg. Kicks were front ball, front instep, side blade, round house and hook kick. Ten reps on each leg.

Then we made two lines facing each other to do Chi Sao.

I wasn’t concentrating much on this exercise and few strikes got in and landed on me but that was rare. we progressed with Chi Sao by doing strikes and counter strikes at the same time which made for an interesting exchange.

Wednesday, March 15

Tonight again, the Sensei either wanted to view one or two people for evaluation for Saturday’s brown/black belt test or just wanted to have those invited to do some last minute practice.

I know I am not getting an invite card but I treated the review like I was being watched. I did my DM’s but what threw me off on the first DM we did was having a brown belt person in front me doing the DM lefty. Seeing the sudden movement going the opposite direction than where I was going threw me off a bit.

On my Forms, did them all better than on Monday. Missed one kick out of Kata 1,2,3 and Pinans 1,2,3,4,5
Did Crane A-OK and even did northern and southern without missing a move except for the backfist in northern. I was pleased with Wednesday’s workout.

Monday, March 13

This evening we did the usual warmups and then did our forms as one big group. Brown/Black test this coming Saturday. If I was handed a card, I would probably turn it back in because I am not ready. Didn’t get a card tonight, so I don’t have to face that decision.

On my forms, I messed up a move here and there on Kata 3, Pinan 5 and S of the Crane. Stupid stuff. I still completed the forms but ended up skipping a move.

Wednesday, March 1, 2006

Tonight’s class was again focused on our tournament forms and point sparring. Idid my Crane pretty good with a few tweaks here and there. Then we moved over to point sparring.

I sparred with a black belt and won 3-2 using a hook kick. Squared off with a 6′2″, 225 pound orange belt and won 3-1. Hook kick to the side of the ribs did the trick. This person did throw a crescent kick at me which I caught on my forearm and then drove this person back 5-6 feet until he collapsed and I did a thrust punch to the side of the head. Of course the point was disallowed but I was able to take control of the attacker who was at least 50 pounds heavier than me. My last bout was with a 2nd degree brown belt and I won that 3-1.

The Sensei told me afterwards that I am fighting too hard and may hurt somebody if my strikes actually connected. I’ll tone it down a notch.