Denver Colorado Karate Classes Blog

Monday, September 24, 2007

After missing all last week due to a lower knee injury, the knee feels 100% better and almost back to normal again.

After warm-ups, we grouped off in groups of 5 and did some foot work techniques that feigns a kick or a jab. Then we did our forms and I did kata 6. Started off OK and then at about 90% done, something felt weird in the orientation, stopped, and then resumed to finish the form. I finished facing 180 degrees the wrong way. After thinking about it for a while, I figued out I skipped one entire move that occurs after the stepping stooll kick. Skipping the next move put me in the wrong direction 180 degrees so near the end, something didn’t feel right so I stopped.

Then onto sparring I was paired with a younger and fast brown belt. Our hand and foot speed are almost the same so it’s hard for the judge to see all what is going on. We both did OK with combos and defensive blocks. I won the bout using a simple stepping stool by landing a hammer to the head.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I missed Monday’s and tonight’s adult karate class due to this persistent left knee ligament stretch. I can bend down at the knees and also do lateral movement without pain but it hurts when I put some weight on it. Wednesday morning it felt 50% better than the day before so I am hoping it’s a slight stretch and and not a tear or an elongated stretched ligament.

I am never using the leg press machine again.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

I missed the Sept 5 and 10 class due to other commitments but I was in the dojo the last two Fridays and a Thursday on my own to train.

It’s been about 6 weeks being almost 100% injury free. The lower back/leg tightness is 100% gone, no lower backaches and nothing else to complain about. Except on Tuesday, Sept 11 doing machine leg presses (which I hardly ever use) with about 200 pounds on the stack, I did some leg presses and felt a slight discomfort on the right side of my left knee. I also had some minor foot surgery done on the same day on the right foot so now it’s hard to do any kicks that require using the right foot as the pivot foot.

Tonights class was centered around tournament sparring and kata. I did kata 6 and kept on flubbing the last 10% of the form. Then we moved onto sparring which we did at about 3/4 speed. I started off with a black belt and kept him away using a simple front ball and side blade to the gut. The next bout was with a brown belt and used the same tactic which worked too. Followed up with a few hand strikes which made for an effective offense.

Monday, September 3, 2007

Two years ago five students showed up on Labor Day. Last year 14 students showed up. Tonight we had 8 students show up. We started off with doing forms. We did Pinan #1, Pinan 4, Kata 2 and I did Kata 5. Then we partnered up to do our DM’s one for one. Then we formed a group of 3 to run through our kenpos. From there we did some “sticky hands.” I was with a purple belt and this person went out of their way to strike real fast. I was going probably at half speed and held back from trying to out strike this person. This person probably thought it was cool to get some strikes in on a brown belt. Then I partnered up with an orange belt and I let this person do take downs on me.