Denver Colorado Karate Classes Blog

Monday, December 29, 2008

Tonight’s theme was focused on doing our defense maneuvers. After warm-ups, the Sensei would call out a DM number and everybody in the class would do the technique. The brown belts and higher had to add “10″ to the number and then perform that technique. So if the Sensei called out number “3″, we had to do the number 13 maneuver. I messed up on one out of about 15.

Then we partnered up do do our DM’s with both laying on our backs. The number is called out and we both get up to do the routine. The next phase was doing the DM while one on one knee and we were to feel out which ones worked or didn’t work. The class ended up with two rows with one at the end of the row having to do up to three DM’s while the others would punch in one at a time.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

We had an earlier class than usual due to being Xmas eve. The adult class started at 3pm and ended at 4pm. It was nice there was a special class set up to accommodate those interested to attend. The Sensei started us off doing 8 pt blocking using 1-2 combos while going counter clockwise or clockwise. Then we partnered up doing an exercise that reminded me of circle of the tiger hand blocking with a counter strike. It took a little coordination to get the movement correctly.

Monday, December 22, 2008

I waited a week to write this entry and don’t actually remember the specifics of the class. We did partner up after warm-ups to do a block/strike exercise where both are doing the blocking and striking in one fluid motion. We rotated down the line with different people. There was more we did but don’t have the specifics.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

We started warmups with countdowns…again. Green belts and higher started at 13 reps and to do jj’s, froghops, pushups, crunches and reverse crunches. That’s 91 reps per exercise (91 frog hops!) for a total of 455 reps. By the time I did 45 frog hops, I transitioned over to doing squats. A few people in the class were ready to “call Ralph” after the exercises.

Then we partnered up to do an exercise where we are in a side horse and we both do a #1 while moving forward or backward using the side horse stance. We did some pad work at the end of the night and I stayed after class for a private lesson.

Monday, December 15, 2008

I didn’t go to karate tonight because it was too cold outside. Monday morning it was -20 degrees. The high during the day was +2 degrees. In the office, I was microwaving water in a coffee cup to a boil so I can use it as a hand warmer. By evening time, I decided I was going to stay home not go back outside and freeze.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Just a slight digression here. Being a newly anoited black belt comes with a different persona. On one hand, you soon realize that you don’t have to test 10+ times over a 5 year period, so that sort of dojo pressure is off of you. On the other hand, you do have to demonstrate a level of leadership perfection that is a whole new stress in a positive way. Perception in a black belt is being flawless in executing kata or in drills. The reality is you will always mess up an attack combo exercise or forget a portion of a kata but you strive to reinforce the perception.

Tonight’s adult karate class in Highlands Ranch focused on being circular versus being linear in your movement. After doing 5-4-3-2-1-2-3-4-5 four exercise countdowns/countups, we partnered up to do some more warm-ups that consisted of doing 20 front ball kicks, 20 crescent, 20 reverse crescent and 40 hook kicks.

From there we did some circular moves around the opponent while landing 1 or 2 elbow strikes to the chest and face. After that we did a modified kempo by slipping to the left, grabbing onto there side while taking out the thigh with your knee, then a swift kick to the opposite knee.

Stayed after class for a private and worked on Northern Englees (sic?)

Monday, December 8, 2008

Not to get off topic but this evenings class was special to me because I was focused on using a knucklehead person as the brunt of my karate training. Long story short, a Sunday afternoon stroll on a HRMD park trail involved having a speed race biker nearly run into me and then the biker jumping off his bike 100 feet away from me challenging me to a stand up fight right in the field. Obviously I wasn’t going to take one step towards this guy because I would be accused of being the aggressor. The Tour De France bike tweeb got on his bike and peddled home. Unbelievable people like that exist. So tonight was devoted to focusing my training using this virtual idiot as my training partner.

Tonight’s training focused on using angles to evade and counter attack on the opponent. A counter was using multiple hand strikes followed up with a kick to the knee or groin area. We experimented using some sweeps too.

December 3, 2008

Warm-ups consisted of a new stretch that basically has you squatting down a bit, back straight up while holding onto your ankles. We held this position for about 2-3 minutes. Then we had to leap off the ground about one foot while clapping the soles of your feet together and then land in the same position. Everything was OK except the legs were 80% of max for the rest of the night and it precluding me from doing lower stances and anything leg related.

We then did some hand/kick drills and I did OK but lost my concentration and started flubbing a few strikes. After another exercise, we geared up for sparring and to go about 75% speed. My first partner was going at that speed and I think we did OK in that manner without ramping it up and going out of control. My second opponent was a belt lower but he wanted to throw hard. Something about the other person wearing a face guard makes you unconsciously aim for the face.

Around the 3rd or 4th bout, my EIA kicked in and it ebbed my endurance a bit.

Monday, December 1, 2008

Tonight’s theme was based upon the tactical application of staying close to your opponent while circling around them and being the aggressor. First exercise was doing half mooning around the person partnered up with (hard to describe the exercise) and in a couple of steps, both of us were facing each other in the hands on guard position. Then the exercise had a kick and a punch thrown in while the other person was blocking - again both of us were circling around each other. The exercise capped off with the person doing the initial blocking to becoming the counter-striker while circling around the opponent. We did this exercise righty and lefty.