2022-11-15

My karate “dance card” is going to be full for the next few weeks while I fill in for Sensei Dave Bracklow’s ISKF Tempe at the Tempe Family YMCA.

Last night we worked on kihon for about 30 minutes, ending with a little extra time working on mawashi-geri. Of course, the common problems were all rearing their heads: Trying to kick too high resulting in poor foot angle, not bringing the knee up to the side first, etc. But last night we chose to talk about the dangers of over-rotation. There are plenty, but the two biggest problems I see are that it reduces the impact of the kick and leaves your back exposed when you land. The latter is fairly obvious, but the understanding the former requires an understanding that the foot is moving towards the target fastest just before the leg reaches full extension. That means hitting the target before full extension ends up sacrificing some power. To put that another way, if you hit the target “early” you haven’t given your leg enough time and distance to build up speed.

We worked on Heian Godan for the second half of class, going through it step-by-step as several students are just starting to learn it. We spent a bit of time on the first six moves, with special emphasis on the footwork since so many people seem to end up with sloppy heisoku dachi after moves #3 and #6. Then we spent the balance of our time on the working towards the first kiai. Heian Godan introduces a lot of intricate hand work that students have never seen before. These include zenwan mizunagare no kamae, jodan ryosho juki-uke (or kaisho kosa-uke), and chudan ryosho juji osae-uke. Not only do students need to perform them, but they’re all strung together, back-to-back.

We ran out of time (as we often do) but I promised students we’d spend time on Thursday going over not just how to perform the moves, but how to apply them as well (their bunkai). Students already have a good idea how to apply many basic techniques in kata, but some of these more “esoteric” moves absolutely warrant additional time explaining how they’re used.