It was so good to be back on the floor training and teaching after an unexpected three-week hiatus to deal with a family emergency back in Illinois. Thanks to my students for their understanding, and special thanks to Sensei Dave Bracklow of ISKF Tempe and Sensei Barry O’Brien for stepping in to teach my classes and minimize disruption for my students while I was away. All of my students say they’re looking forward to more horse stance next time Sensei O’Brien teaches. 🤣
I spent most of this evening making sure those who are eligible are ready to take a small kyu grading we have scheduled for Wednesday, and I think most students are in a good position for success. After that, the adult class spent some extra time working through Heian Yondan, particularly the part leading into the first kiai. That sequence is very “rub-your-tummy-and-pat-your-head”-like, so we went through it in super slow motion, just to make sure everyone understand what it’s supposed to look like, whether they can perform it yet or not.
In the adult class, I announced the results of the small make-up exam we held on Monday and both candidates passed: One to 6th kyu and one to junior 7th kyu. Both students are doing very well mechanically, but we need to find a way to crank their spirit up a notch. Following that announcement I ran the class through the full set of block/counter kihon drills, spending extra time on age-uke/gyaku-zuki because … it’s hard. All of the other “basic” blocks have a “halfway” position that we practice as part of a two-step drill when students first learn them, but not rising block. We probably should teach it with an explicit halfway position, but we don’t. As a result, it’s harder for students to switch their hands in anticipation of a block following a reverse punch.
Today had light attendance, but it was Veteran’s Day, so it was to be expected. Since I teach at a YMCA, my policy is “if the building is open, class is on”, but some people have other plans on holidays - that’s cool.
In the youth class, we spent the entire hour on kata, again, and again, and again. We practiced what I call “Simon style”, after the old electronic game. We start the kata and, if anyone makes a mistake, everyone starts over. (They pretend they don’t like it, but they really do.)
In the adult class, we did what we normally do: kihon, kata, and kumite. Then, at the end of class, I gave a make-up exam to two students who couldn’t attend last month’s normal rank exam. As usual, results will be communicated later, but they both did quite well.
This was my first night back after an unexpected week back in Illinois. Big thanks to Barry O’Brien for teaching my classes in my absence. Interestingly, I had a parent contact me earlier in the day to ask me if I was back because his son didn’t want to come to class unless I was teaching. There was nothing wrong with the guest instructor, he just liked me.
Okay, that’s flattering, but I still talked about this with both classes tonight. I told them that I was sincerely grateful that they’d chosen to share their karate journey with me, but I need them to understand that I’m not always going to be part of that journey, and I need them to continue coming to class even if I’m not the one teaching.
Like so much of life, success is about building good habits and avoiding bad ones. Skipping class, even a couple of times, can be habit-forming, and “comfort” isn’t a habit you want to cultivate. Instead, showing up needs to be the habit. Part of karate training is about learning self-discipline, which I define as doing the right thing even when you’d really rather not. Coming to class doesn’t just help your karate training; it ensures that others have people to train with.
Tonight was a good class. We hit kihon pretty hard for the first 45 minutes and then moved on to kata. We worked a lot on Heian Nidan and Heian Yondan applications tonight, basically working through the same things I taught back home on October 21 (below). Students asked some really good “What if they do this?” kinds of questions, which I answered by going a step deeper into the application than I’d originally planned. We talked a bit about pain-resistant opponents vs. having some “non-lethal” tools in our belt. It’s all well and good to be able to put an attacker down, but it’s nice to have a way to deal with the “harmless drunk” that you may not want to hospitalize in the process.
In other news, I’m heading back to Illinois for an unplanned week-long trip. Updates here may be sparse during that time, but all of my classes will continue as usual with guest instructors.
Tonight’s classes were fairly typical, but we ended up talking about pelvic muscle control to improve posture and stability.
Many students exhibit anterior pelvic tilt, which prevents the muscles of the legs and abdomen from all doing their part to stabilize the torso. It looks like the rear end is sticking out, but what’s really happening is the pelvis tends to want to adopt the angle of the rear leg rather than the angle of the spine.
The “cure” for this is to tense the glutes, rotate the underside of the pelvis forward, and tense the abdominal muscles downward (as opposed to inward), all at the same time. This is particularly difficult when students are already trying to master tensing and relaxing the arms, shoulders, and legs, but critical if you want to tie the body’s entire mass together.
2024-10-21
Tonight I was invited to be a guest instructor at my old dojo in Bloomington, IL. Everyone seemed to enjoy Saturday’s Wankan bunkai session with Sensei Hartter, so after the “compulsory round” of kihon, I spent the second half of class giving them a few ideas on how to apply a few moves from the Heian kata. The time went quickly, but we were able to touch on the following:
Heian Shodan, move 4
We applied this as an escape from a same-side wrist grab (as usual), but following with a tripping throw rather than a hammer-fist strike.
Heian Nidan, moves 1-3
We used this as the response to a flurry of “haymaker” punches, ending with a tripping throw.
Heian Yondan, moves 1-3
We used this to respond to the same initial “haymaker” punch, but ending with a wrist lock and throw.
2024-10-19
I spent all day Saturday at my home organization’s fall clinic in Bloomington, IL. It was great to catch up with the “old gang”, but it was great to see all the new faces too. We had a total of four sessions and, if I were to summarize their main points as briefly as possible, they’d be:
Meanwhile, I’m off to Illinois for a weekend karate event with my “home” organization, American Shotokan Karate. Big thanks to Sensei Dave Bracklow of ISKF Tempe for covering my class this coming Monday while I’m out of town.
Seven students ended up taking kyu exams last night and, as expected, everyone did well. There are grading standards, to be sure, but I also recognize and understand different students’ strengths and challenges and grade accordingly. As usual, results will be announced at the next class so I have time to prepare individualized, written feedback for each examinee. I also had some parents send me photos and videos, so I’ll be sharing a few of those on Facebook as soon as I can get to it.
On another note, I had 19 students attend class, including two new members of the youth class. Things are continuing to grow, and I’m grateful.
Ten students are eligible for testing on Monday so I spent the whole night going over the test and giving each student one or two pointers to improve their performance. Of course, no one will be fixing any major problems between now and Monday, but then again if anyone had “major problems” I probably wouldn’t encourage them to test in the first place.
After we’d gotten through all the material I intended to cover, I spoke to everyone about “making mistakes.” Of course you’re going to make mistakes. We all make mistakes, particularly when we’re under stress, and karate tests can be very stressful for some people.
But a test is not a tournament. In a tournament, judges are looking for any little mistake to differentiate you from your opponents. In a test, I try to determine your usual level of performance. If your side kick is awful on test day, but I’ve seen you do it right 1000 times, I account for that. Then again, if your kata is amazing on test day, but you just “phone it in” every day in class, I account for that too.
That’s not to say that testing isn’t important. It is. Your performance on test day is the most important factor in determining your “score.” I’m just saying that most instructors are able (and willing) to temper the effect of “outliers” on your results.
It’s “fall break” for many local schools, so classes are a bit small, but that’s okay. Since we’re gearing up for a rank exam next Monday I used the small classes as an opportunity to give each student some personalized tips for improvement between now and then.
Several students in the youth class have trouble rushing through kata, so I told them to pause for a moment after each technique. Naturally that didn’t work, so I had them each do their kata individually and say the word “pause” after each technique, out loud. That worked! So next I had them all perform kata as a group, but told them each to mentally say the word “pause” to themselves after each technique. Success!
In the adult class, most people’s upper bodies are doing the right thing, but they tend to neglect the lower body. Stances have the wrong weight distribution, heels are coming up, toes are pointing in the wrong direction, etc. Each student is a bit different so they each got individual feedback, but the general message was to spend more time worrying about their stances.
Incidentally, I’ve been writing a series of post about the niju kun lately. Be sure to check the posts section from time to time.
In tonight’s youth class we talked about where you should be looking during kata, and why. If you’re learning a brand new kata, and you’re following along with someone else, then you should be watching that person. But then, once you’ve learned, it, you should be looking at the bad guy.
Unfortunately it’s really hard to get children to understand this when most of them have (thankfully) never had to deal with a bad guy. Consequently, they’re always looking at me, even if I’m just standing there watching them do the kata. So tonight I talked about it in terms of brainpower. If you’re spending brainpower looking at me and worrying about what’s going to happen if you make a mistake, that’s brainpower that you could have been using to avoid making the mistake in the first place! That seemed to help. 🤷
The adult class spent the first half on yakusoku kumite, and I everyone is making good progress. The main issue seems to be controlling the distance and orientation to the attacker when setting up for the counterattack. (i.e. In sanbon kumite, #1 and #2 are fine, but people have trouble stepping close enough to strike back after #3.) I told them next time we’ll change the drill so you can only counterattack with elbows, forcing them to stay close.
Then we moved on to kata, doing the same “kata gauntlet” I described last time. This gives me a good opportunity to spend a little time with everyone, so I think we’ll continue. Near the end of the night, we ended up working on an application of move #9 in Heian Godan (the transition between the downward “X” block in fists and the rising “X” block with open hands). I teach that as an application of what Judo calls “yubi gatame”, essentially a hyperextending finger lock.
Tonight we ran what I think I’m going to call the “kata gauntlet.” Everyone spread out and then we alternated between everyone doing their own kata and everyone doing the “lowest” kata we hadn’t already all done together.
I realize that may be hard to follow so, to say that another way, the “rounds” went like this:
Everyone did their own kata.
Everyone did Taikyoku Shodan.
Everyone did their own kata.
Everyone did Heian Shodan.
etc.
This seems to strike a balance between giving everyone the chance to work on their own kata while still having time to ease people into learning new kata.
On the even rounds, when doing the kata that everyone could get through, we did them with no count. When we got to kata that people couldn’t get through on their own, we did them twice: Once with a count, with upper rank on the edges where everyone could see them, and once with no count, where lower rank were encouraged to “tough it out.”
The adult class was small again last night, so we spent the entire class going around the room with each person picking a kata to work on. I made the lower ranks pick the kata they’re working on for their next exam, but I let 3rd kyu and up pick any kata they wanted. As a result, we ended up working on Heian Nidan through Heian Godan and Kanku Dai. The latter two were a bit of a stretch for the 8th kyu students, but they managed. We did each kata at least twice - once by count and once with no count - and those who’d never seen a kata before were welcome to sit out when we did it with no count. Along the way, I got some pretty good questions, which I’ll summarize here:
Q: In Heian Sandan, what am I doing when I’m stomping down in kiba dachi?
A: You’re stomping down on the top of the attacker’s foot to pin and crush his foot.
Q: Why are we going slowly at the beginning of Heian Yondan?
A: Two reasons: First, moving slowly makes a lack of hand/foot timing obvious (like a test). Second, slow moves generally imply grappling applications, and these two moves can be applied as both an escape from a cross-side wrist grab or a strike to the side of the head.
Q: What are we doing in the last couple moves of Heian Godan?
A: Looking at the last move, it’s a single-leg take-down (throw) where the left hand is grabbing the inside of the attacker’s knee while the right hand blocks a punch to the head. Then the left hand lifts the leg while the right hand drives the attacker’s head into the ground. 😈
Last night’s classes were relatively small, and both ended up with a sit-down “Storytime with Sensei” where I answered questions about karate and talked a bit more about the karate’s “thinking side.”
In the youth and family class, we talked about the importance of wearing your uniform in class. I’ve got one student who tends not to bring his uniform at all, and another who tends to remember the pants, but not the jacket or belt.
The word “uniform”, literally, means “one form”, which implies that everyone’s is the same.
Wearing the uniform teaches us that we leave behind all the things that make us unequal outside the dojo.
Remembering your uniform is part of cultivating responsibility. If you habitually forget, then you’re not learning from your mistakes.
Avoiding wearing your uniform implies that you think your reasons for doing so outweigh the value of the two previous points.
To be clear, I’m not talking about beginners, or situations where a student can’t afford a uniform. Indeed, I don’t require students to wear a uniform until after they earn their first belt, but most do. Regardless, I expect my continuing students to show a bit of commitment and set an example for others.
In the adult class, we talked about “flipping the monster switch”, which is my term for the ability to switch on your fighting sprit at a moment’s notice. Training to perfect our technique so we’re able to defend ourselves is useless if we’re not also willing to do so when necessary. Unfortunately, this is very difficult to teach.
Most of tonight’s adult class was spent on kumite drills, and we spent much of that time working on getting out of the way. Moving off the line of attack is fundamental, both to avoiding the attack and to positioning yourself for a counterattack. Why?
Humans move forward much faster than they move backward, giving the attacker a bit of an advantage right up front.
In self-defense, the attacker tends to be larger than the victim, which typically comes with a range advantage. If you stay on the line of attack, moving back outside the attacker’s reach means he’s outside your reach too.
Moving straght backwards to avoid an attack allows the attacker to continue moving stright forward to press the attack, using his momentum to his advantage.
Obviously, the solution is to move off the line of attack. This keeps you close enough to counterattack while forcing them to reverse course if they want to come around for another attack.
(Hilariously, the person in white throws what appears to be a left yoko empi uchi at the train as it goes by. 🤣)
So why is it so difficult to get students to move at angles? Probably because, when we introduce them to footwork and technique, we do so moving straight forward and backward. It’s hard enough to get them to do these funny karate moves without worrying about doing it at odd angles, so that generally comes later. But the trick is introducing it soon enough that “step back and block” hasn’t had time to become the habitual default yet.
Tonight set a new attendance record with 20 students on the floor. That may seem small to some, but we’ve grown quite a bit since I started this club in March of 2022. We’ve now got students ranging from 10th kyu through 4th dan, and it won’t be too long before we’ll need to start thinking about dan gradings of our own. In fact, one of the students asked me what it meant to be a black belt. Of course, that’s different everywhere, and this is a gross oversimplification, but:
Shodan: Think of a first-degree black belt like a high-school diploma. You’ve got a good grasp of the basics, but you’re really just a “qualified beginner.”
Nidan: A second-degree black belt has begun to “internalize” karate and adapt techniques according to personal strengths and limitations.
Sandan: A third-degree black belt has a good understanding of all techniques (not just how to perform them, but also how, why, and when they work), and can demonstrate free-sparring strategies that vary according to the opponent.
Yondan: A fourth-degree black belt should be skilled enough at karate performance and instruction to be able to turn a beginner into a shodan without assistance from others.
Godan: A fifth-degree black belt has a deep understanding of karate, is able to teach it well to varied audiences, and has begun to contribute back to the art.
Like the broken record I am, tonight I spent more time discussing the proper way to turn and then block in kata. TLDR: Do not execute a “turning block.” Instead, turn and then block. In other words, you must keep your legs together through the turn, only stepping forward once the turn is complete. Why? I’m glad you asked. 😉
First, it’s just basics: Ask any beginner to show you the “halfway point” of a normal stepping-forward downward block, and they’ll stand, feet together, with the blocking hand up next to the opposite ear. But then ask them to stop halfway through the 270° counterclockwise turn eafter the first kiai in Heian Shodan and you’re likely to see something completely different. That’s because they’re not treating them like they’re the same technique. The only difference is the 270° turn between the first and second halves of the block.
I explain it like this: You know what the halfway point of a downward block should look like, so if I film you doing that turn at 1000 frames/second and never see that halfway point, you’re not doing the block right.
Second, the timing supports the block: When you step forward into a downward block, the blocking arm begins moving down and forward at the same time your hip starts moving forward, so the hand is there to intercept the attack before you step right into it. But if you skip the halfway point, and your hip is already moving towards the attack before the blocking hand ever starts moving, you’re very likely to run right into the attack before your block gets there.
Third, it’s consistent with karate’s “philosophy”: Niju kun #19 tells us not to forget the “extension and contraction of the body.” Both are necessary. You can’t expand without contraction and vice versa. Therefore, if you begin from the punch before the turn (expanded) and end with the downward block after the turn (also expanded) there must be a contraction between the two or there’ll have been no opportunity to generate power.
Last night was our first night training in the room normally used for the after-school program. I showed up a bit early to make sure I had enough time to get the room ready, which was good because it took an extra 15 minutes or so to move all of the tables and chairs up against the wall. I used a leaf blower to “sweep” the floor of all the candy wrappers, crushed up goldfish, and broken crayons before mopping it twice. By then it was showtime.
The geometry of the room is a bit different - a bit longer and narrower - but we made do by going the “long” way for kihon practice. Likewise, the tile floor has a bit less “grab” than the wooden floor we’re accustomed to having, but I’m probably the only one who noticed. All in all, I think this room is going to work out fine provided I can get there early enough to get it set up and cleaned properly.
Facilities aside, the adult class spent some time concentraing on proper hip rotation for downward block during kata. We all know that the hip rotates in the opposite direction from the blocking arm during downward block, but pretty much everyone was ignoring this rule in kata when turning into a downward block. For example, on move #3 of Heian Shodan you turn clockwise and block with the right hand, but everyone was just letting their hip turn clockwise too. To improve this, we worked on completing the turn with our feet together and hips square before stepping forward and counter-rotating the hip with the block.
One month ago my room was rented out to a dance company for a week on short notice, but we found another room to train in and made do for the week. This week I’ve learned that the same dance company will now have my room every Monday night, effective immediately. Wednesday classes would be unaffected, but that left us homeless on Mondays. That’s not great, but karate is nothing if not the study of how to handle unfortunate events, so I found a solution.
The room next door to our group fitness studio is used for an after-school program, but it’s about the same size and has a suitable tile floor, assuming we can get all the tables and chairs out of the way. It’s not as “pretty” as the room we use now. It has no wooden floor, no floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and no ceiling fans, but I’ve certainly trained in worse. So we’re going to give that a shot for a few weeks. If that doesn’t work, I’ve been told we can switch to a Tuesday/Thursday schedule, but I’d rather not disrupt everyone’s schedules if we can avoid it.
In training news, larger classes are great, but I’m starting to find that I don’t have time to get through everything every week. If everyone’s working on Taikyoku Shodan that’s one thing, but once you’ve got students working on five or six different kata, it’s tough to get through them all every night. It’s a good problem to have, but with all levels in the same class it’s tough to keep everyone engaged without losing people.
Tonight’s class looked much like Monday’s class: Same skills … same drills. Then we spent some time talking about how blocking works in terms of intercepting and redirecting an incoming attack. Sometimes you find yourself needing to block with the “wrong” hand, with an elbow, with a knee, … whatever … so it’s important to understand the mechanics as well as just the “traditional” blocking techniques.
After class, I ended up having a “come to Sensei” talk with a student (and the parents) just to make sure everyone has the same expectations. My job is to help students understand what they’re supposed to do, but it’s the students’ job to actually do those things and then practice them to reinforce their skills. I provide the opportunity and guidance, but students need to commit the time and effort.
A reminder for any students reading this: There’s no class on Monday (Labor Day)
Last night set another attendance record with 17 students across both classes. That’s great considering I also had at least five people who didn’t show up. Given the dearth of advertizing, I’m really pleased with the program’s growth.
To celebrate, we did all kumite drills, all night long. Here they are, in order:
Without partners, all students begin in sparring stance and execute techniques down and back across the floor. (This is just a warm-up exercise.)
Students pair up. “Side A” does the same as above. “Side B” moves backwards, keeping ahead of their partners, but close enough to be able to touch each incoming technique with their lead hand. The goal is for Side B to stay close enough to provide a good target for Side A, while practicing the hand-eye coordination required to intercept each incoming technique.
Same as above, but this time Side A executes only one technique at a time and Side B must counterattack (with whatever) after touching each of Side A’s attacks. The goal is for Side B to intercept side A’s techniques while remaining close enough to land a counterattack each time.
Same as above but much slower: This time, in addition to intercepting Side A’s attacks and counterattacking each time, Side B tries to maneuver into a position that makes it difficult for Side A to attack again. It’s best for groups to abandon lines and spread out around the floor as though practicing free-sparring for this drill, because doing it well means Side B will be shifting all over the place.
Next do “normal” yakusoku ippon-kumite. After having to do everything above, students should find this refreshingly easy, but the point should still be for the defending side to get off the line of attack and end up close enough to land a counterattack each time.
Same as above, but this time all counterattacks must be with elbows only. This forces the defending side to stay close and move farther off the line.
To recap, the skills we’re trying to improve are:
Hand-eye coordination in intercepting incoming techniques.
Staying close enough to the attacker that we can land counterattacks of our own.
Learning how to make combination attacks difficult for the attacker by manuvering off the line of attack as part of our defense.
Tonight we talked a lot about balance while pivoting. I describe the state of “balance” as having a plumb line from your center of gravity that falls inside the area of your “base.” Think of your “base”, like the base of a plastic army man, but only as large as the area inside a piece of string that hugs the outside of both feet. That means maintaining your balance gets harder as your base shrinks and, when your base is only as large as the heel (or ball) of your foot, it can get really difficult to keep your center of gravity over that tiny little area.
Students who aren’t able to do this will generally try to “fix” the problem in one of two ways:
Some will try to spin faster in an effort to complete the turn before they lose their balance. This rarely works because increasing your rate of rotation while already unbalanced generally causes your angular momentum to throw you even farther off balance.
Others will try put more of their foot on the ground (to increase the area of their “base”), but this doesn’t work either. Here’s why: If you’re trying to pivot on your heel, but lose balance and drop the ball of your foot to compensate, your foot will stop rotating and those rotational forces get transferred to the ankle. That hurts, so the body compensates by lifting the heel, causing your “base” to shift about 4 inches mid-turn, and wrecking your balance even farther.
There are no shortcuts here. The only way to improve your balance is practice. I encourage students to practice slow-ish 360° pivots on the heels and balls of their feet - the slower the better.
Tonight’s class began with the results of last Wednesday’s small rank exam. Everyone did well, and the “constructive” portion of everyone’s feedback consisted of the usual suspects: Hip position when attacking/blocking, not rushing through kata, etc. I think the plan to have more frequent (and therefore smaller) rank exams may be a good decision.
We had a small rank exam for the students who were eligible. As a reminder, I don’t give out same-day results. Instead, I take notes, go home, and write up individualized feedback for each examinee. They way they know what they did well, and what they need to improve before their next test. At the same time, I have a record of performance that I can use when judging the results of their next test.
Now that I’m starting to get more students, I’m planning to hold rank exams more often. This will primarily benefit the beginners, who are eligible to test sooner than more experienced students, but I think this may help retention. I’ve found that making a beginner wait four months for their first test can be a bit discouraging. They want to get a colored belt around their waist. I’ve also found that putting that belt around their waist tends to aid retention. Once they have a uniform and a belt, they’re “invested.” I find this this is particularly true for children.
Five new students! Incredible! The adult class finally had to make two lines to keep from running out of space. Two of them are brown belt “transplants” from another school, one is a youth from that same school, one is the mother of those three, and one is brand new to karate. I’m really impressed with the mom. At her children’s previous dojo, she’d only watched … never participated. But tonight she showed up in a new gi and got out on the floor. She even made it all the way through Heian Shodan and gave a good showing at Heian Nidan based only on having watched her children train before. Impressive!
Wednesday’s class will include a brief rank exam for several white belts, so we went over what they can expect on the test.
If you read my update from Monday, you’ll know that my classes have been displaced this week by tap dance lessons. Apparently this group appeared on America’s Got Talent, so that’s cool, but it’s still nice to have a place to train. Tonight we got moved into the preschool-age daycare room. Yep … tiny tables and chairs everywhere, no clear floor space, etc.
Fortunately, I planned ahead and gave a lecture on karate history, followed by a vocabulary game similar to “Concentration” or “Memory”, where players try to remember where face-down cards are located in order to match pairs of cards for points.
In the normal, children’s version of this game, you’d have a deck of cards with two apples, two pears, two elephants, … whatever. Then you’d put those cards face down on a table and players would take turns picking up two cards. If the cards match, they get to keep them and take another turn. If not, they have to put them back in exactly the same place. You know the game I’m talking about? Good. Now let’s make it about karate.
In my version of the game, the cards aren’t pairs of animals or shapes. Instead, the cards are the English and Japanese words for the same thing. For example, if you picked up a card that said “Downward Block”, you’d be looking for the matching card that says “Gedan Barai”, and so on. The point of this game isn’t really to find the matching cards, it’s to learn which cards match in the first place. The rest is just for fun.
This worked brilliantly and kept students entertained and engaged despite not being able to do a “traditional” karate workout in the space provided.
I practice, and advocate, doing push-ups on the first two knuckles - the ones we use when we punch. Why?
Knuckle push-ups have nothing to do with conditioning the knuckles. They won’t get callouses from push-ups, nor will the bones get stronger. If you want those things, use a makiwara. Then why do them? Two reasons:
First, knuckle push-ups help strengthen the wrist. A chain is only a strong as its weakest link. If your wrist isn’t strong enough to support your punch, it’ll bend on impact, weakening your punch and possibly resulting in a sprained wrist. Knuckle push-ups help avoid this by strengthening the muscles that stabilize the wrist.
Second, knuckle push-ups help stretch the metacarpophalangial joints (the knuckles where your fingers meet the back of your hand). This is important because, if this angle is too large, you have to choose between two evils: striking with the wrong part of the fist or bending the wrist to accomodate the correct striking surface.
I really love teaching at a health club (as opposed to having my own place). No rent, no utilities, no billing, etc. I just show up, punch the clock, punch some students, and go home. But every now and then it backfires.
It turns out half the gym didn’t have any scheduled activities during my class time, so we moved class to the gym. There was basketball practice on the other half of the gym, so it was loud and distracting. Fortunately, I can be pretty loud and distracting when I want to be, so I was able to keep everyone’s attention. 😉
But then, about 2/3 of the way through the adult class, a basketball team showed up claiming they were scheduled to be in the gym. Given the earlier mix-up, I figured something like this might happen and had planned ahead. We moved out into the lobby where I broke out my laptop and projector and proceeded to give an impromptu lecture on karate history to fill the remainder of the time.
Was it ideal? Nope. Did it work? Yep. But it pays to plan ahead for disruptions and have a few worksheets, videos, and lectures prepared ahead of time.
I only had two students for the second hour of training this morning, so I asked for requests - I asked them what they wanted, or needed, to work on. One student wanted more practice on Heian Nidan, so we did that for a while. Then the other student (a brown belt) said he wanted to work on back kick, so we did a deep dive consisting of the following points:
Contact surface: The contact surface for ushi-geri should be the heel, not the entirity of the bottom of the foot. You want to eliminate any kind of “shock-absorbtion” in your ankle when transferring energy to the target, so you want to hit with the part of your foot that can’t possibly flex on impact. That means pulling the toes back towards yourself while thrusting your heel out as far as possible.
Keeping the hips square: It’s very easy to turn an otherwise good back-kick into a bad “3/4 side kick” by overrotating the hip. This is understandable: When you turn your head to see where you’re going, your hips come along for the ride and turn too. If the hips turn, then the leg turns, and the foot goes from veritcal to horizontal very quickly. Indeed this is such a problem that some people execute back kick without looking … which brings us to …
Aiming: Just as the lifted knee is the aiming point for mae-geri, the supporting heel serves this purpose with ushiro-geri. If the rest of your mechanics are good, your back kick will lie in the vertical plane formed by the inside edge of your supporting foot. In other words, all you have to do is make sure your supporting heel points to the target. This may seem really obvious, but it’s important to remember this when you start practicing spinning back. Just spin your front foot around to point the heel at the target and you should be good to go.
Distance: Because back kick is mechanically similar to side-thrust kick, people tend to overestimate its range. Remember, your hips are turned when you’re throwing a side kick, so you get to add the distance between your hips. Likewise, your foot is plantarflected when throwing a front kick, so you get to add the distance between the ankle and the ball of the foot. But back kick adds neither of these, so it’s one of the shortest kicks in our toolbox.
Though it’s fallen out of favor in some circles, I still give “pre-arranged” or “promise” sparring (yakusoku kumite) a place in my curriculum as an important bridge between kihon and jiyu kumite. Tonight, I introduced the adult class to attacking, and defending agaist, yoko-geri kekomi as part of yakusoku ippon kumite.
The attacker, starting from left-side zen-kutsu dachi steps forward with the rear leg and executes a chudan level yoko-geri kekomi towards the defender. The devenders are welcome to block and counter however they like eventually but, since we have to start somewhere, I have them start by pivoting backward on the left leg and blocking the kick to the inside using gedan kake-uke (seen below against a front kick).
The combination of the pivoting hip and the sweeping arm will tend to guide the kick past the defender, possibly unbalancing the attacker, with the attacker landing beside the defender. If this is done well, the attacker’s back will be partially or fully exposed to the defender’s counterattack.
Unfortunately, even with the back exposed, I find that most defenders struggle to counterattack from this position, often resulting in an ineffective punch to the attacker’s bicep or elbow, and often with the hips overrotated to the point of instability. To fix this, we work on two things:
Proper hip alignment: After rotating clockwise with right foot to block, it’s often necessary to rotate the front foot counterclockwise during the counterattack to achieve proper stance width and support hip rotation.
Thoughtful target selection: The attacker’s right arm is often in the way of a good reverse punch to the ribs, so we need to be prepared to attack other things. A reverse punch to the head, knife-hand or ridge-hand to the throat or bridge of the nose, or even a left-handed backfist to the nose are good options from this position.
I’ve been pretty bad about updating my diary when I sub for others, but last night was a little different so I thought it was worth mentioning. A lot of students were trying to add some variety to their yakusoku kumite by counterattacking with elbows, ridge hands, and knife hands, instead of the usual reverse punch. Unfortunately, the execution betrayed a lack of understanding of distance and course of technique.
When I talk about distance in terms of karate, I break it down into five different “ranges.” From longest to shortest they are:
Shouting distance (“Hey, stay back! I don’t want any trouble.)
Kicking distance
Punching distance (This includes “full length” arm techniques like haito-uchi.)
Striking distance (This is where elbows come in.)
Grappling distance
After we understand where these distances start, end, and occasionally overlap, need to make sure we have tools in our toolbox to address attackers at each range. But that’s not all …
We also need to be able to apply those techniques in a way that puts the hurt on our attacker without injuring ourselves. That takes practice, so we broke out some hand-held pads and spent about 15 minutes pounding on each other with elbows and ridge-hands and whatnot. TL;DR: We got better at actually hitting things by … (wait for it) … actually hitting things.
During kata training in the adult class, I found myself returning to the importance of completing turns before stepping out into whatever stance comes next. I’m sure my students think I sound like a broken record, but this is so fundamental to proper movement that I can’t help but see it and call it out when it doesn’t happen.
Take, for example, the 270° turn after the first kiai in Heian Shodan. Many students will step behind themselves with the left foot and then turn, leaving them unable to look in the direction they’re going before going there, and generally resulting in a narrow front stance. Instead, I teach that the left foot should be drawn up to the right foot as you complete the turn, but the feet should still be together until you’ve fully completed your turn. Then, and only then, should you step forward into front stance. Not only does this allow you to see where you’re going, but it solves the narrow stance problem, as most students know not to step forward into a straight-line stance.
To put that another way, “leading with your leg” prevents you from seeing where you’re going, so you just end up putting your foot down blindly, which generally happens sooner rather than later, resulting in a narrow stance. By contrast turning (full stop) and then stepping out prevents both problems.
“Contact” is tricky, and it’s often difficult to get students to hit each other. After all, we live in an age where “hitting is wrong” and “violence is never the answer.” Those are fine rules for polite society, but if you genuinely need to defend yourself, you need to be able to hit. The only way to be good at hitting things is to practice hitting things, which means being able to overcome the “polite society” programming while you’re in class.
So how do you practice that? I often tell students that they should try to hit the uniform without hitting the person inside. Once they can do that consistently, then they can “dial up” the contact if necessary, and depending on the partner. I say “depending on the partner” because I don’t want a 40-year-old pipefitter putting his fist through a 9-year-old, but I typically do want my students to give the black belts (including me) a good whack.
As a result of last weekend’s seminar, I’m going to experiment with moving deep stretches to the end of class, while keeping warm-up and mobility exercises at the beginning of class, as before. I’ve known for some time that the science supports getting greater results from deep stretching muscles that are already warm, while reducing the chance of injury from stretching and then immediately loading “cool” muscles.
Once class got started, we did all the usual drills, but with an eye towards keeping the supporting foot stable and aligned safely from a biomechanical perspective. For instance, many people rotate the supporting foot outward when executing mae-geri keage, but doing so reduces the ability to drive off that leg, reducing the power of the kick, and puts “sideways” pressure on the supporting knee, which can be unhealthy over time.
To combat this, I asked students to pretend their supporting foot is glued to the floor, then grab the floor with their toes and pull themselves forward, keeping the foot completely still. This can be difficult for people with poor ankle flexibility, so I allow students to make a shorter-than-usual front stance when working on this … then slowly increase the length of their stance as their flexibility improves.
2024-07-21
I spent this weekend in San Diego, attending a seminar with Steve Ubl and HDKI’s Scott Langly. The event drew about 45 people from all over the world, many of whom I hadn’t seen for a few years, so it was a great excuse to see old friends, make new ones, and learn a thing or two along the way. After about a dozen hours of training, and innumerable after-class conversations, here are my major takeaways:
Maximum power from hip rotation is generally achived by holding the front hip in place (like the hinge of a door) and rotating the rear hip forward (like slamming the door). Thus, all of the mass that’s moving is moving forward. But there’s a famous picture in Volume 2 of Nakayama’s “Best Karate” series (below) that makes it look like hip rotation is accomplished by rotating both hips, in opposite directions.
I’d been working with the “stable front hip” method so long that I’d come to view this picture, not as “wrong” but rather “oversimplified.” But on further reflection, the method shown here, while suboptimal from the perspective of power generation, does have advantages in terms of speed and how quickly you can engage the front leg to become a driving leg while stepping forward. In kata, we see this in Heian Nidan, when we counter-rotate the hips while blocking before driving forward with a front kick.
In free-sparring, you’re typically always going to want to have your “shields up”, with at least one hand between you and your attacker, ready to block, grab, etc. But modern kata practice seems to have dropped this “best practice” in many places. Two examples came up over the weekend. One, in Tekki Shodan, appears on move #7, as you step across to the left to execute an uchi uke. Most people keep the left hand on the hip through the entire block, but extending the hand forward makes sense assuming the attacker is in front of you. Another, in Hangetsu happens on move #11 as you turn into the first kiai. You’re rotating 180° counterclockwise and executing a double block, presumably because there’s someone there. But if there’s someone there, you wouldn’t want to cross both arms in front of your body (as you see so many people do) for this turn. Instead, you’d want to turn and cover with the right hand, bringing it to exactly the right place to execute it’s half of the double block as you settle into stance. TL;DR: Keep your “shields” up.
Kata Chinte apparently has an alternate ending (in place of the hops) as seen here, along with an explanation of its provenance through Nakayama Sensei. I encourage you to watch the video from 43:11 through at least the 48-minute mark. As he says later in the video, this isn’t meant as a replacement, but perhaps as an additional method of practice for those of us who just can’t wrap our heads around the “three hops” ending.
Yoko-geri keage should have no femoral pronation during the extension phase. Yes, the hip lifts. Yes, the leg snaps out and back at the knee. But no … the femur should not rotate outward during that extension. I’ve always had trouble with this kick, but getting “heel higher than toe” was always a priority and one way to do that is to pronate the femur. But it turns out this can be bad for your hips. To be clear, this does not simply turn it into a “front kick executed to the side” as the SKA does. There’s still a lateral pelvic tilt and you’re still making contact with the edge of the foot. The only change is the elimination of the “hackey sack” like rotation of the hip during the extention phase. I’ve already had one hip replaced, and I’m probably looking at having the other replaced in the next 3-5 years, so anything I can do to reduce unnecessary stress on my hips is a welcome change.
Finally, I recieved a compliment from another attendee that I really want to share. At dinner after the second day of classes, someone said, “I’ll bet you’re a really good teacher.” I thanked her but, since she’d never seen me teach, asked why she thought that. She said, “Everyone else is asking questions about how to do things, but all of your questions are about how to teach things.” On reflection, I suppose that’s probably true. My contributions to the art are mainly through teaching now.
Attendance is recovering as students return from summer vacations. I had a total of 12 tonight, with a good spread of ranks, so my beginners were exposed to a few that are well beyond their pay grade. Everyone made mistakes, even on the kata they’ve been working on for some time. That’s just how kata goes. There are always mistakes. Hopefully they get smaller and fewer over time, but I expect beginners to make more mistakes than advanced students do.
But why should that only apply to the moving part of karate? What about all the “other stuff”? While closing class, just after kneeling, one of the black belts was urging the lower rank to straighten the line with what I percieved as a hint of impatience, so I decided to make this a teaching moment.
Kata is a “formal exercise” - a series of movements, in a particular order, and with a particular cadence. But what about the little “ceremonies” we do at the beginning and end of class? We kneel, recite the dojo kun, and bow several times. Isn’t that also a formal exercise, done in a particular order, with a particular cadence? I don’t expect the white belts to perform their katas perfectly, so why should my expectations of them be any different when it comes to the opening and closing of class?
Of course that cuts both ways. I expect my senior students to be able to do these things with little-to-no coaching, because they’ve been doing it for a while. If your brown belts can’t tie their belts correctly, that’s a scoldworthy problem. White belts kneeling in a mildly skewed line? Not so much.
Classes continue to be a bit small with many younger students on vacation during the summer break from school, but that’s okay. The remaining students are getting extra attention (whether they like it or not) tailored to their individual needs. One “core” concept seems to be getting a lot of play lately, so I’ll mention it here:
When turning, I’m encouraging (bordering on demanding) that students fully complete their turn and then step out into whatever stance is appropriate. Not only is it tactically correct (it prevents “blind” turning), but it also eliminates errors with stance width and hip rotation. Let me explain …
Take the 270° turn after the second kiai in Taikyoku Shodan. Many students begin to step out while they’re still turning. This leads them to lose balance during the turn, step into a stance that’s too narrow (further jeopardizing balance), and makes it impossible for them to counter-rotate the hip into the downward block they’re trying to make. Contrast this with fully completing the turn first, with feet still together, and then stepping forward to block. This approach reduces the “centrifugal” force trying to pull the student off balance during the turn and results in facing the correct direction with the hips square, ready to step out into an appropriately wide stance with counter hip rotation.
Once this approach is mastered, all that remains is to “smooth” it out so it looks like one continuous motion. And if those are enough benefits, there’s another: Teaching it this way makes it “transferable” to every similar turn in every kata.
Several years ago, when I’d just moved to the Phoenix valley and was training at a local dojo, I was handed a new white belt - an older gentleman - and asked to show him the ropes. But something was odd. While he was wearing a white belt, he wasn’t moving like a white belt. It was less than five mintues before I stopped and asked him where he’d trained before. It turns out he was a black belt in Wado-ryu karate, but he hadn’t trained for the last 30 years. Okay, cool. He was a bit surprised I’d heard of Wado-ryu, so I explained that I didn’t know much … just that Wado-ryu was founded by one of Gichin Funakoshi’s students named Hironori Otsuka. He smiled and said, “Let me show you something.” Then he retrieved his phone from his gym bag, pulled up a picture of his shodan certificate, and zoomed in to show me that it was signed by Hironori Otsuka, himself! How cool is that!
I mention this because that same gentleman showed up to my dojo this week and started training with me. In the few years since I met him he’s progressed to brown belt in Shotokan. Whatever his reasons for joining me, I’m really happy to have him.
Tonight I was visited by a family with three children looking for a new dojo. Their regular dojo is closing in a few weeks, so they’re “shopping” for a new place to train. They sat and watched part of my youth class and then returned for part of my adult class before sticking around and asking questions. The school they’re coming from teaches Shotokan on paper but, when they offered to show me a couple of katas, I have to admit I couldn’t identify their provenance. That is to say, I can sometimes tell whether someone’s kata descends from Sugiyama, Nishiyama, or Kanazawa, because some difference - be it a stance difference here or a hand position there - betrays the kata’s origin. I think of it sort of like differences in dialect … like Castilian Spanish vs. Mexican Spanish, if you will. But I wasn’t able to do that with these katas. They were different. It was more like Spanish vs. Portugese. I let them know they’re welcome to train with me, of course, but that training with me will probably require several months of unlearning and relearning.
We spent a lot of time on kata tonight, in both classes.
The youth and family class has a couple of beginners who are having difficulty remembering which way to turn in Taikyoku Shodan, so I broke out the blue painter’s tape and marked out the embusen on the floor. Most people think of this embusen as a capital letter “I”, and that’s mostly right, but it’s a bit lopsided. I also make sure to mark the center of the vertical bar because looking at that point during every turn helps make sure students are turning the right direction.
The adult class had a low-impact night of slow, deliberate kata practice, working on balance and perfecting the course of techniques. Most of our time was spent on:
Heian Shodan: The “long” turn, maintaining balance and completing the turn before stepping forward into the downward block.
Heian Nidan: The side snap kick/backfist and knife-hand block combination, with emphasis on how to maintain balance while pivoting on one foot and landing in a controlled stance (rather than a fall).
Heian Sandan: Keeping the knees togeteher during the preparation for the fumi-komi and making sure the backfist strikes are snapping (as opposed to “thunking”).
An adult student texted me a few hours before class yesterday and asked, “Sensei, how late can I be to class before it’s unacceptable.” My response (which I don’t think he expected) was:
Some might argue that being late is unacceptable, and it’s a matter of respect, but here’s the thing: A student who lacked respect wouldn’t have bothered asking in the first place. He’d have just showed up late, or not at all. This student had enough respect to ask the question out of a desire to attend class, but an understanding that a late arrival might be disruptive.
You see, I would always prefer a student in class to a student at home … always.
Obviously, attending the whole class is better than attending half of it, but by the same logic attending half of class is better than attending none of it. Likewise, I’m not going to judge, or turn away, a student who can only come once a week, or a student who has to be late every night because of their work schedule. As long as they understand that less practice means slower progression, I’m happy to have them in class.
To be clear, I’m not talking about the student who wants to leave early because they hate sparring. I’m talking about the student who has other responsibilities. Whether it’s an adult who has to work late, or a child who has to leave early to get tutoring for school, everyone has priorites and sometimes karate isn’t (and shouldn’t be) at the top of that list. When it comes to priorities, it’s not my place to judge.
However, it is my place to set expectations, and “the talk” generally goes like this:
I understand that things will come up that are more important than class, but you must understand that missing class for any reason will slow your improvement. It’s not my place to judge your reasons for missing class, but it is my job to judge the consequences.
I had a major “win” tonight. We train at a YMCA, in a group fitness room shared by other classes and by the daycare program. Consequently, the floor is often filthy. To be fair, I understand it’s next-to-impossible to keep a daycare floor free of Cheerios and dirt, but we’re barefoot up there so cleanliness is important.
I’ve asked several times about the location of the mops and whatnot, but to no avail. On Monday, there was so much grit on the floor, I just couldn’t take it anymore. I snapped a picture of the bottoms of my feet, sent it to the Executive Director of the YMCA, and asked if I could please get access to a mop and bucket. Sure enough, when I showed up tonight, the front desk staff led me to the janitor’s closet where I found everything I need to keep the floor a little less nasty. I could certainly feel the difference and several students thanked me throughout the night.
In other news, two more students tried out the class tonight and another watched from the sidelines. I couldn’t be more pleased with how classes are growing.
We spent more time on kicks in the adult class tonight, with the most attention being spent on ushiro-geri. Some people call this “spinning back kick”, but I prefer “spin around back kick.” Why? Because I’m a langauge nerd. Saying “spinning back kick” uses “spinning” as an adjective to describe the back kick, but that’s not really what’s happening (or, at least, shouldn’t be), because you should not still be spinning when the kick happens. The spin should already be complete.
Thus “spin around back kick” seems closer to what you really want to have happen. You want to spin around and then back kick. The larger problem isn’t the spin, though, it’s the tendency of students to separate their knees during the kick when spinning, turning it into a spinning hook kick … which is a fine kick, just not the one we want to see when we ask for ushiro-geri.
Instead, I insist that the spin be complete, the supporting heel point at the target, the head turn over the shoulder on the kicking side, and the leg extend straight back, keeping the hips level. The raising of the kicking hip is natural becuase it’s easier to kick high that way, but it also causes the foot to rotate out of its vertical alignment, causing the back kick to turn into more of a 3/4 side thrust kick, which is also a fine kick, but not the one we’re asking for.
To summarize, for “spin around back kick”:
The spin should be done before the kick begins.
The knees should scrape by each other, during the kick.
The kicking foot should be oriented vertically, with the heel up.
The supporting heel should point to the target.
Meanwhile, the Youth & Family class gained another student, may gain yet another on Wednesday, and had three more prospects come to watch. Things sure have come a long way since our humble beginnings with two students back in 2022.
Tonight’s adult class was all about kicking. We went over five kicks: mae-geri keage, yoko-geri keage, yoko-geri kekomi, mawashi-geri, and ushiro-geri. The focus was on the differences between the kicks, so we did a lot of the drills slowly. Since slow kicking drills always present a balance problem, I had each student get a chair out of the supply room and set it next to themselves so they could rest a hand on it for balance. By removing the fear of falling over, students are able to concentrate on the kick, itself. With that out of the way, we moved on to fine tuning the kicks. Mae-geri keage and ushiro-geri should see the knees coming together … zero distance … at the halfway point. By contrast, mawashi-geri should see the knees make maximum distance away from each other. With regard to the side kicks, the differentiator is the vector of approach for the kicking foot. Side snap kick has the foot arcing upwards while side thrust kick has the foot moving in a straight line between the hip and the target.
Tonight’s youth class had only two attendees. It’s summertime and many of my students’ families are on vacation … it happens. The good news is that I got to spend the entire class working on kata with the two students who did attend. Both started at the same time and are working on Taikyoku Shodan. As usual, I broke out my roll of blue painter’s tape and marked out the embusen on the floor. Then we went through it again, and again, and again. At first, I counted out loud for them. Then I had them count out loud. Then I had one of them count the even numbers and the other count the odd numbers. Then I had them count to themselves in their heads. By then, they had it.
Of course, who was counting and how wasn’t really the point. The point was to vary things slightly each time so it didn’t become boring and monotonous for the students. Karate training tends to be very repetitious, and it’s that way by design. Adults generally understand this and can cope with “the grind” of doing things over and over and over again. With children, it helps to make sure something changes every time, even if it’s just who’s counting.
Both classes spent most of their time on kumite drills tonight, but in slightly different ways. The youth and family class worked on simple yakusoku sanbon kumite with jodan and chudan oi-zuki. It’d been a while since we’d gone over it, but every did really, really well. All that remains is just putting in the repetition required to know how sharply to cut the footwork angle on the final block to deal with partners of different sizes. In the adult class, we worked on a basic kizami-zuki/gyaku-zuki combination, moving forward with yori-ashi each time, while a partner moves backward with similiar footwork executing jodan nagashi-uke and gedan-barai.
It’s good to be back after two weeks off and I want to extend a huge thank you to Sensei Dave Bracklow from ISKF Tempe who taught my classes during my absence. In other news, I had one student return to class after taking a few months off, and bring two new students with him, so classes continue to grow.
Most of tonight’s practice was dedicated to just getting a feel for where students are at, overall. I’ve scheduled our next rank evaluation for August 14 - a bit more than two months away - so I want to be sure I know where each student needs to improve before then. We also had a chat about having the courage to ask for help. I told my students I’m happy to come a bit early, or stay a bit late, if they need extra help, but they need to make the effort to ask for help and put in the “homework” time to make the lessons stick.
Much of tonight’s class was spent discussing the importance of hitting the “halfway” mark in any motion. For example, suppose we’re starting with the left foot forward in zenkutsu-dachi and we’re going to execute gedan-barai. The halfway position of that technique would be with your feet together, having pulled your right foot forward to your left, with your left hand extended and you right fist next to your left ear. Now here’s the thing … many students find turning in the middle of a technique to be challenging, but as long as you hit the halfway point having already pivoted into the direction you intend to move the second half of the technique is the same every time. In other words, complete your pivot by the time you reach the halfway point and then the second half of the technique is always just stepping forward.
On another note, I’ll be on vacation until June 2. During that time, my friend and colleage Sensei Dave Bracklow from ISKF Tempe will be covering my classes for me.
We talk a lot about driving with the back leg in Shotokan, but it turns out there’s a lot more going on with the legs than beginners may realize, and it’s important for instructors to remember how complicated it really is. Nowhere is this more evident than in the “simple” drill of standing in zenkutsu-dachi and practicing gyaku-zuki. The hip moves forward when you punch and back when you draw. The front knee doesn’t move at all. Simple, right? Wrong!
You see, the hip can’t really move on its own. The legs are really doing the work. Think of it like this: If there’s a ball in your hand and I say “move that ball”, the ball may move, but not under its own power. You have to use your arm muscles to move the ball. It’s the same with your hips. They can’t move anywhere without the legs, whether that be pushing or pulling.
So when you drive your hip forward with gyaku-zuki, what you’re really doing is using your rear leg to push the rear hip forward. Likewise, when you pull your hip back on the draw, what you’re really doing is using your rear leg to pull that hip back. And because the leg is the one doing the work, this underscores the importance of your connection to the floor.
Similarly, beginners tend to let the front knee buckle or sway back and forth during this drill, and we instructors keep telling them “don’t let that knee move.” Of course not moving seems like it’d be easy, so why is this so hard? It’s hard because you do have to move the knee after all. It just doesn’t appear to move because of proper timing. You see, when you pull your hip back on the draw, your front knee is going to come along for the ride unless you use your abductors to open your legs just a bit. The trick is to open your legs at exactly the same speed, and for exactly the same distance that the rear hip travels, making it appear as though it’s not moving. To say that another way, your front knee doesn’t move in space because you’re moving it relative to your own body.
Heian Nidan is a challenge for a lot of students because it’s the first time they need to balance on one leg and the first time they’re introduced to executing techniques with the “back” hand. Tonight we spent quite a while on the balance issue. To be clear, I’m talking about the side-kick into knife-hand block that happenns on moves 7 & 8. Just in case you count it differently:
Move 7 starts from the right-side bottom-fist in back stance and ends after the side kick, balanced on the left leg, having brought the kicking leg back, but having left the right hand still extended after the back-fist strike.
Move 8 is simply dropping backward into knife-hand block in back stance with the left foot forward. (I say “simply” but we all know it’s not. 😉)
In my experience, the best way to teach this is to add a really long pause between counts 7 and 8. It may seem cruel to expect students to just hang there, balanced on one foot, but (like anything else) balance is improved with practice. Most students will compensate for lack of balance by executing a weak kick, but the trick is to be able to throw the kick and uraken at full strength and still be able to maintain balance afterwards. I tell students they should be able to come down when they’re ready, not when gravity comes knocking.
Barely a night goes by that my classes don’t end up in at least one unplanned discussion. Tonight’s unintentional topic was keeping the back heel down when moving backwards in zenkutsu-dachi. This is a very common problem. It’s not that lifting the heel, in and of itself, is bad. Rather, it’s that lifting the heel shifts your weight forward, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to be doing when you’re trying to move backward. So how do you fix it? It’s easy. The best way to keep your heel from coming off the ground is to put enough weight on it that you can’t lift it in the first place. To do this, just shift your hip backwards, almost as though you’re changing from zenkutsu-dachi to kokutsu-dachi. The trick is shifting the hip backwards immediately, almost as though you’re trying to load the rear leg. This isn’t some fancy trick that depends on flexibility or skill, it’s just a timing thing. Move the hip first and the heel stays down. It’s that simple.
If you’re reading this, you probably know that we tend to start left foot forward for most things. Telling left from right is tough for some people, particularly children, so I try not to use them too much when I teach. Instead, I tend to give instructions in terms of “front” and “back”, but we still have to start somewhere and that takes us full circle needing to be able to tell left from right. Since we’re barefoot, I’ve occasionally taken a marker and written a big letter “L” on the top of a student’s left foot when they really need a bit of extra help … which brings me to today’s story.
A couple of months ago, one of my directionally challenged students was having some trouble, so I grabbed a pen and wrote the big, capital letter “L” on the top of his foot, oriented so that it was right side up if he just looked down at it. But no … instead he turned his foot 90° to the right, turned his head 90° to the left and asked, “What does ‘7’ mean?” 🤦 I laughed for a solid minute.
Then, last night, I had another one. This student had started since the last incident, so he wasn’t familiar with that story. He, too, was having trouble telling left from right, so I wrote a big, capital letter “L” on his foot and asked, “You know what that’s for, right?” He answered, “Loser?” 🤦🤦 I looked over at the “#7” kid and we both burst out laughing.
I’ve got several students in my youth & family class who’ve been with me for a while and are starting to be “held back” by the constant influx of new students. Getting new students is a good problem to have, of course, but having to “rewind” everyone back to the very basic basics can understandably get a bit old for the students who’ve been with you for a while. So how do you deal with that?
One idea is to have a sort of beginner-beginner’s class, where you only go over the very basics necessary to survive in the “regular” class, but that means adding another class, with another time slot, which may or may not have anyone attending from week to week. If you run your own place, that might be a workable option, but when you operate out of a health club, with schedules and payroll and whatnot, maybe not so much. Another idea is to split the class and have an experienced student take the brand new students aside to bring them up to speed, but that requires having experienced students capable of teaching others.
My current solution is to simply “graduate” the younger students into the adult class, even though they’re not technically old enough yet. At the point this becomes an issue for any particular student, they’ll have been with me long enough that I’ll have a good idea of whether they can handle it or not. Granted, that means I’ll sometimes have a tiny 10-year-old paired up with a large adult for partner drills, but it’s always something isn’t it?
For those who teach classes, how do you deal with “advanced” child students?
In tonight’s class, I continued introducing the new 8th kyu students to Heian Nidan, and we made it all the way through the kata. We spent quite a bit more time on the side kick/backfist combination I discussed last time, and it’s looking better. Then we moved on to Heian Sandan and worked our way slowly through to the end. It’s coming along. Across all katas, we talked a lot about proper foot orientation, particularly the orientation of the back foot (which I feel often gets ignored). I rounded out the night with a brief talk about kata history, where the Heian and Taikyoku katas come from, who developed them and when, and why they’re in the order they are.
This past Saturday was “Healthy Kids Day” at my YMCA, so they asked me to staff a table to see if I could recruit any new students. I went a step farther and brought in my little furry “markting specialist” Penny. I can guarantee that many more people stopped by the table to talk than would have if it had just been me.
In class tonight, I introduced the new 8th kyu students to Heian Nidan and spent a good deal of time getting about halfway through the kata. The most time, of course, was spent on moves 7 and 8, the side-snap kick/backfist strike leading into the northward-facing knife-hand block. It requires more balance and coordination than any move in kata these students have seen so far, so it took many, many repetitions to make it look reasonably good. Later, we added a piece to our kumite drills. We’ve worked up to the point where partners can push each other back and forth across the floor, with one as the “attacker” and one as the “target.” Tonight, I asked the “target” side to start touching every inbound attack with their front hand - not “blocking”, just “touching.” Baby steps.
With the exitement of rank exams behind us and everyone sporting a shiny new belt, it was time to get back to training. The new attendance cards appear to be working out nicely, and I’ve reminded everyone of appropriate rank to remember to bring their sparring gear to every class. We spent a bit of time on each kata that’s “new” for someone following exams, though we didn’t have time to get all the way through all of them. We also moved on to a new sparring drill, moving ever close to jiyu kumite.
This coming Saturday, I’ll be staffing a table at “Healthy Kids Day” and trying to drum up business. Wish me luck.
Rank exam results were announced today and … I messed up. I was short one belt. Fortunately I had an adult student who only comes on Mondays and was willing to wait until next week to get his belt. Whew. Lesson learned … triple check belt inventory before rank exams. Nevertheless, I managed to turn this into a lesson: Sensei makes mistakes too. Truth be told, I beat myself up about this much more than my students would have. They were all completely understanding.
In other news, the announcement of results occurred as usual. I call each student to the front, read their exam feedback out loud for all to hear, then present them with their feedback and (assuming they pass) their rank certificate and a new belt. I give each student personalized, written feedback so they know what they did well and what they need to do to improve. This also allows me to look back at previous exam feedback to see if there are any ongoing issues.
Tonight’s rank exam went very well. A total of 12 students tested across both classes, for ranks ranging up to 6th kyu. As usual, I take the weekend to write up individual feedback for each examinee. This gives them a record of what they’re doing well and what they need to improve. It also allows me to look back at previous feedback to recognize ongoing trends. (e.g. If I noted a problem with “x” on a student’s last exam feedback, and they still have a problem with “x” on this test, then we have an ongoing problem that really needs to be addressed.)
I also introduced the new attendance cards this evening, and they were generally well-received. We’ll start using them next week. As a reminder, I’ll be having each student pull an individual attendance card at the beginning of each class to indicate that they’re present (very much like pulling a timecard at a job). I’ll them mark them and put them back for next time. This method puts the accountability on the student to indicate their presence and, at a glance, allows me to see how many lessons each student has attended since their last test.
With a rank exam coming up in just two days, we had a lot going on in class tonight.
The youth and family class was all about test preparation. I ran everyone through what they could expect to see on their test and I think everyone is capable of positive results. Our two newest students, having joined only a couple of weeks ago, couldn’t keep up with much of the practice exam, but they got a good look at what’s going to be expected of them in a few months, so they still got something out of it.
The adult class was a bit different as we had three guests in class, all of whom are black belts from other dojos: One local, one from South Dakota, and one from Germany. Several of the mudansha in this class will be taking a kyu grading on Wednesday as well but, for the most part, I just ran a “normal” class. I ran everyone through kihon for about 40 minutes before breaking the group apart to work on kata. Our German guest had expressed an interest in helping to teach, so I let her run my 7th kyu student through kata for the remainder of class. Meanwhile I took the rest of the class and worked on everyone’s kata, with a focus on the importance of completing turns before executing techniques.
Everyone seemed to be dragging a bit during kata training this evening, and seemed resistant to my requests to “go faster” or use “more power”, so I hauled out the rebreakable boards to make a point. Say what you will about the relevance of board breaking, but it does provide an objective measure of impact. They either break, or they don’t. I explained that it’s easy to get complacent during kata training, because there’s nobody there to hit. And since you’re not really hitting anything in kata, it’s hard to get a feeling for how hard you would be hitting if you were hitting something.
I gave everyone a go at breaking a board. Some succeeded in breaking one, and some didn’t, but everyone got a sense for actually hitting something, and that’s all I was really after. Once we were done with the boards, I related this back to kata training. I explained that those who were able to break the board needed to maintain at least that level of power when practicing kata, and those who weren’t able to break the board needed to use more power. Sure enough, now that they had a “yardstick” against which to compare the level of power they needed to produce, the level of engergy during kata performance went way up for the rest of the night.
Now that I have a reasonable number of students, I’m considering moving to an attendance-based exam eligibility system. Presently I have no system. I schedule rank exams approximately every four months and anyone who’s been with me since the previous exam (give or take a bit) is allowed to test. That’s been working fine so far, but now I’m starting to get students who take a few weeks off here, or students who only attend once a week. At the same time, I’ve got students who show up to every single class. Understandably, those groups are progressing at different rates. As of now, I’m planning to implement attendance cards after this next kyu exam, to track attendance and eligibility consistently, and help teach students responsibility by marking themselves as present for the day.
In other news, I had three new students in the youth and family class tonight, which made for record attendance. That meant “rewinding” a bit to go over things like how to make a front stance, how to make a fist, etc., but I think they all enjoyed themselves and may stick with it.
My day job was really busy for the last half of the month and I just didn’t take the time to write my normal journal entries. That’s an excuse, of course. I have the same 24 hours in every day that everyone else does. I just prioritized other things. As I recall, most of our time has been spent preparing for our upcoming kyu grading on April 11. The youth and family class is doing quite well. The adult class is also doing well, but in this case everyone has their own special something they need to improve. One student just needs to put in more time practicing kata at home. Another needs to work on bringing the legs together while moving. Several need to ratchet up their spirit a notch or two.
It’s Spring break week for most local schools, so the youth & family class had only one student tonight. That’s okay - he’s a new student, and he’s been having trouble with his kata, so we spent almost the entire hour going over it. In situations like this, I find blue painter’s tape to be a great tool.
Using painter’s tape, I’ll mark off the kata embusen on the floor, including step markers and even a few dotted lines to indicate turn direction. Since there was only one student, I could measure it out precisely to his stride length. At that point, it’s all a question of repetition:
Do the kata on the tape, with me explaining every move.
Do the kata on the tape, with me just counting.
Do the kata on the tape, with the student counting out loud.
Do the kata on the tape, with the student counting in his head.
Do the kata on the tape, but not looking at the tape.
Move over and do the kata elsewhere on the floor, with no tape.
Roughly 30 minutes later, he was able to get through the kata without assistance.
We’ve got kyu gradings coming up in about a month, so I took the evening to run everyone through a practice test. I do this for two reasons. First, gradings can be harrowing, particularly for beginners who’ve never taken one before. Giving them a practice exam lets them know what they’re getting into, so any remaining fears should be “Can I do it?” not “What’s on the test?” Second, I want my students to succeed, so I give them a practice test, and then give them feedback on what needs to improve over the next month. I feel like I give plenty of feedback during class, but giving feedback after a mock exam underscores the message.
I had two insights while teaching tonight, and I share them here in the hope that other instructors will find them useful in their own teaching.
First, the gedan-uke/uchi-uke combination in Heain Sandan: It’s hard for students to “dial in” because it generates power by lifting the hips, unlike anything they’ve done in prior kata, and it requires breaking the habit of having the “other” hand come back to hike-te. My first instructor taught me to pretend I had a piece of chewing gum stuck to the crook of my downward-blocking arm, and to scrape it off as my inside-blocking arm passed by on its way to downward block. That’s a fine way to address the path of the technique, but what about the cadence? Tonight I had the idea to liken this technique to snapping ones fingers. When snapping your fingers, there’s a buildup of pressure, but the “snap” doesn’t happen until that pressure is suddenly released. This block is the same way. You build up pressure between your arms and then “snap” them past each other to create the blocking force.
Second, the jodan haiwan nagashi-uke from Tekki Shodan: This is also unlike anything students have done before. The “textbook” rising block in Shotokan presses the inbound attack up and away from your head, while this block draws the attack up, aside, and past your head, almost pulling it past. We stood in front of the mirror with students mimicking my motion for a few minutes before I noticed one student doing this block with their hand open instead of closed. It looked like he was saluting me and that gave me an epiphany. The position of this block at the moment of contact with the attack is virtually identicaly to a military hand salute, but with the hand in a fist instead of open. Once I explained it that way, everyone got it, so I’ll be adding that to my arsenal of analogies.
Tonight was my last night subbing at ISKF Tempe. I’ll still attend on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but the regular instructor will be back from vacation, so I’ll get to work out again. Reflecting back on the last couple of weeks, I’m very happy to have been able to share my love of kata applications with these students, as it’s something they don’t get very often in their normal classes. That’s not a critisizm - every instructor has strengths and weaknesses. I, for one, am awful at competition-style free sparring. I don’t compete, never did, and never saw much value in it, so it’s not something I’m able to hone in my own students. Nevertheless, understanding the kata beyond just making them aesthetically beautiful is something I’m passionate about, and I spent a good deal of time sharing that passion with these students … and look forward to doing so again in the future.
Tonight’s adult class added another option onto what they already knew about applications of the hammer-fist strike from Heian Shodan. Having previously discussed this as an escape from a wrist grab (on either side), tonight we applied it as a throw somewhat similar to Aikido’s “kokyu nage.”
Assuming your right foot is forward and the attacker has grabbed your right wrist with his left hand:
Grab and pin his left wrist with your left hand, then strip your right wrist out of his grasp by rotating your right elbow forward as you pull. At the same time, step your rear foot up to your front foot (in anticipation of tsugi-ashi footwork).
Extend your newly-freed right hand up and over the attacker, dropping your “bottom-fist strike” past the attacker’s head, so your elbow falls on the top of his chest, just below the neck. At the same time, extend your right leg so that your foot is directly between the attacker’s feet, then make front stance, disrupting his stance a bit forward as your dropping arm pitches him backward over your leg.
Notably this same application can come at the very beginning of Tekki Shodan except that:
Step into kiba-dachi instead of zenkutsu-dachi.
Your right hand is open, facing upward, instead of closed like a bottom-fist strike (but the elbow must still point down).
As a bonus, the attacker’s left arm will now be stretched across your own chest, ready to be hyperextended if you choose to flex your chest forward while pulling your left hand back.
Much of our time today was spent improving the “look and feel” of the signature flowing-block-into-face-strike combination from the Tekki kata, specifically Tekki Shodan. This is a great example of how the same technique can be described by different “authoritative” sources. For example, for the first occurrence in Tekki Shodan:
Best Karate describes this as “haiwan jodan nagashi-uke” and then “_jodan ura-zuki.”
The JKA’s “Karate-Do Kata” vol 1 calls it “haiwan jodan uchi nagashi-uke” and then “urakken jodan uchi.”
Sugiyama’s “25 Shotokan kata says it’s “jodan outward nagashi-uke” then “ura-zuki … to his chin.”
Hassell’s “Karate Training Guide” vol says “upper-level wrist sweeping block” then “upper-level close punch.”
Kanazawa’s “Complete Kata” descrbies it as an upper-level sweeping block then upper-level back-fist strike.
To summarize:
Everyone describes the block as some kind of upper-level sweeping block and both JKA resources specify that the block is with the back of the forearm (as opposed to the radial or ulnar side).
Roughly half describe the subsequent attack as a backfist while the other half call it a close punch.
Though not mentioned above, roughly half describe the activity of other arm as a downward block, while Kanazawa describes it as a “blocking punch.”
So how do I teach it?
The right hand comes across with its own open-handed jodan nagashi-uke, if only to tap the incoming attack towards the left side a bit.
At that point, the left hand picks up the attack with a closed-handed jodan nagashi-uke, catching the attack on the radial side of the wrist. Contact transitions to the back of the forearm (haiwan) as the arm is pulled back beside the head, but at no point is the ulnar edge of the arm oriented upward as it would be with age-uke.
As the left hand’s nagashi-uke is happening, the right hand, drops to execute either tetsui uchi or a straight punch to the attacker’s abdomen. Then, importantly, it grabs ahold of the attacker’s clothing, preventing his escape before the next bit.
The left hand, having finished its block, circles back around and attacks the face, generally with ura-zuki, but possibly with urakken-uchi if the attacker is shorter.
As all of this is happening, the hips rotate clockwise during the block and abdomen strike, then counterclockwise for the strike to the face.
Attendance in the youth & family class was light again today, but we spent the majority of our time in the adult class going over Heian Sandan applicaitons, particularly those of the furi-empi uke and both of the 180° turns.
The furi-empi uke has to be executed with the elbows pointing directly sideways. Many students don’t have the flexibility to do this and end up with their elbows pointing slightly backwards, but this doesn’t allow the block to do its job.
The first 180° turn can be expressed as an escape from a bear hug, dropping your center of gravity and then using your hands-on-hips as a wedge to open the bear hug. If needed, you can also drive the hips back and/or smash the back of your head into the attacker’s nose to create space.
The second 180° turn is an extention of the “linear” elbow blocks. This time, instead of stepping foward into the block, you block and spin, landing the elbow in the attacker’s abdomen and the close punch over your shoulder to his face.
It was President’s Day today, and none of my youth students came to class. Many of them asked if there would be class, and I gave them the standard answer:
“If the building is open, karate is available to you. Whether or not you choose to take advantage of it is up to you.”
People have different priorities - that’s cool - but it was a bit surprising that nobody came. 🤷
On the other hand, the adult class was surprisingly well attended, so I rewarded them with something a bit different. After our “compulsory” round of warm-up and kihon exercises, we spent the balance of the night going through additional applications from Taikyoku Shodan, Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan, and Heian Sandan.
In Taikyoku Shodan, we went over the standard cross-side wrist escape and punch we normally do for moves #1 and #2. For move #3 we practiced a neck-cranking takedown where, after punching to the head on #2, you grab the chin with the right hand, turn around and use the “downward block” to throw the attacker to the floor.
In Heian Shodan, we worked the same combinations, followed by the hammerfist strike after the takedown. But we also worked on the application of the hammerfist, itself, against both same-side and cross-side wrist grabs. Then we worked on using the turn after the first kiai as a bit of a hip toss, throwing the attacker counter-clockwise with the “rising block” hooked under the attacker’s left arm.
In Heian Nidan, we worked the first three techniques as a defense against a right-handed “haymaker” to the head followed by a left-handed jab. Our left hand blocks both the haymaker and the jab while the right hand strikes the face and then the ribs. Finally, we use the bottom-fist strike to pitch the attacker over our left leg, conveniently located to trip the attacker by virtue of being in kokutsu-dachi. Then we worked on using the “cup-and-saucer” into side kick/backfist to escape a lapel grab.
In Heian Sandan, we only had time to pracice the furi-empi uke and backfist strike against a lunge punch. Next time we’ll go into how to transition into the spinning elbow/close punch combinations at the end of the kata.
I’m covering Tuesday and Saturday classes for Sensei Dave Bracklow while he’s on a well-deserved vacation. I often have trouble getting going in the morning, so I gave the class the “gift” of a good cardio warmup. We moved on to a pretty standard set of kihon before moving on to a bit of yakusoku kumite. Then we wrapped up class with some applications from Taikyoku Shodan and Heian Shodan. It’d been a while since I’ve worked with these students, so we went back over the “basic” wrist-grab escapes from both katas.
Tonight’s adult class had a record 10 people in attendance! That meant we had to talk a bit about performing kata on a crowded floor. In order to avoid having people looking around to avoid collisions during kata, I tell them this: It’s your repsonsibility to look where you’re going and not run into anyone. If everyone does this, then no one will ever get hit from behind and there’s no reason to look around.
Despite the class size, some students were having trouble bringing some enthusiasm to the table, so we talked about that a bit after class. I told them that enthusiasm is a practiced skill, just like punching, kicking, and blocking. If you practice poor punches you’ll have poor punches when it comes time to use them. Likewise, if you practice poor enthusiasm, that’s what you’ll project outside the dojo too. Walking down the street with purpose, head up, and ready, you’re far less likely to be chosen for assault than if you’re walking with head hung low and not paying attention. Karate isn’t just about physical skills, it’s about overall self-protection.
The battle to differentiate between side thrust kick and side snap kick continues. Tonight we worked on both kicks while moving across the floor in kiba-dachi, but my rule was that everyone was only allowed to kick as high as their own knee. I find that many people tend to trade form for altitude when it comes to kicks, so I ask them to kick low on purpose, just to work on form. This tends to have a much better chance of keeping the foot angle and leg orientation correct.
In the adult class, we spent time on our usual kihon, but then I decided to work towards a better furi-empi uke for our practice of Heian Sandan, so this is how I worked up to it: We started by simply stepping across the floor in kiba-dachi. Then we added a downward block (to the side) as we stepped. Finally, we went hands-on-hips and practiced the furi-empi uke, making sure everyone rotated the lead elbow “pops” just a bit forward of their center line. This is important for two reasons: First, if the elbow stops on the center line it’s still possible for an attack to strike your ribs. Second, if you just intercept the attack without “popping” it forward, then the following uraken-uchi doens’t have a clear path to the attacker’s head.
Both classes spent time on our standard wrist-grab escape techniques from Heian Shodan last night. Most Shotokan people have seen the “same-side” wrist-grab escape application of the tetsui-uchi on move #4, but I also teach a “cross-side” escape using the gedan-barai on move #1 (and then teach how both escapes actually work for either type of grab, so you really don’t have to remember which is which). We spent time with partners going through each grab and each escape before turning partners loose and telling them to grab each others’ wrists however they like, challenging their partners to get out however they liked.
The adult class also spent time discussing applications from Heian Sandan, including the furi-empi uke (followed by the back-fist) during the southward run. We looked at the “standard” application of blocking a punch with the elbow. One of the students has some traditional jiu-jitsu experience and asked me if you might block a punch with mawashi-empi uchi. I agreed that you certainly could, but that an elbow strike has a fairly low vertical profile, which would make it very easy to miss the block when compared to the bent elbow that the kata describes. (i.e. Furi-empi uke has a fairly wide margin for error while mawashi-empi uchi does not.)
This started a cascade of tangents that resulted in more talking than I’d like, but it was pretty close to the end of class, so I indulged it.
The conversation about blocking with an elbow strike led to a discussion of the elbow strike in Tekki Nidan and how it can be applied as an escape from a same-side wrist grab followed by a hyperextension of the attacker’s elbow.
That led the jiu-jitsu student to discuss the possibility of countering a straight punch with kote-gaeshi.
And that led to a longer conversation about the applicability of pain compliance techniques on self-defense.
My thoughts on the matter go something like this: Pain compliance techniques work on the basis of an implied agreement. That agreement is, “You quit effing around, and I’ll make it stop hurting.” The unfortunate assumption here is that the person on the other end of the technique is in a mental state that allows them to understand that unspoken agreement. Against aggressors who are either naturally or chemically resistant to pain, that may not be the case. Those types of aggressors don’t react to implied agreements, or pain, but physics still demands that they respond to structural damage. In other words, if you break the attacker’s leg, it doesn’t matter if he can feel it or not, he’s not going to be chasing you down after that. I’m not knocking pain compliance - it has its place - but Shotokan generally prefers inflicting structural damage.
The two new students in the Youth & Family class are coming along well. Both of them picked up gedan-barai relatively quickly, which is typically the hardest “basic” for brand new students to learn. We’ve started working through Taikyoku Shodan, and we’ve made it up to the first kiai.
I had a feel-good moment after class tonight when one of my white-belt students asked me for “homework.” He’s going to be traveling out of town for business next week and won’t be able to attend class. Since he’s a beginner, it can’t be too complicated, and since he’s going to be a in a hotel room, it can’t require a lot of space, so I sent him a few exercises to improve his ankle flexibility.
We had two new students in the youth and family class tonight. Classes continue to grow! The adult class spent a good deal of time on side kicks. We all grabbed chairs and used them for balance while we focused on the differences between side thrust kick and side snap kick. I teach side snap kick in three steps: Up, out and back (same count), down. Likewise side thrust kick is four steps: Up, out, back, down. Next we continued our deep dive on Heian Sandan. We spent quite a bit of time on the spin into the hammerfist strike in kiba-dachi just before the first kiai. It’s important to complete the turn before stepping out into stance or your angular momentum will end up throwing you “off course” to the right of embusen. Fortunately, we’d been talking about exactly the same thing while working on Taikyoku Shodan. It’s not a “turning step.” It’s “turn and then step.”
Tonight, in the adult class, we took a step back and introduced everyone to blocking a front snap kick as part of yakusoku kumite. Everyone was already familar with blocking punches to the face, and to the body. Indeed, we’ve even been blocking front kicks to the body as part of our tai-sabaki practice. We’d just skipped right over the step where we do it as part of yakusoku kumite. Since everyone was already familiar with the backward-angled yori-ashi footwork we use to move out of the way of the kick (while adding a block as “insurance”), this didn’t take very long.
Next, we moved on to some impact drills. I always say that the best way to learn how to hit things is to hit things, but we also need to be safe in class. We don’t have a makiwara, or even a heavy bag, so we make do with what we can find in the supply closet of the group fitness studio. In this case, we used tightly rolled yoga mats, held vertically against our chest, while a partner practiced gyaku-zuki, mae-geri keage, and uraken uchi. Even using the padding, I’m still always amused by the astonished looks on students’ faces the first time they get hit with a decent reverse punch to the chest. There’s this moment of clarity, as if they suddenly realize, “If it feels like that through six inches of foam, I probably ought to learn to block.”
The youth class spent some time working on yoko-geri kekomi tonight. We have the benefit of working out in a group exercise studio with a ballet barre on one wall. That makes it easy to form a line with everyone holding the barre for balance while practicing a kick with the opposite leg. For side-thrust kick, we began with four counts:
Chamber the leg with the knee up, in front, just like chambering for a front kick.
From there, push the leg out to the side, heel out and heel higher than toes, and hold.
Return to position #1.
Put the foot down.
We repeated this several times, and then transitioned to a two-step drill by combining steps from the four-step drill. Counts 1 and 2 became a single count, as did steps 3 and 4. After several repititions, we moved to a single count, performing the entire kick.
In the adult class we did something similar with mawashi-geri, using a chair for balance. Facing the mirror, with a chair placed to our left side, and our left hand on the back of the chair for support, we practiced a right-legged roundhouse kick in several counts:
Still facing the mirror, lift the right leg off the floor, making sure that the lower leg was held parallel to the floor.
Pivot 90° on the supporting foot, towards the chair.
Snap the kicking leg out and back.
Pivot 90° on the supporting foot, back to where you starated.
Put the kicking foot back on the floor.
Lots of people wanted to pivot on the supporting foot too early, while lifing the kicking leg as part of count #1, so I had to encourage them to wait for count #2 (for now).
After we had the five-step drill working, we reduced it to three steps.
Same as #1 above. (Lift the leg.)
Combine #2 and #3 above. (Pivot and kick.)
Combine #4 and #5 above. (Pivot back and put your foot down.)
The worst thing you can do is try to kick too high before your flexibility and strength will allow it. Start low - knee height if necessary - and get the mechanics down. Then, and only then, add height. Once your toes rise above your heel, stop again and work on flexibility, then start over.
The adult class was well-attended tonight, so we took a picture. Is that a scary looking bunch of miscreants or what? 😉 Notice how the students on the right side of the picture don’t appear to be sitting nearly as comfortably as those to my left? We talked about that after class (while sitting in seiza of course). 😈
Sitting seiza (æ£åº§) is one of the bits of Japanese culture we frequently see in martial arts classes. Seiza translates as “correct sitting” and, has been the “polite” way of sitting on the floor in Japan since the beginning of the Edo period. It’s used less frequently in modern Japan than in previous generations, but it’s still seen when the situation calls for sitting on the floor “politely.”
But there’s more: It’s also an effective hip and ankle stretch. Since karate requires good hip and ankle flexibility, sitting seiza is a “two-fer” - an effective hip/ankle stretch that incorporates a bit of Japanese culture. In my classes, we sit seiza at the beginning and end of class. Then, while stretching, we alternate between sitting seiza and sitting kiza while doing other stretches … that’s it.
Yes, sitting seiza is bad for your knees, but sitting in chairs is bad for your back. At the end of the day, it’s all about balance. If a student has a genuine health concern that makes sitting seiza harmful, they’re excused, and we try to find something different to achieve the same result.
To be fair, sitting seiza for extended periods is uncomfortable, but what constitutes an “extended period” is a question of experience. I can’t sit seiza for hours, but I can get through most situations where it’s expected of me.
I had another new student in the youth and family class tonight, and I think he’ll be back, but otherwise the first class was largely uneventful. The adult class was a bit different though. My “adult” class is technically ages 13 and up, but none of the younger “adults” came to class, so we were able to go a bit harder, and with a bit more montotony, than we can if we have younger students in the class. A recurring issue with this group has been getting the hips to turn all the way forward and all the way back. We tried the standard “in place, age-uke/gyaku-zuki” drill, but that wasn’t getting it done, so we improvised. We used some freeweight bars, held them behind our backs, and used those to guage the position of our upper torso. (i.e. Using a bar made it easier to see the angle of our hips.) This really did the trick.
Today was the first class of the new year and attendance was pretty good in the youth and family class, so we took a picture. Next month will be two years since classes began, and classes have been steadily growning.
The youth and family class spent a lot of time working on the path and application of inside block vs. outside block (uchi-uke vs. soto-uke). We worked on the path of the technique in the mirror for a while before pairing up with partners. Standing across from each other in natural stance, one side would punch and the other side would block. We practiced just about all possible permutations of inside and outside blocks against same-side and opposite-side straight punches. The goal was to get students comfortable with intercepting a punch with either block, using either arm.
The adult class wasn’t as well-attended, so we’ll wait and take a picture when everyone returns from their vacations and illnesses. Nevertheless, we got right into it, returning to our tai-sabaki drill of shifting forward with a jab, shifting forward with a reverse punch, and stepping forward with a front kick. Meanwhile the other side shifts back with jodan nagashi-uke, shifts back with gedan-barai, and then shifts back at an angle with another gedan-barai to avoid the front kick before countering with a reverse punch and switching feet, ready to begin again. Everyone is making good progress with this, and I think we may be able to move on to a few variations in a week or so.
We also had a talk about being comfortable getting into other people’s space. Of course we don’t want to be the one instigating things, but if the threat is severe enough to warrant using what we’ve learned, then we have to be decisive about it. By definition, hitting someone requires entering their space. I recommended thinking of it like this: You’re not invading their space. It’s your space. It’s all your space. You’re just taking it back.
