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Post by Senpai Hiroko on May 13, 2014 14:09:22 GMT
Hi, all. Hope you had a nice break from the class last Tuesday. We will resume our class today. If you are late, do not worry. Just join in. We have 10 days before the Dan Exam. We will continue to prep for the Dan Exam: Pencil drill; some Kihon; some Kata. Osu. Hiroko
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Post by Ana (3rd Kyu) on May 13, 2014 15:27:56 GMT
Looking forward to it!
A.
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Post by Senpai Hiroko on May 14, 2014 21:27:44 GMT
Hi, all. Hope you had a nice break from the class last Tuesday. We will resume our class today. If you are late, do not worry. Just join in. We have 10 days before the Dan Exam. We will continue to prep for the Dan Exam: Pencil drill; some Kihon; some Kata. Osu. Hiroko All; I will post comments by midnight tonight. Osu Hiroko
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Post by Senpai Hiroko on May 15, 2014 15:04:49 GMT
Hello, all. Here are comments from the last class:
Pallavi: Attentions on the beginning/prep positions of different kicks: Mawashi-geri vs. Mae-geri; and Yoko-kekomi vs. Yoko-keage. I didn't notice this time, but generally, don't over-tilt the upper body, especially Maegeri. Acceleration of each technique and generally fast paced-kata are different things. Even if you want to accelerate each moves, pose longer, especially at Kiai points and before turning during the kata. Nice job and good spirit on three way/ four way kicks and kata.
Andrey: Still your body is lifted at each Ren-geri (Mae-geri sequence). Grab the floor with your feet and stay low. Kick forward instead of torso going up or back. Stablize the landing and get the power again to kick the next kick. Eventually, this ready again position should take a shorter time, but for now, this moment cannot be ignored; otherwise the Rengeri will look like just continuous leg raises. You finally seemed to have got what I have been saying: To nail the Choku-zuki during the Heian 3 (toward the end, before turn and kibadachi) and Bassai Dai (After Kakiwake-uke and Chudan Hasami-Uchi). Much better at the pencil drill and shifting during the Testing Kumite.
Peter-san:I think that the tilting of your upper body during kata and some kihon is due to the inability of twisting torso at your waist. So, when you try to twist your body to reach, your shoulder level become uneven and the uplift of upper body becomes compromised. Very hard to fix this due to your body mass, inflexibility, and stocky body stile. Let's think about how to make your body twist in your own ways. Good Kihon today.
Reto: I think that the sparring drills that we tried worked pretty well on you. You need to cover more distance and get in and out. Since Andrey needs to practice shifting and moving around for his Dan Exam Kumite, the combination that we did worked well; for you to get in and for Andrey to shift/avoid/and block only. Starting from a slow and flowing sparring session like this will reduce your tension, I hope. In fact, your Kumite looked much better as compared to the one in which you try your hardest. Without fear of getting hit, you can get in more (now, practice on getting out, too!)and you can be more relaxed. Nice try on making the torso uplifted during Bassai Dai, but make sure to keep your chin down.
Ana:I enjoy watching you try hard. Thank Pallavi and Peter-san for coaching your Kumite. You started covering face as you go in, and that's a big progress. Keep paying attention on that. Your Bassai Dai has a few very weird points. And you get corrected by everybody at the same places every time, so you know where I am talking about. But, I think that body twisting of the beginning of kata is good. Keep up the good job.
Dima:It must be because you are still recovering from your foot injury. Your stances have been unurually high these days. But, give yourself more time. If you think that some drills may hurt you, just don't do it, ok? Same as Pallavi, make the beginning/prep positions of each kick more clear. Your Mae-geri looked weak, but is that because you cannot put as much pressure on your supporting foot? For Tekki Shodan, you need mucho lower Kibadachi.(I saw it on Sunday and Tuesday). Zenwan Chudan Uke to right and left need to be all the way to your side. Good spirit.
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Post by Ana (3rd Kyu) on May 15, 2014 16:13:29 GMT
Thanks for the feedback, Hiroko. Will keep working on correcting my weird Bassai Dai points. And thanks to Pallavi, Peter and Andrey for help with sparring. Reto, thanks for helping me stretch so well during class. Good weekend to all!
Ana
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reto
Junior Member
3 B Kyu
Posts: 53
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Post by reto on May 19, 2014 15:43:34 GMT
Thank you Hiroko for the substatial feedbak, very useful. The Kumite indeed was the best session I had in a long time, I need to build up my Kumite skills slowly but steadily, thank you to Andrey and other Senpais for the flowing sparring session, Oss!
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Post by petersan on May 20, 2014 16:47:40 GMT
Hiroko-san. "Body mass...stocky." It's okay, you can tell me to lose weight. Improving karate would be a good reason to drop a few lbs. Unfortunately, I can't train today. I took a very heavy kick to the ribs from Marc on Thursday and have been in extreme pain all week. Like a dagger in my side. Some injuries are accidental, but this was totally avoidable. Some in the dojo need to exercise more respect and better control during kumite.... Not this group.
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Post by Senpai Hiroko on May 20, 2014 16:56:20 GMT
Hiroko-san. "Body mass...stocky." It's okay, you can tell me to lose weight. Improving karate would be a good reason to drop a few lbs. Unfortunately, I can't train today. I took a very heavy kick to the ribs from Marc on Thursday and have been in extreme pain all week. Like a dagger in my side. Some injuries are accidental, but this was totally avoidable. Some in the dojo need to exercise more respect and better control during kumite.... Not this group. Peter-san; Please heal well. I hope that you recover soon. Too bad about injuries during the training. Well, we all strive to gain more sense of control. So, none of us are perfect. But, if you feel that some contacts were intentional, well, there is a problem. Next Tuesday, the BBC will have a post Dan Exam break. So, you will have two Tuesdays to completely heal. Osu, Hiroko P.S. AND, I dont' mean to suggest you lose weight! Weight is good to give power and kime. I was just talking about your built
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Post by petersan on May 21, 2014 14:06:47 GMT
Respectfully, I think this is an issue we need to address as a dojo and follow more closely. Our bodies should not be experimented on while we "strive to gain more control". If we are allowing strong contact as a learning technique then we should all be wearing more protective gear. An injured body does not know whether it was the result of an intentional blow, or a poorly applied technique. Nor does it matter when we visit the hospital afterwards.
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Post by Senpai Hiroko on May 21, 2014 14:37:03 GMT
Respectfully, I think this is an issue we need to address as a dojo and follow more closely. Our bodies should not be experimented on while we "strive to gain more control". If we are allowing strong contact as a learning technique then we should all be wearing more protective gear. An injured body does not know whether it was the result of an intentional blow, or a poorly applied technique. Nor does it matter when we visit the hospital afterwards. Perhaps, you may ask Sensei Ernst's opinion first, and then write an article about it? Sensei may want to address this in the class, and you may circulate the article via dojo email. That would be very helpful, Peter-san. Keep me posted on your healing. Osu. Hiroko
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reto
Junior Member
3 B Kyu
Posts: 53
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Post by reto on May 21, 2014 20:56:59 GMT
This is an interesting topic which is of high relevance to me. It is not an easy one. On the one hand I was taught that Shotokan is a No contact Martial Art. On the other hand, a lot of the most interesting aspects of Shotokan have to do with sparring and the danger of getting hit and with the feeling of "scoring".
Some very personal thoughts from my side which are not in a particular order and might be contradicting:
For me, hitting is ok in the stomach and on the butt, pretty hard is ok. I also like to hit others in the stomach if I know they like it too. Arms legs and back are also ok if less intense. Getting hit to the head for me is a pretty big fear, but I tend to think if a higher belt can control it well, I can learn a lot. In our Swiss Club we trained consequently punches to the chin to aim at the height of the breast bone just below the chin, so we could get in and hit hard. It was a good way of training to get in, but of course like this we didnt train the control to the chin-head. In general for me the fear of getting hit is very interesting...if I overcome the fear I will be stronger. But I might get really hurt on the way there, because my senpai are only human too... imagining one of the big heavy guys punching me big time is scary. This fear is a big obstacle for fully engaging in kumite.
On another level I am afraid of getting injured and not being able to train. Not being able to train is much worse for me than the benefit of learning something by getting hit. In this respect, foot techniques and especially sweeping techniques are a horror, just one foot problem can get you out of training for two months, and I ALWAYS trip when someone sweeps me. So this is the only technique I tend not to go fully engage in training. I jump to avoid the sweep when we train it.
A big problem is of course that people with less experience tend to be more in danger of creating a situation where injuries occur. So as less experienced fighters, we should do a lot of kumite, but at the same time this exposes to injuries a lot. The biggest problem is both go with foot techniques and cannot react quickly enough and crash and you have easily a knee or foot injurie.
So these are just some thoughts....it would be very interesting to hear from Sensei and from Senpai black belts how they reconcile a No Contact Martial Art with the need for full engagement. As my Swiss Sensei put it: If you overcome yourself and get beyond a certain point ....new doors will open. I keep looking for these doors to start knocking on them....
Oss! Reto
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Post by petersan on May 23, 2014 14:54:40 GMT
Reto; This is a very honest assessment and good insight into the process of karate. Thanks for sharing. Also check out the thread "Re: Body Contact". I will post more there to keep this topical conversation in one location.
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