Extremely small class tonight with Brad as head instructor. The only students besides myself were a beginner and a low ranking karateka, so they still got the majority of the attention, which was fine in it’s own ways. We did some kihon and then practiced ju ippon kumite. Lastly we went through Basai a few times and Heian Godan a couple times.

Prior to class, I went through Ju Te and Jion a few times each.
It was a small class tonight, only six students including myself. After a quick stretch, we focused on sparring technique for the night. We started with some technique combination kihon such as shuffle – mai te – gyaku zuki and mai te – gyaku zuki – mai geri, plus a couple others. The class then moved on into partner work, including light ju kumite at half to three quarter speed and short mah technique. However, I opted to sit out on the partner work as my fingers are still tender and my ribs are still painfull from the Saturday WCoS event. In the event there are any minor complications, I’d rather they healed properly. Observing in its self can be a good experience, so I carefully watched my classmates and Chuck (tonights head instructor), watching how they moved and what patterns they relied on.

Ollie took us through a quick stretch and then some kihon. We then practiced kick combinations, which was good (and rarely done enough). Some combinations included mai/fumikomi and mai/mawashi/ushiro/yoko kekomi.
We moved to kata next. Tekki Shodan was done several times, then Heian Godan several times.
The last section of class we went over techniques for dealing with an opponent that is armed with a knife or similar weapon. Though this training does not appeal to me, I am always reminded that it is an important aspect of the art. In the long run, however, should you be faced with a situation such as that, your best tactic is to arm yourself, too.
When ever I do defense training for knives, I recall a story that was told to me by my sensei in PCKD. There was a young woman in the dojo that had earned Shodan or Needan rank (first or second black belt rank). One night a man forced his way into her apartment. He had a knife, she had her many years of advanced karate training. He killed her. Every time I think of this story, it gives me shivers, but it is a very important story and I think there is more than one lesson to be learned from it. So though I practice the techniques, I will never attempt to use them in a real situation unless there really is no other alternative.

As the nights head instructor, Brad first took us through half to three-quarter speed kihon, then once more through at full speed. We then worked on mai te and oi zuki in kibi dachi, first individually, then with partners holding training bags.
Last we spent time learning Ju Te, a new kata for me, and not required until Yodan rank (4th black belt). An attempt to describe the kata follows;

The kata begins with fist in palm in front of face. Stepping back with the left leg into zenkutso dachi, the left hand push-blocks down (teisho uke?) and pulls back and the right is palm-heel up and exposed, fingers curled like a four-nuckle. Looking 45 left, cross step 45 left, pushing palm-heels of hands in opposite vertical directions. Looking 67 right (original right), rotate on balls of feet into right zenkutso dachi, making uchi uke with same four-nuckle palm-heel. Step up with left leg and make 180 turn into kibi dachi with a horizontal palm-heel chudan block/strike (osae te uke?). Another 180 turn in kibi dachi with same strike/block, and one more 180 turn in kibi dachi with same palm-heel strike/block and a kiai (so now in kibi dachi facing original left). Facing ahead, cross step in kibi dachi to the left making a jodan juji uke (X block) and double gedan barai. Pull right leg in, feet together, then left out to kibi dachi with jodan juji uke and double jodan vertical arm block (ryowan tate ken uke?). Now moving back the other direction, 180 into kibi dachi with a stamp and twisting block (hineri uke) with the vertical arms, three times (ending facing original right). Squeezing the legs together rising into “natural stance” (heiko dachi ?) with a double gedan barai. {…. more later ….}

One should never assume you’ll get to stretch during class. Why should the instructor pamper you? When class starts, you should ready to perform and train. A perfectly example was tonight. We jumped straight into training, skipping stretching, instead warming up with some kihon drills where we faced another karateka, doing the specified technique down one way, then retreating just outside of reach practicing control of “mah” while our partner comes back at us. After sufficiently warming up, we did some actual ippon kumite work, then split up into lower and upper ranks, the upper ranks continuing with more ippon kumite, focusing on four block-counter moves involving striking the carteroid artery or temple, or using an x block and spinning to do an arm break move.
We finished class with a few upper ranks taking turns performing individual kata from Taikioko Shodan through Heian Sandan. Then the whole class drilled all the way through, up to Heian Yodan, performing each kata at least five to eight times. I must admit, it was rigorous. Anyone who says otherwise isn’t trying hard enough. Even once through a kata should have you breathing quickly and give you a flushed face a the very least.

Chuck was head instructor tonight. After the stretching, we breifly practiced kicks, placing them against the wall. Following was some intensive practice of kihon mai te (front jab) and uraken (backfist) with and with out partners. We then comboed in starting with mai geri or mawashi geri and finishing with gyaku zuki. One of the hardest things for me initially was breaking my habits of old. Previously I practice this sort of thing starting from fudo dachi (fighting stance). From that stance, generally you just drop straight forward into zenkutso dachi with the mai te. Tonight, Chuck was having us begin in zenkutso dachi, shuffling forward with the mai te or uraken, or even semi-cross step before lunging in with the mai te or uraken.
After this segment, we split into upper and lower, Brad leading the upper ranks in Heian Yodan. We went through by count, with no count, with only a left arm, with only a right arm, with noodle arms, etc. There are still one or two techniques that I do as a hold over from PCKD that they would like me to try the SKA way on. I prefer the PCKD version, but Brads words are wise in that perhaps I should practice both, so that I am familiar with each and learn from each method (“who am I, a 4th kyu karateka to say the one technique is better than the other?” – not his words, but one can’t help thinking perhaps that is on the mind of some of my upper ranked sempai, dan and sensei). None the less, my path in the arts involves personally exploring, rather than blindly following.
Over all, it was a good sweaty class (The tempurature is rising – I’m not looking forward to the summer heat just around the corner).

Tonights class, after kihon performed in two rings (inner and outer facing), focused on kumite techique. The head instructor was, of course, Ollie. The upper ranks worked on sanbon practice, primarily using uchi uke (inside forearm block) and tettsui uke (hammer fist block, previously outside forearm block). Working with Mark, we also did some irimi (evasion of an attack by slipping just along the side of it to the outside) and evading at 90 degrees to the attack line. To test our practice, Ollie the brought all the class back together, having been working with the lower ranks on making good attacks, I believe. He lined us up, placing one upper rank facing the line and did “machinegun sanbon”. I’m afraid the evenings earlier practice rather went out the window as there was little time to work on applying any technique that was not already ingrained. Consequently I think the excercise fell short of his intentions, however it was of course still a good drill from a purely experiencial point of view.
Last we went through Taikioko Shodan several times, then each of the upper ranks performed a kata of choice individually. I selected Heian Godan, one of my favorites. When going through it, I felt my feet were out of alignment on the kiba dachi and kokutsu dachi (horse and back stance respectively). I’ll have to watch this as I know I habitually step past my line when stepping into kiba dachi and when in kokutsu dachi, my front foot tends to line up more with the center of my hind foot rather than the heel. Additionally Ollie indicated that I flashed by the low juji uke (X block), where as I should put a micro second more there to indicate a strong block for the imagined kick.

Brad was head instructor tonight. Yet another large class. I miss the full court sized gym at De Anza with PCKD. That class would have three or four rows of eight to twelve students.
Kihon went well, focusing on just oi zuki, gyaku zuki, mai geri and mawashi geri. This included some working with partners to practice targeting and control.
The next section of class we split into lower and upper ranks, the upper ranks working on Basai again with Chuck as primary. We went through several times, each time focusing on different aspects (stance and footwork, arms and shoulders, etc). At one point, Chuck asked us to critique him, so that we could focus on the various aspects of the kata. Key items I came back with were ensuring the hind foot is angled forward in front stance and horizontal in back stance, keeping the shoulders square for the punches in the 9th and 11th techiques, and keeping the cresent kick clean and precise, not letting it become more like a round kick in nature. Of course, the point is these are all items I need to be extra aware of when I practice the kata.
For the last section of class, we remained split into lower and upper ranks and did some ippon kumite. Key things to work on are still uchi uke (inside block) and making the block and counter a smoother motion with no pause.

So far the recent influx of new students are sticking with it and consequently, we had a nice large class again. Dave was head instructor. After a warm up lead by Sean, we bowed in, then moved into kihon. This was followed by partner kihon for working on mai geri and mawashi geri (front snap and round kick). We worked on this for some time before grabbing our gloves and doing ippon kumite (one-time engagement sparring). Some of the new students have some promise, though of course they all have much to work on. I tried to provide each one with one item of feedback for them to work on. Regarding my own training, I still need to work on moving slightly further offline when evading a strike. I tend to drag one foot behind, leaving it open to sweeps and leaving me slightly less responsive. Also my uchi uke (inside forearm block) still needs lots of work – it is too slow and more often than not with an upper ranking member they’ll either get my chest or my bicept before I can complete the block.
During kihon I have been focusing on my oi zuki, trying to hone it and make it smoother with less pre-strike motion, and also keeping my elbow in tighter.
The last drill for the night was the “machine gun attack” drill. We had three columns, each with a single defender. The attackers come on as quickly as the defender can reset. It’s a good drill, but the defenders need to focus and keep their wits about them and some of the attackers get a bit wild with their strikes.

Chuck lead class tonight. We started slow and carefully analyzed each of the kihon for the benifit of the several new students. We then demonstrated a kata before splitting into two groups so the new students could work on Taikioko Shodan while the experienced students worked on kumite techniques. We started with basic mah and evasion drilling. Following this we included that the defender must -not- move backward in response to the second of a predefined double-attack, and then countered. Last we did some mock kumite with the offense and defense roles predetermined, then switched half way through. It was all good practice. My movement was decent, but I was leaving myself in too much danger after my counter. It worked for this controlled environment, but in jiyu kumite it would have been disasterous.

Good class with Brad as head instructor tonight. Most of the newer students were there again (never know how long some of them will stick around). Worked on simple kihon first, just focusing on oi-zuki and gyaku-zuki (lunge and reverse punch) first, combing it into a chain of two, then three strikes, no pause. Following that we worked some simple combos finishing with a mae-te/gyaku-zuki/mae-geri-keage (jab, reverse punch, snap kick).
We then devided, the beginner students working on Taikyoku Shodan, the experienced students working on Basai. We broke Basai down and did it peace by peace, analyzing the movements and trying out key moves in set-up bunkai. There was some discussion about the hold and fumikomi geri (stomping kick) after the four shuto ukes (knife-hand block). I noted that it could very well be that the punch that was just defected had become the atacker holding your wrist. You then break their hold with a knife-edge hand and while controlling their hand, break their knee.
The last part of class, we did kihon with partners, one attacking with an oi zuki, the other blocking with gedan barai, uchi uke, or age uke, depending on the predesignated target.
I need to work on my back stance. I have noticed that I habitually step my hind foot past the line of my front foot. Additionally I still need to work on keeping my shoulders down, pulling with my lats, particularly when performing jodan techniques.

Larger class tonight with several newer students along with a brown belt that hasn’t been to our class in the previous times I’ve been there.
Ollie was head instructor for the night. We did all our kihon drills in a circle so the newer students could watch others and get a better idea of what was going on. I still maintain that everyone 8th kyu or unranked should be grouped on the side and asigned one of the higher ranking members to work with them on just kihon, leaving the remaining students to work at a faster pace and to a more advanced level (without confusing the beginners).
After kihon, we made two lines and did ippon kumite drills for the remaining time. I have no special observations for this. I had the opportunity to work with the new brown belt, which was a good work out. He has a lot of zeal for his training and likes to push others to the same level. I don’t personally feel the same way about kumite as he does, I think, but it was good training.
The very last thing we did before lining up was have all the mid- to skilled- students line up in front of Ollie (one line) and one by one practice short-mah defense (standing within two or three feet of each other). Naturally Ollie nailed everyone. This is another form of training I am not at all fond of. Not only is it a form of sparring, it’s a form of very close, in-your-face sparring which is *exactly* what I’m avoiding with Shotokan. If I wanted to train in martial arts dealing with that distancing, I would learn Aikido or Jujitsu. After a couple times through, we lined up.
All in all, a good work out and a decent class.

Warm-ups eased seamlessly into a focus on controlling our upper and lower body seperately, then into some kicking kihon. We then worked on distancing, trying to come to better terms with our personal “bubble”, and controlling it, and therefore your opponent. The drill lasted for some time, slowly adding complexity to it.
Last we worked on Kanku. This is a new kata for me, and a long and complex one. I don’t expect I’ll pick it up nearly as fast as others, but at the same time, once I get the pattern down, it seems it won’t be too difficult.