Nerd at work - Yoko Geri

Coming up to the next grading for my Dojo, I know one of the weakest test elements for me is my Yoko Geri.  In my first grading, being able to perform a side kick was the most important thing.  Now the style in which it is done has become more important.

Because I can only comfortably kick low, my inclination is to "stomp" or push with the heel.  Formally, my style requires a flick kick with the side of the foot, and I have been struggling to get any kind of mastery over that.  

This set me to thinking about what other people's takes were on this, so I posted this question in a couple of Facebook forums: A question if I may? Yoko geri is considered to be a fundamental kick I believe, however I am told it has many forms which can all be considered to be correct in the proper context. My style of Karate currently describes it as a flicking kick, hitting the target with the outside edge of the foot, but am aware that hitting with whole of the foot (push kick) was once acceptable. What are other people's thoughts / experiences?

The first thing that come back is that indeed there are two basic types, the flick hitting with the side and the push, but that should be hit more with the heel than the whole of the foot.   My favoured variant, the stomping low kick, was considered to be one of the most effective variants.   However, there is a rich and varied range of interpretations of the kick.  Some styles limit themselves solely to one form (eg. Shinkyokushin  - side of foot), whilst in Tang Soo Do,  (Korean style of Karate) there are thrusting, snapping, pushing and stomping versions of the kick, using the knife edge, the heel, the whole flat of the foot, and the ball of the foot.

Generally though all versions of the kick fall into the snapping or thrusting / stomping varieties.  The snap kick or Keage Yoko Geri,  seems to be considered the swifter kick to deliver, hitting with the side of the foot.  Specific targets suggested for this seem to be to softer targets such as the leg, vital organs, stomach or floating ribs.

Yoko Geri 

The thrusting / stomping kick or Kekomi Yoko Geri seems to be considered the more power kick to deliver, hitting with the underside of the heel.  Specific targets suggested for this seem to be harder targets such as joints (eg, knee, ankle) or bones (leg or ribs)

A number of videos were given as examples which are also presented below:

Shotokan side kicks

Yoko Geri Keage

Yoko Geri as a throw

Yoko Geri using knee lift to disrupt

The last two show applications which go beyond that of a kick, using the leg as part of a throw, or the knee lift to disrupt (e.g. Hisa Geri followed by stomping Yoko Geri Kakato.

Many thanks to all who contributed, but particularly to Les Bubka for two of the videos, John Rees and Andrew Perpich for the other two, along with my Sensei Ben D. J Snear, for putting up with me.

Dojo before the show

Given that we are coming up to our first demonstration before the end of the Summer holidays, plus we have a grading coming up in mid-September (for that, think I will miss out again, only doing one lesson a week, plus need to improve my yoko geri and ushiro geri kicks and practice more kehon katas); this was always going to be a diverse lesson.

After the warm up, the first hours of the lesson was concentrating on techniques.  For me in a lesson, I always want to run  through kata and this one didn't disappoint, as we went through both Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan  (I want a T shirt that says "Made in Naihanchi" 😉😉).   Then it was on to two person tegumi drills with different partners.  I have tried to document them as best as i remember:

Drill 1)

partners 1 & 2) Hooking hands

Drill 2)

partner 1) punch - chudan uke
partner 2) wrist grab (same side), backhand slap to ribs
partner 2) open hand slap to face, hammerfist to arm hammerfist to neck
partner 1) pushes received hammerfist hand down, clears arm
partner 2) follows one routine, starting with punch
partner 1) follows two routine, starting with wrist grab

Drill 3)

partners 1 & 2) left arm low blocks followed by right arm inner blocks.
partners 1 & 2) Hooking hands, followed by left hand outer blocks
partners 1 & 2) push outer blocks against each other
partner 1) pushes through jodan tsuki,
partner 2) pushes up , jodan uke
partners 1 & 2) reset, push outer block against each other
partner 2) pushes through jodan tsuki,
partner 1) pushes up , jodan uke
partners 1 & 2) reset, push outer block against each other
partners 1 & 2) repeat on other side

For the last hour we practiced what was wanted for the upcoming demonstration, with this featuring all three classes, shisa, cadet and adult: 
Breathing techniques
Kihon, Punches and blocks
Kata (Naihanchi Shodan)
Kata (Black belts - Passai Sho)
Padwork - kicks
Shisa - Tegumi
Cadets - Kumite
Kobudo kata (Black belts, nunchaku, sai and bo)

We went through this twice, so it was also valid practice of a sort.  Synchronised kata isn't normally for me, but for a  good cause why not? 😊😊😊😊

Coping with bad news for me

I have been putting off for quite a while an appointment with my doctor as to why my health hasn't improved past a certain point, with taking up Karate.  I suppose I always knew that smoking for over 30 years would have taken it's toll, but had hoped that giving up and starting to exercise as a result of finding out about my heart condition would have had better results.

So today I had my Spirometry test to see what was going on with my lungs as I run out of breath too often, and the results weren't inspiring.  I definitely have some form of lung problem, and its not Asthma.  Everything else in the UK is classed as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD) for short.  I lost my father to a coronary thrombosis ( related to my family's hereditary propensity to heart problems) and lost my mum to emphysema, the worse development of COPD.  Now I have early stages of both problems 😔😔

So I am not in the best of places at the moment.  I will be damned if it makes me give up doing Karate though, it's a big link with my son and at the least has prevented any deterioration in either condition.  So I need to carry on learning how to fight, both for my family, my health, and to learn self defence as its a cruel world out there (thank you you extremist and ineffective politicians 😔😔).  

Thank you to my son, my family and my Karate family for the wonderful support 😊

Keep on keeping on

We have a grading comping up soon, plus a short demonstration to do at a charity even. Accordingly, our session yesterday was a mix of elements.   We started of with Core drills (including rolls and shrimping) followed by Stretches.

From there, we did Kata (Naihanchi Shodan), followed by fundamentals: punches, receiving techniques and kicks.  After that we went through the 10 kihon katas that we practise,  I only need the first two for my grading but we go through them all.  I can remember the first four:

1. Step, forehand punch, backhand punch, mai geri
2. Mai geri, step forehand punch, backhand punch
3  Step, forehand punch, backhand punch, feet together, front leg mawashi geri
4  Feet together, front leg mawashi geri, step forehand punch, backhand punch

Plus I now remember the last two:
.
9 -   Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, spinning kick
10 - Shuffle, backhand forehand punch, shuffle, backhand forehand punch, right then left mawashi geri, hisa geri

Next we repeated the Tai Sabaki (body management) exercises from the Monday session - with one Sensei trying to hit with a padded kendo style stick and the other with a Shinai.   The trick was to evade, first of all to a lunge by stepping away, followed by a head swipe followed by ducking.  After that, we had to evade a leg swipe by jumping, followed by a head / leg swipe combination by ducking then jumping.  Finally, we had to evade a lunge by swaying, followed by evading a lunge, head swipe, leg swipe, lunge combination by stepping, ducking, jumping and swaying.

From there we went on to flow drills, working at two variations:

Flow drill variant 1: Fence push, crash inside hook, ridge hands into clasp, push down and away (Naihanchi)
Flow drill variant 2: Fence push, crash inside hook, ridge hands into clasp, push down, attacker comes up then bear hug. Lift one shoulder, releasing arm which goes round the back, step back (zenkutzu dachi) and turn, throwing the opponent  (Naihanchi / Pinan)

Finally we did Kobudo, with Nunchaku - doing the Hamahiga kata.  On top of that, my son was presented with student of the month, so a really good and varied session 😊😊

Benefits of Karate for high end ASD / ADHD

A member of my family has high end ASD plus ADHD.  I wish this article had been around 10 years ago.

Article on benefits of karate for kids with learning disabilites /ADHD

Progression of Naihanchi Shodan

I have been practicing Naihanchi Shodan for around 5 months now.  Given everything that is going on in my life just now I wanted to do something positive for myself and show that practicing does help you improve things. This is where doing this blog helps.  I have had myself videoed several times doing the Kata (thank you to Jerome Che-A-Tow, my wife and my son) and the results are given below:

  

February / March 2019

March 2019 - under competition pressure

April 2019

June 2019

August 2019

I think I have improved a lot.  The competition video showed that I struggled under pressure at that point, but in general I think what I do now is more confident, crisper and has more intent.  Still a lot of room for improvement, including getting rid of that horrible shoulder dip, but getting there 😊

Monday Night dojo life

On a few days leave at the moment, so went to the Dojo for the Monday night session.  Quite a varied lesson, which I find a good thing 😊.  We started off with core drills, including sprints, crawling, forward rolls, and the shrimp followed by some stretches.

This was followed by transition practise, step through in Zenkutzu Dachi and various uke / tsuki combinations with proper mawatte techniques.  This was followed by Kata practice: For me Naihanchi Shodan with a run through of Nidan and Sandan.

After Kata, we went to try Tai Sabaki (body management) - with our Sensei trying to hit with a padded kendo style stick.   The trick was to evade, first of all to a lunge by stepping away, followed by a head swipe followed by ducking.  After that, we had to evade a leg swipe by jumping, followed by a head / leg swipe combination by ducking then jumping.  Finally, we had to evade a lunge by swaying, followed by evading a lunge, head swipe, leg swipe, lunge combination by stepping, ducking, jumping and swaying.

We then worked in pairs to evade forehand and backhand punches by parrying and stepping away to the outside, followed by delivering a return punch from the side.  We followed this by trying to evade random forehand or backhand punches.   The last part of the lesson was padwork for mawashi geris / punches / 4 punches, followed by front foot mai geri and a spinning kick / uke to random head and leg strikes.


Finally, we did Naihanchi Shodan cool down to end the lesson; plenty of variety and new things to remember.  Awesome 😊🙏

Go with the flow

Yesterday's session in the Dojo was mostly about drills.  We started off with sprinting and breakfalls (which i ran of out steam on 😢), including being able to kick and roll through.  This was followed by a short Kata session doing Naihanchi Shodan.

Then we started with the flow drills, after our Sensei quoted Geoff Thompson that attackers usually follow the 4 Ds "Dialogue, deceive, distract, destroy", We started role playing various simple scenarios leading through to destroy, including blocking the first blow and locking on to the arm to take control, and turning into an attack from behind using the head protecting "crash" from Naihanchi Shodan.

Then, regularly swapping partners, we went through flow drills based on both the Naihanchi and Pinan families of Kata. There were many different scenarios visited, but some of the key elements worked in included arm bars, arm locks, counters to hay makers (including the use of Gidan Uke), knee strikes, neck take downs using ridge hands. There was also some ground work covered, break falls, use of kicks to keep the attacker distant, scissor leg takedowns and recovery.

Finally, we did some more free form work, using attacks and defences from the drills. Not full kumite, but challenging nonetheless. All in all, apart again from my stamina, a great session. 😊😊😊 Having some tests soon to look at the stamina / breathing issues.

Dojo Work: Basics and a little bit of wrestling

Saturday in the Dojo was definitely a back to basics day.   The warm up included breakfalls and shrimping escapes, crawling and rolls, then it was basics time, punches, receiving techniques and kicks.

Some of my kicks are showing signs of improvement, but my Yoko Geri is still pretty awful 😞 But I'm not the only one struggling with some kicks, so our Sensei got us to partner up and do some kicking to pads.  My Ushiro Geri is looking better, as is my Mawashi Geri, but one of my biggest faults is not using my hands properly as part of the techniques,  so more practise needed.  

After that was a lighter spot, as we practised Sumo style grappling, either with the one getting a fall or their opponent out of the marked area being the winner.   Although Sumo is a Japanese Martial Art, as ever there is an Okinawan equivalent, which I looked up as I couldn't remember the name 😞.  It seems there are a few names, Shima (a martial art in its own right), Tegumi (Naha) or Mutō (Shuri or Tomari).  Well I won one, lost one, so wasn't too bad by my standards anyway 😊

Finally on to Kata, and practise of Naihanchi Shodan and a run through of Nidan.  We did both single step and performance versions of the Katas, whilst the higher grades went on to practise Sandan upwards.  Finally, in pairs we did performance versions of our next needed Kata, scrutinized by our Sensei.  For me, that was Shodan and apparently I have made a lot of improvement.  So the regular practice certainly pays off 😊😊

Our dojo has been asked to perform a demonstration for charity, so me and my son are both looking to give it a go. Should be fun and for a good cause 😊😊

Facing Up to Things

Originally, when I started karate, there was a heart condition to deal with.  Now there are possible mental health and chest related issues to worry about.  A recent incident brought these to a head (in the form of a panic attack), and now I've got a session to assess my mental health today and a spirometry test later in the month.   Should have guessed at the latter, having been a cigarette smoker for about 36 years before I gave them up 😔

I suppose I have been aware that might be issues for a while but have been somewhat in denial, but seeing the doctor a couple a weeks ago was the start of having to face up to things.   Karate has helped me to stay calm at times I otherwise wouldn't have and has improved my health greatly, but stamina isn't something that's improved as much as I would have liked, still getting short of breath when others don't.   And issues outside of the dojo will need to be faced as well.

Will probably be doing a lot of slow Kata today and deep breathing, but hopefully facing up to things will start here and work out. But it may take a while.