Practice, Practice....

Well the competition forms have gone in today...
So all I can do in between now and Sunday is practice and practice again.

Repeating the Kata to be used, and keep it simple,  Well that means Naihanchi Shodan for me.  Three or four repeats of the Kata at a time, plus practicing the steps and arm positions.  I need to remember the touching toes, bent knees and two hand span spacing for the steps.

For the arms, need to try to improve on the high/high-low block/supporting arm and backfist transitions, as well as remembering height and  posture on strikes, etc.  Then there is the basic sequence of head, feet, arms.

I probably won't be perfect, but at least I can try my best and practice as much as I can.  Provided I can get through the Kata without any major mishaps, seeing it through to completion I will be happy.  Overcoming first competition nerves will be the victory for me. 😊😊😊

Then there will be the nervous parent watching my son compete as well, so double nerve jangles!!! good luck first of all to him, but also to all the others from our Dojo taking part, and all the other competitors too 😊😊😊

You Shall go...

Another good and different workout in the dojo.  The ususal warm up and basic drills, but for me it's the last or for some of the others, the next to last session before next week's competition.  

The President of our Federation, Sensei Nohara, is visiting next week, so the Saturday session is replaced by a seminar taking place at our Honbu dojo.   So after the warm up, it was practicing competition entries, doing kata under competition like conditions, doing full contact sparring, and some bo staff work.

And for the first time I tried sparring under points rules, and wow is it different to what we're usually taught.  Skin contact only, head punches allowed, no kicks to the legs score, got to pull back after a scoring hit.....  Too different and I forgot the basics of blocking: I took a well placed kick to the face and was lucky it was only contact sparring lol.  To be fair it was my opponent's favourite, and far more experienced than me have been on the receiving end 😊😊

In the end, as my son wants to go in for the the Kata element of the competition, I decided that I will be joining him. So I'm going along to have a go in the Kata element too.  I may still have a lot to learn, but I think its imporant to take part.  So roll on next Sunday 😊😊😊  And good luck to all my other fellow dojo members who will be taking part! 😊

Reality Bites

So I decided to watch some videos on Kumite, and maybe I was somewhat over-ambitious 😊😊😊 My Sensei Ben has said if I would like to compete at a later event, they may be able to work so points sparring sessions in with me, so that I would be better equipped to make things competetive.  

I think I will be taking him up on that, then maybe next year I can give the competition a go.  Nothing wrong with the ambition, but got to do the graft first.  At least it gives me something to aim for.

As for this Competition, it seems that most of the competitors are lining up for Jissen Kumite (knockdown fighting).  For me, I'm defintely not equipped for that right now.   The below cartoon kinda captures what I think would be the end result for me, without the medal though lol 😊

Competition Time

So for the first time since I joined there is a competition locally I might be able to attend.  My son wants to do kata, I don't know whether  should go in for it or not.

Definitely not the full contact competition, no way am I ready for that, but the points competition is tempting.  If just to see whether I can score a point or two, at least.  I'm under no illusions that I could win a bout at this stage, but taking part would be a big plus for me, I think.

I suppose I'm trying to talk myself into it, as I haven't taken part in anything competetive in years.  I find the challenge of real life is often enough, and karate certainly helps with coping with the major challenges there.

The way I see it, it's a bit like the practice videos, doing the competition would set a target of something to improve on.  True there is very much an element of luck in who I might draw, but to me the very fact that I think it might be fun to try is in iteself a victory.

If I don't make this competition, I absolutely would want to do something the next time it comes around 😊😊

Stretches and Steps

Streching is not only an important part of warming up for Karate, for me it's imporant generally.  On at least two occasions in the last 20 years I've been to the doctors and hospital with a bad back.  Once I was off for two weeks, as a slipped disc was suspected.  Fortunately it was just a severe muscle spasm caused by bad posture, but even so it was painful.

Here are some of the stetches I've learned, both from Karate and physio, that help me:

1. Zenkutsu Dachi, the rear ball of foot stretch down, followed by straighten front leg, stretch down (Karate)

2. Alternate leg stretches up behind back (physio)

3. Alternate finger touches or hand clasps behind back (Karate)

4.  Camel stretch (copied from Yoga, probably badly)

Then I always like to follow the stretching with some form of karate practice, tonight it was the step sequences from the Naihanchi katas 😊😊😊

#karate #health #fitness #exercise #50 and over

The Kihon Katas (A Nerd in me post)

This was to be a practice video post of the first four Kihon Katas we use, and contribute towards grading, but then I looked for videos for comparison..... 

Surprise, there aren't any readily available.  As I was to find, the formal Kihon Kata is a cornerstone of the Shotokan branch of Karate, and something very different to what we are learning.   There are many videos out there, but here is a link to one which is fairly typical:

Shotokan Kihon Kata

It also appears in Shito-Ryu under a different name:

Shito-ryu: Kihon Kata Ichi

Outside of this, other branches also use "Kihon" katas, but each refers to the "basics" or "fundamentals" as viewed by that particular branch.  This was confirmed by, my Sensei: Ours are not traditional katas, they are more for full-contact karate.  

Nerd time over, practice videos for the first four Kihon katas as I am trying to learn them:

Kihon Kata Shodan

Kihon Kata Nidan

Kihon Kata Sandan

Kihon Kata Yondan

Definitely work in progress 😊😊

Back In the Dojo

After missing last week , this week was a struggle, but had to be done.  I knew I would ache afterwards and boy did I!!

Was a back to basics this week, punches, blocks, kicks, kata, padwork and a little "bunkai", or put simply, applied kata.

All the material I had done in my practice videos came up, and a fair bit of work was put into kicks, which was good for me. 😊😊  Since I am still hoping to grade, the work on basics was much appreciated.

I managed about 50 minutes without having to take an extended break, which was better than expected.  Especially given the miss, so was pleased with that.

Was the back and kneck muscles that ached most today, so some stretching needed and some more practice later.😊😊

Pacing yourself

The biggest single thing I found that helped me to start lasting longer in the dojo without a break, and starting to hit the distances I used to walk, was pacing myself.  That, along with better breathing technique when I was starting to get out of breath, helped me improve.

In the dojo, it was a case of instead to trying to do every technique, kata or drill fully then miss a few to regain breath, do 3 repetitions instead of 5 then take  slow deep breaths in recovery periods.  That way, I lasted through more of the lessons without taking a full break.  It also meant I started to practice far more of the techniques, katas and drills rather than missing out.

With walking, instead of stopping when my breathing was ragged and trying to gulp in air, the trick was to slow down when my breathing started to get ragged.  Then carry on walking at a slower pace for a while, whilst taking more controlled, deeper breaths.

This ties in with becoming more self disciplined and using better breathing techniques, all facets of learing karate ( and in truth any other true martial art). 😊😊😊 

Basic Kicks

As with Punches and Blocks, here are some practice videos I've done for my own reference.  At some some time in the future, they will enable me to check what progress I've made.

They also serve the purpose of an aide-memoire for some of the key elements that will go into my first grading.

What I will say is that from these again, I can see points my senseis' have made reference posture, the need to lift my knee and use it's position to aim the kicks, etc.  I need a lot of work to attain good form, be consistent and accurate. 

To be polite there is plenty of room for improvement 😊😊

Mae Geri

Yoko Geri

Ushiro Geri

Mawashi Geri

On a Positive Note

A year ago my son got his first grading to yellow belt:

A few months ago it was his blue belt:

This time round it will hopefully be both of us, blue/black belt for him, yellow belt for me 😊😊