Post by fleur on Apr 9, 2011 6:12:26 GMT
Training under Abe Keigo Shihan with a local Shotokan SKIF club - 9th April 2011 (2hr training)
Wow, what an honour to have the opportunity to just hang out for a couple of hours with one of the legends. This was an open class to all karateka, any style which is always a cool and interesting environment. A little nerve racking as you never know quite what to expect and your training with strangers outside your comfort zone.
So this is what I can recall of what we did. Normally I suffer from brain fuzz after training in a different environment as it all kinda blurs into a sweaty mass of training euphoria. But here goes:
We started with some usual static chudan double punching drills to the front, then one punch 45 angle to the left and the second punch still to the front, then 45 angle to right/ second punch to the front, then combine all three, then at speed. Then Jodan, then Gedan. Then famous last words “ Change feet!“ Had a sweat on within about 2minutes.
Then we moved onto feet together / mei geri. He was so disappointed with the unimpressive knee lifting that he immediately broke us into groups of 4. One took their belt off - two held it at knee height while the other two stood in zenkutsu dachi with their front knee resting lightly on the belt. They then had to perform 20 mei geri each leg and 20 low yokogeri and 20 chudan yokogeri each leg, without the kicking foot touching the belt, to make the point of lifting that knee sufficiently.
We then did some moving through line drills: chudan zuki / zenkutsu dachi - forward & back. He soon turns to Sensei and chats in Japanese. The Sensei smiles and translates. “You move TOO SLOW! Basics no different to kumite, it’s the same, move fast in kumite, move fast in basics!”
So we did it again. Faster!
We then did some two man drills. Simple one step forward/punch, the other person steps back and blocks with distance/ no contact. Then immediately the attacker steps back to become the defender and the defender steps forward to become the attacker. First to a slow count, then to a fast count. Then own timing - continuous. Then we did it all again with a kicking drill.
I think this is about when we had a break…(phew)
When we were back, we gathered around and he talked about the importance of understanding how to be fast. He explained if you don’t understand how your body works you will never know how to make it work properly, understanding body mechanics and the science behind how your body works will help you succeed in your quest. He demonstrated the importance on pushing off the back leg to propel yourself forward and pushing backwards off your front leg to move backwards efficiently and side ways as well. We had to then practice these movements by ourselves, engaging the right pushing on the correct leg depending on which direction we wanted to go.
We then had to work again in two man drills moving across the hall, one attacking while the other purely concentrated on defending and engaging the correct tai sabaki. I must say this was quite hard to do with a 16 year old black belt charging me down at 100 miles an hour! Anyhow did my best.
Again Shihan not too impressed with this display, too many were just moving straight back, no side ways evasion. So now you try this:
5 group exercise. 1 defender in the centre, 4 attackers randomly attacking. Attacker to call kiai a second prior to attack then advancing. Defender trying to respond quickly and counter. (that was actually really fun!) And praise be! He thought we did very well. He was happy with how we moved, engaging the whole body.
Then back to the moving drills across the hall to see if we had learnt anything. I still found this drill kinda wanting. The group drill seemed to make much more sense to me.
Black belts only light sparring.
Finished with Heian Shodan
Done and dusted!
Wow, what an honour to have the opportunity to just hang out for a couple of hours with one of the legends. This was an open class to all karateka, any style which is always a cool and interesting environment. A little nerve racking as you never know quite what to expect and your training with strangers outside your comfort zone.
So this is what I can recall of what we did. Normally I suffer from brain fuzz after training in a different environment as it all kinda blurs into a sweaty mass of training euphoria. But here goes:
We started with some usual static chudan double punching drills to the front, then one punch 45 angle to the left and the second punch still to the front, then 45 angle to right/ second punch to the front, then combine all three, then at speed. Then Jodan, then Gedan. Then famous last words “ Change feet!“ Had a sweat on within about 2minutes.
Then we moved onto feet together / mei geri. He was so disappointed with the unimpressive knee lifting that he immediately broke us into groups of 4. One took their belt off - two held it at knee height while the other two stood in zenkutsu dachi with their front knee resting lightly on the belt. They then had to perform 20 mei geri each leg and 20 low yokogeri and 20 chudan yokogeri each leg, without the kicking foot touching the belt, to make the point of lifting that knee sufficiently.
We then did some moving through line drills: chudan zuki / zenkutsu dachi - forward & back. He soon turns to Sensei and chats in Japanese. The Sensei smiles and translates. “You move TOO SLOW! Basics no different to kumite, it’s the same, move fast in kumite, move fast in basics!”
So we did it again. Faster!
We then did some two man drills. Simple one step forward/punch, the other person steps back and blocks with distance/ no contact. Then immediately the attacker steps back to become the defender and the defender steps forward to become the attacker. First to a slow count, then to a fast count. Then own timing - continuous. Then we did it all again with a kicking drill.
I think this is about when we had a break…(phew)
When we were back, we gathered around and he talked about the importance of understanding how to be fast. He explained if you don’t understand how your body works you will never know how to make it work properly, understanding body mechanics and the science behind how your body works will help you succeed in your quest. He demonstrated the importance on pushing off the back leg to propel yourself forward and pushing backwards off your front leg to move backwards efficiently and side ways as well. We had to then practice these movements by ourselves, engaging the right pushing on the correct leg depending on which direction we wanted to go.
We then had to work again in two man drills moving across the hall, one attacking while the other purely concentrated on defending and engaging the correct tai sabaki. I must say this was quite hard to do with a 16 year old black belt charging me down at 100 miles an hour! Anyhow did my best.
Again Shihan not too impressed with this display, too many were just moving straight back, no side ways evasion. So now you try this:
5 group exercise. 1 defender in the centre, 4 attackers randomly attacking. Attacker to call kiai a second prior to attack then advancing. Defender trying to respond quickly and counter. (that was actually really fun!) And praise be! He thought we did very well. He was happy with how we moved, engaging the whole body.
Then back to the moving drills across the hall to see if we had learnt anything. I still found this drill kinda wanting. The group drill seemed to make much more sense to me.
Black belts only light sparring.
Finished with Heian Shodan
Done and dusted!