Karate how to

Make every move of your kata a seperate kata

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Although I learned of this concept in Iaido class, I do feel that it certainly does apply to our Karate training. I was going through a kata and one of my fellow students, who was helping me with some kata details, made a comment about making each move of the kata a separate kata. The reason he said this was because I was rushing from one move to the next without waiting to see if the next move was even needed. One strike, one kill If each technique that we do is supposed to stop an attacker, one effective technique would end the kata. With that in mind, instead of doing each technique anticipating the next technique in the kata, each move should be done with the purpose of ending the attack against you and then you still should have enough pause or “zanshin” to see what you need to …

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Sen no sen, Sen Sen no sen, Go no sen and Deai

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I recently received an email asking what the difference is between sen no sen and deai. Instead of just replying to the email, I felt that it would be better if I could share it with everyone. I had my own thoughts about what those concepts meant but I wanted to be sure that my answers were correct. Because of this, I asked my Sensei, Sensei Marty Cieplik, for a definitive answer. Thanks Sensei! I am glad that I wasn’t far off the mark with these concepts but the difference between sen no sen and sen sen no sen was something that I did not know enough about although I use the concept all the time when sparring. Go no sen: Go no sen is block and attacking the opponent after their attack has finished. For example, my opponent throws a reverse punch at my face, I stop that attack …

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Breathing kata

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For a long time, I have been trying to tie kata with breathing and meditation techniques. A few weeks ago, I was doing kata at home and stumbled upon something that I don’t remember doing. Before each move of the kata, I took a very deep breath and then, like always, exhaled when I completed the move. For example, in Heian Shodan, when in the ready stance, take a deep breath, then downward block, exhale and hold the movement. From there, take in a another deep breath, step forward, punch and exhale. Before each move of the kata, you take in a deep breath and then exhale as you complete the movement. I did 10 katas this way and noticed that my moves were more relaxed, I was more mindful of each move, the moves felt as powerful as always and the pace of the kata was slowed down a …

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