Karate

Black Belt; the Karate journey has just begun.

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First, let me back up to the beginning of June….. It was a week before my Karate examination for Shodan and I made sure that I did everything I could to take my black belt on the day of my exam. I trained harder than ever before. I did over 300 katas in the two months before the exam, studied my Japanese terms, did stance training and pushed myself harder in my classes than I ever did in the past. I walked into that exam more than ready to take my rank and earn my black belt. Two days after my exam, I learned that I had passed. After almost six years of training, taking up to five classes a week at one point, reading every Karate book that I could get my hands on, assisting with Karate classes for over three years and living, breathing and sleeping Karate, I …

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How to bow.

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In the advanced Karate class that I take with Sensei Cieplik, we always begin in seiza, after that, everyone stands up and we do a quick, two second or so, bow to Sensei Cieplik. We have been doing this for some time now but in a recent class, he mentioned that if we are going to bow, he was going to show us the correct way to do it. The back of your neck needs to touch the collar of your gi throughout the bow. Both heels are touching and the toes are pointed out about 45 degrees. Bend slowly at the waist and exhale until all the air is expelled from your lungs. When you bend at the waist, make sure to expel all of the air from your lungs for as long as it takes. While bent over, keep your eyes on whoever you are bowing to with …

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