Karate notes

I have been doing kyoukishin karate from the age for 14. While I did not win any major tournaments, I have been practicing in three different countries, many dojos and learning from excellent senseis (teachers).

Sometimes now I give classes to kids and adults in Tsukuba dojo. Here I will be putting my notes, ideas and training tips for myself to keep them before forgetting.

Here is my report for the second dan (English & Japanese).

 For inquiries about karate, please contact me at irina.melnikova.f at gmail.com

Training notes

25 April 2024 (Ajima-sensei's training)

Ideas for mae-geri and yoko-geri training: 

1) holding the partner on the shoulder, practice yoko-geri very slowly without putting the leg to the floor (.g., 10 times each side)

2) The partner holds smth long (stick or kick/punch medium bag) on the level of knees or a bit higher, close to the legs, try yo slowly kick mae-geri withou touching the bag

Ideas for kumite:

1) 30 seconds try to win by 手数 (efficient techniques) or damage, do not go back under pressure

18 April 2024 (Ajima-sensei's training)

Renraku-kumite (in pairs) ideas: 

1) in zenkutsu-dachi joudan-tsuki 3 times, opponent blocks jodan-uke with several endings at the third count (for example, can do kakiof blocked hand and jodan tsuki with other hand, or a little pish and chuudan-tsuki). Also blocking with shuto hand and shotei hand can be considered for different standard blocks

2) gekisai 1,2 bunkai: one goes first step sanchin dachi and oi jodan tsuki and second step shiko dachi and gedan tsuki. The opponent in the same positions blocks jodan uke and gedan barai

Ippon-kumite 1 minute: people line up in front of one person and one by one do one kick/punch when their turn comes up and try to go awau ASAP, the person's task is to block all attacks and counterattack.  

Kata: kyokushin kata should be dynamic. When people try to do very fast, the movements become small - try to avoid it

16 April 2024 (Sasaki-shihan's training)

When preparing kata for the tournament, it is important to keep 軸 (body cernel) and focus not to let your shoulders go up with the movements. Focus on your たんでん【丹田】(your body center), npt to raise it.

Do not hurry up to increase the speed of your movements at the cost of the correctness. Do not look around at people with very fast movements, trying to copy them. They may be naturally physically faster or they may be fast but not correct in the movements... Or they may have spent years to reach this speed.  The speed for you will come with practice, with multiple repetitions at some point.

Doing multiple repetitions (数) is essential for reaching good kata performance level. But do it mindfully. Repeating multiple times incorrect movement will make it a  くせ　(bad habit).

When doing kata practice, always start and end the training with slow movements.

When training kids, be strict to the senpais (oldest kids with higher belts in the class).