For starters, let me say that I really didn’t want to go to karate tonight.  I had a really long/bad day at the office, and I really wanted to just sit down and veg out tonight.  But after Paul called, we both decided it was best if we worked out.  So off to the dojo […]

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After flexing some time back and sleeping this afternoon I made it to the dojo for karate.  We worked on several combinations with backfist strike and back kick, doing some cool partner training where we worked on the mechanics of the spinning motion.  One side would jab, the defender would do a pressing block and […]

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Before the Super Bowl, Tasha, Paul and I got together at the rec center and had a karate workout.  We opened with a full compliment of stretching and warming up, followed by a good hard basics review and some Heian kata.  Because it was Tasha’s first karate workout in a long time, we opted to […]

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Over the last few days I’ve been working hard on some karate site revisions.  I’ve been talking with Sensei Brewer over the last few days and I’m excited to report that soon we will have a new and improved website for the Central Illinois Shotokan clubs!  To do this, I have been using my recently […]

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Tonight it was back to the Arvada dojo for some more karate!  We started off with some interesting combinations, one of which was side snap kick and backfist strike, after the kick was finished you step back and do a roundhouse kick, then as you land you shift your stance so you are facing the […]

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Today marked the end of Kangeiko training.  Things started off a bit differently today, after warmups we headed right into kata training.  Sensei Yaguchi had us come out in groups to do a kata of his choosing backwards.  Yes, backwards.  In the case of the nidans, he selected Heian Yondan which was fairly complicated to […]

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I think tonight’s workout was harder than any morning workout so far this week.  We started out with a really painful combination: rear leg front kick at the same time front arm jab, stepping back with a reverse punch, then jab and reverse punch.  We did this combination 30 times on each leg with no […]

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Today’s workout was a fun one.  My body is getting somewhat used to being up ultra-early, which meant I wasn’t quite as sluggish as the class began.  Today’s combination was shifting back in front stance with rising block, without moving perform inward block with the same hand, and then downward block with the same hand.  […]

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Today marked the crossing of the halfway point for Kangeiko, which meant that today Paul B. took over the driving privileges.  We arrived a bit early to the dojo since the snow wasn’t as bad as expected, and before long it was time to start Day Four. Today’s combination was slide back into back stance […]

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This morning was the same pattern as the previous two workouts, so I’ll boil it down to the key points: Basic Combination of the Day: reverse punch, stepping forward reverse punch, upward elbow strike, then stepping forward lunge punch. Sparring: Attacker does lunge punch, defender steps back into front stance and does a rising block […]

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