Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Dec 8, 2009, 11:34 pm
I’ll start with the best news first!  My son Donald is now a Shodan.  After almost eight years of hard training, that he started when he was just a little boy, he took his Shodan test last Sat...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Dec 8, 2009, 8:30 am
Sensei Noia gave us another excellent class today.  He was giving everyone who needs to test some last minute tips and tricks. Warm up that caused cramps… Sensei Noia had us start out with a ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Dec 7, 2009, 10:34 pm
Sensei Brien spent the class today, giving the rest of the students who need to test some last minute polish. Lots of kihon….. We worked on a lot of basic kihon drills.  We started in a horse...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 24, 2009, 10:47 pm
Have you ever had a class where you worked so hard you thought your legs were going to fall off?  Today was one of those days.  Luckily, my legs didn’t fall off but it was close! Even the war...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 23, 2009, 10:36 pm
Sensei Brien had us work on our exam preparation again. Work on what you need to fix… This was an interesting class today.  Sensei Brien had us work on some kicking drills as other kihon for ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 19, 2009, 10:59 pm
Sensei Cieplik made a really interesting point today.  He said that if you stop, there has to be a reason.  The point he was making is that if there is a pause in a kata, there is reason for it.  T...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 17, 2009, 10:20 pm
Sensei Noia packed a lot of work into this class today.  I can hardly remember all of the drills that we worked on but I will do my best.  We started our warm ups running and shuffling from one line...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 16, 2009, 10:52 pm
Sensei Brien had us start out in a horse stance with many punches and blocks to get warmed up. Functional kata basics…. I cannot really describe this any better way than I did above.  Sensei ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 12, 2009, 2:09 am
I lost track of how many times I have said this in the past but I keep saying it so that, maybe one day, I will not be so surprised.  After all this time, I finally understand something that I have b...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 10, 2009, 10:42 pm
Sensei Noia has been working to get us ready for our exams and todays class was good example. Work those stances…. We started out moving forward across the dojo twisting our hips.  For exampl...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 5, 2009, 12:30 am
There have been some classes where Sensei Cieplik has us do certain movements that might not be understood until you have some to digest them.  Today was one of those classes. Punch forward and down...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 3, 2009, 10:16 pm
This class was torture for me for some reason.  I couldn’t turn my hips to save my life and my stances just didn’t feel correct.  It felt like my right hip was jammed into my lower back ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Nov 2, 2009, 10:55 pm
I don’t remember doing this many kicks in one class in a long time. Get a partner… We started out in a horse stance across from our partner.  From there, we did 10 each single punch, do...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 29, 2009, 11:34 pm
Great class again! Working on those basics kicks…. Sensei Cieplik had us start our kihon with three each, forward and backward, of rising block, downward block, inward  block and outward bloc...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 27, 2009, 11:01 pm
Sensei Noia has been helping us prepare for our upcoming rank examinations and tonight was almost exclusive stance training.  Sensei started class with a long warm up and stretching routine. Stance,...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 24, 2009, 11:22 pm
Sensei Plocharczyk really worked us today.  I don’t remember doing this many kicks in a long time. Focus mitt, partner and lots of kicks…. Sensei had us get a partner and our focus mitt...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 22, 2009, 9:35 pm
Sensei Cieplik has been spending a lot of time sharing the little details that make good Karate even better.  For at least a month, he has been giving us homework and special drills to improve our s...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 20, 2009, 11:34 pm
Sensei Noia has been taking a different approach with the advanced class for that last few months and tonight was another good example.  He had mentioned to me about a month ago that he wanted us to ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 18, 2009, 11:22 pm
Sorry about not having any class updates since Tuesday.  I caught some type of stomach virus and wasn’t able to take class on Thursday. With that said, no better time than to the present to ta...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 14, 2009, 12:05 am
I keep saying that Sensei Noia’s classes keep getting harder and harder but tonight was the hardest yet.  It may have not been that hard for others but I had a partner that pushed me to my limi...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 12, 2009, 12:23 am
Sensei Brien took us through a tough class today.  Sensei said that someone felt that we do not do enough conditioning in our classes and he made sure that it wasn’t going to be an issue today....
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 11, 2009, 11:13 pm
Today was the American Shotokan Karate Championship held by my club, the ISKC, at Harper college.  It was a good tournament overall and my wife and son came home with five medals between the two of t...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 8, 2009, 11:50 pm
If there is one thing that I can say about every class that I have had with Sensei Cieplik, it is that I learn something in each and every class.  I can do a movement that I have done 1000’s of...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 6, 2009, 11:24 pm
I really think Sensei Noia has a playbook on how to make our Karate really good.  Today’s class was another one of those that make you wonder how hard can you train before you fall down. Ancho...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Oct 1, 2009, 1:15 am
Sensei Cieplik was very profound tonight.  He said that the key to Karate is basics (kihon).  This comment was very simple but very hard to grasp. Working on the fundamentals… Sensei has us ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 30, 2009, 12:15 am
Sensei Noia gave us a hard class today.  I don’t remember sparring this much in a long time. Anchorman…. We started class with a few minutes of free sparring to get warmed up.  Next, w...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 28, 2009, 12:04 am
Sensei Brien had us work on our examination preparation.  Exam time is right around the corner and Sensei wants to make sure that we are prepared. 20+ minutes of really hard work…. Sensei had...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 24, 2009, 1:41 am
Sensei Cieplik shared some Karate details with us tonight. Use the hips…. Sensei had us work on a different kicking drill tonight.  He had us stand in a ready stance, put on foot forward, muc...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 22, 2009, 11:48 pm
Very hard class today.  Sensei Noia not only made the class physically hard, it was mentally hard for me. Get your pads on…. Sensei Noia gave us an interesting warm up tonight.  After we bow...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 17, 2009, 11:16 pm
Another excellent class.  A lot of learning and a lot of energy was what Sensei Cieplik gave us today. Common kihon… Sensei had us work on many of our common kihon movements but also a couple...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 15, 2009, 12:41 am
In an effort to help prepare us for our Karate examinations, Sensei Noia has been working on our physical conditioning.  Needless to say, we have been having some of the hardest Karate classes ever. ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 14, 2009, 12:16 am
Sensei Brien taught a really interesting class tonight.  This was a bit different but in a really good way. One interesting point that he made was to attack with a defensive mind and defend with and...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 10, 2009, 12:49 am
This is one of those classes that I will remember for sometime.  It was the start of the fall session and what a start it was.  There was so much energy in this class, I cannot describe it in words ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 8, 2009, 12:54 am
Sensei Noia gave us a continuation of last Tuesday’s class. Laps and kata…. Like last week, we did a lap around the dojo and then did a kata.  We started with Heian shodan all the way t...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Sep 3, 2009, 12:31 am
Sensei Cieplik had us work on a lot of kicking drills today and he gave me a tip to help fix my side thrust kick and side snap kick that I never thought of. Lots of kicking…. After the normal ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Aug 17, 2009, 12:57 am
Sensei Brien had us work on sparring basics today. Block and counter…. We spent much of the class working on basic block and counter drills.  Our partner would shift in, reverse punch and the...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Aug 11, 2009, 1:07 am
This was a really good class and different than any other that I remember. Seiza… Sensei Noia had us get into seiza and from that point we did a jodan front snap kick while staying on one knee...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Aug 4, 2009, 10:28 pm
For today’s class, Sensei Noia had us go back to some old school training methods. Warm up with some kata…. We started with heian Shodan through Heian Godan, then Tekki Shodan and our ow...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 24, 2009, 12:16 am
Sensei Noia had us spend our class working on some shifting drills today. Shifting the correct way…. One thing I always like about Sensei Noia’s classes, similar to Sensei Cieplik’...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 23, 2009, 12:57 am
Sensei Cieplik had us work on some basic kihon but with extra attention to the hips. Hips over heels…. After our warm up, Sensei had us do a few basic movements then had us modify then to get ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 20, 2009, 12:48 am
This was a really good class tonight.  Sensei Brien had us work on some of the mental aspects of our Karate. Kihon…. Sensei had us start with some basics.  We did standing up with front punc...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 17, 2009, 12:49 am
Sensei Noia wanted us to work on some shifting basics today. The band Elwood, the band…. We started with a partner and an elastic band.  We faced other while one partner held the handles and...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 16, 2009, 12:39 am
Today, Sensei Cieplik has us work on keeping connection with our heels when doing our movements. Turn on the heels and push from the hips… We started class with the normal warm up and then sta...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 14, 2009, 12:33 am
This was one of those classes that I and most of the class won’t forget.  Sensei Noia had us train on the hill outside the dojo.  It’s more like a steep crater than a hill to me though. ...
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Doug W. posted an article on Shotokan Planet - Jul 10, 2009, 12:37 am
This was an interesting class.  I visited Doc Pusateri today and I was feeling really good before class. Warm up with some kicks… We spent a good amount of time working on hook kicks.  We pa...
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