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Monthly Archives: January 2013

January 31, 2013

Announcement of new book

This is what the author Sensei Bernardo Mercado has to say about the book:

"As some of you may know, I started karate training at San Francisco State University in 1981 with sensei Mayer Parry. I then joined sensei Leroy Rodrigues at the Shinkyu Shotokan Karate dojo in 1983 and he has been my instructor ever since. Immediately I noticed that he and his students had a different way of sparring than I had seen anywhere else. Shinkyu students had the ability of quickly closing distance and forcing opponents to retreat. Sensei Rodrigues called these techniques ‘push basics’ and told me that he learned this way of fighting from sensei Chuck Okimura in San Jose. He told me that the JKA developed these basics and that they were taught at the exclusive Instructors Training classes in Japan.

Over the years I’ve played around with arranging combinations and developing new techniques based on sensei Rodrigues’ push basics. Some black belt instructors and brown belts asked me many times to formalize and document the basics so they could practice on their own outside the dojo. My effort eventually developed into a book which contains fundamentals of push basics and 41 new combinations that I composed. This new book, ‘Tsuku Kihon: Advanced Fighting Techniques of Shotokan Karate’, is now published and available for purchase.

Push basics are only meant to be taught to solid brown belts and above, by someone with extensive experience and who knows how to execute them properly. These should not be taught until a student has diligently practiced regular kihon for at least 3 years and developed strong kime. Teaching tsuku kihon to anyone who is not ready is a bad idea and the technics will not work. In other words, students must first develop a strong foundation in karate basics prior to being exposed to tsuku kihon."
Tsuki Kihon

 

The book can be purchased by Amazon by clicking this link

 

January 24, 2013

Der Shotokan Tiger

Shotokan Tiger 1

Der Shotokan Tiger

Der sportliche Wettkampf, obgleich spektakulär und publikumswirksam, stellt nur eine kleine Facette des Karate dar, denn nicht der Wettkampf mit Erfolg und Niederlage steht im Vordergrund unserer Bemühungen, sondern das harte und beständige Training, die Auseinandersetzung mit den komplizierten und komplexen Bewegungsabläufen des Karate mit dem Ziel, Körper und Geist zu beherrschen und in Einklang miteinander zu bringen.

Immer wieder stellen die großen, alten Karatelehrer, und nicht nur die japanischen, den hohen erzieherischen Wert unserer Kampfkunst in den Mittelpunkt, wenn sie Karate unbedingt als „Do“ unterrichtet wissen wollen.

Der Begriff des „Do“ bedeutet soviel wie „Lebensweg“ oder
„Weg zur Lebensgestaltung“ und beinhaltet den Weg hin zur Selbstperfektion.

Dabei steht Karate in enger Beziehung zum Geist des Zen und ist beeinflusst vom Bushido, dem ritterlichen Ehrenkodex der Samurai.

Ziel aller Kampfkünste der Samurai war es, den jeweiligen Gegner blitzschnell und möglichst in einer Aktion kampfunfähig zu machen (Ikken Hissatsu). Diese Absicht liegt auch heute noch dem Karate zugrunde.

Zunächst einmal ist dies eine inhumane und destruktive Zielsetzung, welche unbedingt der Bindung an die sittliche Wertordnung einer reifen Persönlichkeit bedarf.

Somit hat der Karateunterricht auch die große Aufgabe und Herausforderung, den Schüler zur Erkenntnis und Einsicht seiner Verantwortung zu erziehen und ihn zu lehren, die eigenen Emotionen stets unter Kontrolle zu halten.

Stärke und Überlegenheit sollen sich in Selbstbewusstsein und Selbstvertrauen äußern. Um aber Überheblichkeit und Hochmut zu vermeiden, muss der Karateschüler Respekt, Höflichkeit, Bescheidenheit, ja Demut lernen: Als Zeichen seiner unbedingten Achtung gegenüber den Mitmenschen und als Beweis seiner Selbstbeherrschung.

Das Tiger-Wappen, das uns allen bekannte Emblem des Shotokan-Karate, verdeutlicht sehr gut die Ziele und Absichten des Karate-Do. Dargestellt sehen wir einen Tiger, der sich in einem Kreis befindet. (Entwurf des japanischen Künstlers Hoan Kosugi, eines Freundes und Schülers von Funakoshi Gishin)

Den beiden Bildelementen, dem Tiger und dem Kreis, kommt eine besondere Bedeutung zu.

Der Tiger verkörpert dabei das Animalische, Wildheit, Mut, unbändige Kampfeslust, urwüchsige Kraft und absolute Entschlossenheit.

Wer siegreich kämpfen will, muss lernen, wie ein Tiger zu kämpfen.

Der Tiger aber ist nicht frei dargestellt, sondern in einem Kreis abgebildet und gebunden. Der Kreis wiederum steht stellvertretend als Zeichen der Vernunft und des menschlichen Geistes.

Wer siegreich und ehrenvoll kämpfen will, der muss seine Emotionen kontrollieren und bedarf der Besonnenheit. 

Der Kreis (Geist) umschließt und bändigt so den Tiger.

Die Vernunft und der menschliche Geist herrschen über die animalischen Kräfte, beherrschen und kontrollieren sie, um sie sich notfalls nutzbar machen zu können.

Deutlicher als am Beispiel jenes kleinen Emblems lassen sich Wesen und Ziele des Karate-Do m.E. kaum veranschaulichen.

Erkennbar wird allerdings auch, wie sehr wahrer Karateunterricht gebunden bleibt an Geist und Atmosphäre des Dojo. Diese wiederum werden bestimmt und entscheidend geprägt vom Vorbild und Beispiel des unterrichtenden Karatelehrers.

Bernd Hinschberger

Karatelehrer

January 21, 2013

Quick Hand Speed

Quick Hands punching reaction and hand eye coordination

 

Last summer I had the opportunity to work with some international karate coaches,  during the weekend I asked where the US competitor lagged behind, he said hand speed. So I thought I would do some research in similar sports to see what they do to increase hand speed. So we will cover classical ideas to more progressive approaches.

Speed-bag: The speed bag is the classic method for increasing boxing hand speed and improving hand-to-eye coordination, readily identifiable from countless boxing movies. Your first step in using the speed bag is to set the speed bag platform and yourself up into proper positions. Adjust the platform so that the wide "belly" of the bag is at chin level. Then place yourself your proper stance for boxing, guard up.

Strike the bag in a circular motion, bringing the outside of your fist down onto the upper slope of the bag's "belly." Then complete the circular motion, returning your fist to guard position. Strike it again after it rebounds off the back of the platform.

During the initial stages of practice, you should work with only one fist at a time, until the movement becomes less awkward. Then start working on alternating your right and left fists. When you feel you have mastered the speed bag, take a step up and make the exercise more difficult by putting straight punches and movement around the bag platform into your drill.

Double-ended Bag, punching bag is attached to ceiling and floor. You may have seen this in some Bruce Lee training videos. If not here is what you do:

The double-end bag is tethered to the ceiling and the floor by bungees. It is designed to react wildly when struck, simulating the reactions and elusiveness of a live opponent. That makes the double-end bag an excellent tool for increasing boxing hand speed, perfecting hand-to-foot coordination, and improving your reflexes. For standard set up the double-end bag, adjust the tethers so the bag is at shoulder height. Because the bag is meant to represent the head of the opponent, if you wish to practice against shorter or taller opponents, adjust the bag height accordingly. Punching up at a "taller" bag is more demanding.

The double-end bag should be worked in the same fashion that a heavy bag would be. Hit the bag, moving around it and paying close attention to proper form. If the bag is moving wildly out of control that means you are not hitting it squarely and more attention needs to be paid to form.

As your hand speed improves, the bag will become easier to track and land multiple punches or more difficult punches (hooks and uppercuts) on. This is what I would call neurological training. Meaning it does not reinforce exact skill pattern development, but it does improve neurological signal development.

Shadowboxing With Hand Weights: This is a sticky area, as I personally do not like to practice movement with an artificial weight, which can change the mechanics of human movement. So do you have the knowledge to know when the weight is too heavy and begins to change your punch? My buddy Tim McClellan the best strength and fitness coach in America told me a story about professional pitchers using a slightly heavier ball to increase arm strength. The problem was that anything more than half of an ounce seemed to change the way they threw.

Here are some alternate points of view:

I've heard recommendations from all sorts of trainers, including Olympic boxing trainers, and the general consensus seems to be to avoid heavy weights for shadowboxing. For one, throwing heavy weights out at full force while shadowboxing is asking for injury to the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. For another, throwing heavy weights is the opposite type of muscle memory the boxer needs. Fighters need to punch explosively, engaging the hips and legs, accelerating the fist as quickly as possible, and telegraphing nothing. Practicing punching slowly with a heavy weight will train you to punch slowly with a heavy weight, to push punches slowly rather than to snap them explosively. Dumbbells and kettle bells can be useful, but in full body exercises like clean and presses or woodchoppers. For shadowboxing, 16-ounce gloves are plenty of weight, if you are going to punch with 16-ounce gloves on your hand.

I am a believer of a different type of drills to improve punching power with comes more from involving your whole body that increasing arm strength.

 

Empty barbell Throws: This is a great exercise for hand speed and punching power as it's done in an explosive fashion. For this exercise, get your barbell and take off all the weights, just the 30 lb. bar is plenty. Hold the bar on your chest as though you are doing to do a press up. Then push that bar out as quick as you can and yank it back down to your chest.

Do this in quick intervals of about 10 seconds to start working your way up to 25 seconds. Rest 60 seconds between sets and do 3 sets.

 

Resistance Band Punches: This is about as functional as it gets. Resistance band punches are excellent for hand speed and punching power as you're simply punching against resistance. To perform the exercise, all you do is wrap a couple resistance bands around the bar on a pulley station (or anything that's shoulder height). You then grasp the handles and ensure that the bands are positioned under your arms. From there, it's easy - you shadowbox. If I have a workout partner, I'll get him to hold some pads for me. It's actually pretty fun. As you fatigue, you simply drop one band and continue the exercise (providing your using more than one resistance band).

Hand speed & punching power exercise guidelines

  • 3 rounds
  • 1 minute each
  • 1 minute rest

 

Having mentioned the traditional approaches I want to suggest neurological training to improve hand speed. Is not your hand speed a function of the signal from the brain? If we increase the speed and frequency of the brain signals our hand speed will proportionally increase. So it makes sense that any highly involved neurological set of drills will drive signals and increase nerve myelination. In other words patty cake drills will make your punches faster. 

 

Doug Jepperson Park City, Utah

If you want to contact Doug for Seminars or lectures please contact him at:

Doug@ParkCityKarate.com

Park City Karate

 

doug-jacket

January 9, 2013

The new KarateCoaching

Welcome to the new KarateCoaching website

As you can see we have worked behind the scenes to make your KarateCoaching experience even better.

1) improved the navigation dramatically - it is now faster, smoother and cleaner

2) videos are now available in a format for all devices including iPad, iPhone and smartphones

3) we have re-organized the categories in the new overview page

4) we added even more content and videos

5) as a great bonus we do offer now a blog and to make this even better we offer to all our member to send us their karate events, information or maybe even articles they want to share. We will put it up on our blog and share it with the world.

6) as a special bonus we are very proud to announce that Shihan Yokota has joined our team and will share his knowledge and experience. His section already has many videos will constantly grow and new videos & content will be added.

Come and join the movement. Become a member at KarateCoaching.com the leader in online education for Karatekas.

all the best

Your KarateCoaching Team

January 7, 2013

Rafael Aghyev

Best kumite champion?

Best kumite champion?

Is Rafael Aghyev the best WKF kumite champion?

If you think he is then tell me why he is the best.  If you do not think so then tell me why too.

Let me hear from you.

 

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