Technique of the Week (Sept 12th 2011)

From Kyoshi Matt Kaplan

Shihan, Ueshiro Okinawan Family Karate Club

State College, PA
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Ideas for Practicing Karate Off the Deck

One strategy for finding more time to do karate is to be creative in finding ways to practice techniques off the deck, whether at work or at home.

I suspect that all karate students have created their own examples, but here are a few of my favorites.

-Working kata stances while cradling a baby in both arms and using the movements to help the baby fall asleep.

- Working low cat stance while pressing an elevator button.

-Stretching from the waist to the ground while vacuuming under the bed.

-Working foot stomp (as in Naihanchi kata) to break up bags of ice at a picnic.

- Working a low stance from Kusanku (from the ura-gamae fighting posture) while fixing something on the ground. In the attached photo, I squeezed in this bit of practice while taping down a metal panel on the floor of the “Family Room” during the 2011 Ag Progress Days event. [And if you’re interested in “training” with me at 2012 APD, and would like to learn more about this Central Pennsylvania event, go to: http://agsci.psu.edu/apd/events/topics/food-health-youth/family-room.]

An invitation to all deshi: If you send me your own creative ideas and experiences for such off-the-deck training, I promise to collate and share with our overall group listserve.

Domo arigato gozaimasu,

Kyoshi Kaplan