30/10/2025
Shoto Jissen Karate-dō – Adults Class Report for 29-10-2025
This session began with a light, consensual hand-striking sparring exercise designed to get the body warm and to encourage relaxed movement. The focus during this phase was on footwork maintaining mobility and managing distance, while keeping the exchanges under control.
From there, the group moved into two-versus-two drills, which introduced an extra layer of complexity and awareness. This exercise required students not only to manage their own movement and defensive positioning but also to remain responsible for a partner. The intent was to build communication, awareness of space, and the ability to adapt under pressure while maintaining a sense of teamwork.
The next phase involved a self-protection drill, where the objective was to protect a designated individual from one or more attackers. This exercise brought the awareness and teamwork elements together under a practical self-defence scenario.
Then students worked at close range, establishing and breaking grips while incorporating short, realistic attacks primarily elbows but others such as gouges, grabs, headbutts and knees,
Following this, we shifted focus to stance work through a series of controlled “bulling” or sumo-style bouts. These bouts were used to help students understand the use of stances dynamically, pushing, pulling, and resisting pressure, rather than simply performing stances in a static or formal way. This provided a practical understanding of how stances function to generate stability and power in real movement.
We then moved onto kihon, beginning from shizentai to reinforce control of one’s own body. Students recorded and repeated the close-range strikes they had been practising earlier in the grip drills. This was followed by travelling kihon “down the hall,” where we focused on reproducing the stances and transitions developed in the sumo drills, ensuring consistency between dynamic practice and traditional basics.
The final part of the class focused on kata and application, with particular attention given to the Jodan Age Uke sequence in being a solution to a lapel grab attack (which was a common problem faced during the grappling drills in the warm) .
• Junior grades approached the concept through Heian Shodan, exploring the movement as a simple but effective response to an incoming grip and follow up attack.
• Advanced grades examined the same idea through Jion, where the combination of gyaku-zuki (reverse punch) and a of the “stepping punch”provided a natural progression. This sequence was expanded to include an arm wrench and face gouge as a follow-up technique.
