Instructor Training Assignment #2: Eli Tuttle Technique Evaluation

Instructor Certification Course
Nov. 8, 2007
Student Evaluation

Nathan Kimball

Student: Eli Tuttle

Age: 25

Rank: Ni-Kyu

Technique: Moving through zenkutsu dachi into Oi-Zuki The assignment for this month is to pick a student and observe him while training in order to choose a technique that could be improved. Evaluate the student's technique while performed during class. Then for the next few weeks work with the student to improve the technique, perform a final evaluation of the student's technique, and note how the student has improved.

Formative Evaluation: I observed that when participating in kihon, Eli leaned forward and did not lock his hips when completing oi-zuki. I will work with Eli to help him improve his body movement through expansion and contraction of his legs and trunk when moving through the technique. I will work with Eli explaining the objectives for improving step punching. He will perform various drills and I will explain the purpose for each one. The drills have been given to Eli to perform as he can outside the dojo.

Evaluation after initial observation: Eli understands how to move through his hip but does not do it consistently; he also does not lock his hips when he completes oi-zuki. I also noticed he does not roll his thighs and hip in to move forward. Understanding this concept will greatly improve his oi-zuki. Eli wants to learn and become a proficient karateka, with the following drills I hope to help him improve his basic movement.

Drills Assigned:

Below are drills to improve Eli’s movement through oi-zuki, as this is not necessarily a basic movement the understanding of how to move first with the rolling of the thighs inward and the hip to follow, finishing with the opposite hip pushing toward the punching side proves to be challenging for many people including myself. With these drills and the explanation of them through performing and assisting I intend to increase Eli’s understanding as well as my own of how to properly complete oi-zuki. The objectives of these drills are to develop techniques that will flow from the floor up through the body, compression of the thighs and rotation through the hip and out the fist with the opposite hip pushing toward the punching side for maximum power and balance. These drills will also improve the flexibility of the hips and develop proper hip rotation when performing techniques.

Drill 1: From left leg forward zenkutsu dachi, drop into your stance, move right leg back, place your hands on your hips and move forward into right leg forward zenkutsu dachi with the emphasis on pushing through your hips to move. Use your hands to feel and push your hips into the next stance. Concentrate on moving your hips first and the head and upper body should follow with your hips. When moving through oi-zuki, remember to snap the rear leg hip into full front at the end of the technique. With the forward movement remember body contraction and expansion through your lower body, this would be to move and use your hips and legs as efficiently as possible with additional power. Complete 50 oi-zuki a day with the above in mind.

Drill 2: From yoi, drop into the height of your stance, move your right leg back into left forward zenkutsu dachi as soon as you heel touches the ground step forward while keeping the height of your stance, into right forward zenkutsu dachi. Complete this drill 20 times on each side as this will help with explosive movement forward as long as drill 1 is used.

Drill 3: For a hip and ankle stretch exercise, stand straight up and lower your body as if to start leg movement. Twist your hip as far as you can to the left and then to the right. Remember to contract your trunk and bend your legs without leaning over, pull your hip and stretch your ankles to gain maximum proficiency through your hips and legs.

Summative Evaluation: During these past couple week’s Eli has increased his flexibility throughout his body and is moving through his thighs, back and trunk on a more consistent basis. To make this mindset permanent we need to understand how power and power generating movement travels through our bodies to a final action, add this mentality to our basic motion and it will become natural, with this I believe our karate will improve dramatically.

Paper #11:
Working with Steve Fraleigh on kime

Student: Steve Fraleigh
Age: 39
Rank: 8th kyu
Began training: January 2007


I have had the opportunity to train with Steve over the last 11 months, from his fresh start in Martial Arts to the present. Steve trains on a pretty regular basis, which is why I chose him as my focus for this paper, and is what I consider a typical student for his level, meaning he struggles with the common movements within shotokan karate which are not common in everyday life.

Observations: In order to pick an area to concentrate on I had Steve perform Heian Shodan so that I could watch various aspects of his karate. One of the most prominent things I saw was that there was no clear ending point to each of his techniques, in this case to his blocks and punches. Instead of a clear snap or explosion to his techniques there was a gradual finish that included extra small movements, somewhat like a jiggle. For the most part, his techniques as a whole are done appropriately for someone of his rank; however, the lack of a clear conclusion to the techniques makes them look somewhat sloppy and not as strong as they should be. Additionally, I noticed that he was not stable in his stance at the end of a step or a turn. Much like his punching and blocking, his movements did not end cleanly with him a stable, rooted stance. Instead he struggled to maintain his balance, especially on turns. In addition, I noticed that Steve tends to get winded easily during normal training (and even after doing just this one kata). Steve is very tense throughout each whole movement, whether it is a punch, block, strike or step. What I was seeing was that Steve lacked basic kime, and the relaxation that precedes and follows it. I have chosen to focus on improving Steve’s understanding and application of kime for this assignment.

Recommendations: I feel that Steve would benefit from increased focus in his techniques, especially at the ending point. He also needs to learn to relax through the movement and just “tense in the moment” at the end. By working on improving his kime on simple movements first (punch and block) in his torso and upper body Steve should be able to apply these techniques to other, more advanced movements. After Steve has started to make progress in these simple, stationary (meaning he is not trying to work the technique while stepping or turning) movements, he can work to incorporate the same concepts to his lower body during transitions. At this point Steve’s stances will need to be lowered with his tanden tucked to improve stability and to keep his hips under his shoulders during transitions. As part of all these lessons I will have Steve focus on relaxation, 1) to help keep him from getting winded easily, and 2) to more clearly define when the proper moment is to tense during a technique.

Practice: During the course of the month I had Steve practice several different drills. I focused on drills which I felt he could do on his own and be able measure his own improvement. I had Steve work on the following things:

• Week 1 – Starting off the assignment we discussed the areas I wanted to work on with Steve, namely kime. I covered with him what kime is, though both explanation and demonstration, and why I felt this was an area he needed improvement, and where he could/should expect to see changes in his karate. It seemed that Steve understood at an analytical level what kime was but really did not know the process to go through to achieve it. Therefore, the first week I had Steve focus on just two drills, with movements in their simplest forms, with the plan to build upon these drills.

• Rolling up the tanden – This is a drill where, while standing in shizen-tai and in a relaxed state, you tuck the tail bone causing the pelvis to roll forward and up, and the muscles of the abdomen to contract. This is done in a quick, explosive movement, and then just as quickly you relax again, letting the tanden return to its natural position. The purpose of this drill is to learn how to tense from the core.
• Punching in shizen-tai, 50 – 75% power and speed – The purpose of this drill is to focus on relaxing during the extension of the arm and tensing at the point of impact. By punching at a reduced effort level the student can concentrate on more of the basic details of the technique, allowing them to “burn in” the proper path, relaxation and tension points. For this week Steve was to first start by locking down the shoulder by tightening the muscles under his armpit (top of the lat). At a later point, after making progress on this particular drill, I would have Steve slowly start to incorporate the tanden and lower abs, and then the legs into a similar drill.

• Week 2 – We reviewed his progress on the drills of the previous week. Steve had made modest improvements rolling up his tanden to the point where I felt we could add another element to the drill. However, his punching was still lacking any type of locking or tensing, even though I could see him working on relaxation. His relaxation and tension were not coming at the correct moments, so we discussed again the feeling he should have during the punch. I had Steve to focus on two drills again for the next week, one which built on the tensing and relaxing of the tanden, and continuing with the punching drill.

• Thrusting the arms straight down (arms are straight, the very short movement comes from the shoulders) at the side while simultaneously rolling up the tanden and tensing the lower abdomen. This drill is building on the first week’s work of “rolling up the tanden” by incorporating the downward movement, or locking in, of the shoulders when the tanden is tensed. The purpose of this drill is to have the student understand how to begin to incorporate more aspects, or parts, of their physiology into the tensing process. Keeping the arms close to the core of the body simplifies the action, whereas trying the same drill with the arm above the head in a age uke position it much harder for a beginner to accomplish.
• Punching in shizen-tai, 50 – 75% power (continuation from last week) – In addition to the purpose of this drill covered for the previous week, I had Steve really concentrate on the proper times to be relaxed and when to tense. I covered with him why and when we twist our arms in our techniques and how he could use that information as a guide. For a punch, the twist comes at the end of the path, and up to that point the arm should be relaxed. I felt that at a novice level, beginning tensing at the twist would be an acceptable start to better kime. We also covered that when the arm is fully extended, with the shoulder locked down, he should then relax.

• Week 3 – Steve showed signs that he was still struggling with the drill of thrusting his arms down. We discussed the drill and technique more, and the feeling he should start to get as he made improvements. Steve did make better progress on his punching, especially on relaxing more during the start of the punch. However, at the end of the punch, while attempting to relax, he was allowing his arm to become loose to the point it was wobbly. I decided it was time to add another aspect to the punching drill to help Steve stabilize his punch at its ending point.

• Thrusting the arms straight down at the side while simultaneously rolling up the tanden and tensing the lower abdomen. This is a continuation of the 2nd week’s work. I had Steve concentrate more on smaller movements from the shoulder and stronger movements in the tanden. I explained that as he improved he should start to feel his legs start to participate in the tensing part of the drill.
• Focused punching toward a light switch, about 75% power/speed – after having made some improvement in the gross movements and starting to incorporate tensing at the end of the technique I wanted Steve to be able to judge for himself if he is improving the “end point” of his techniques. By punching at a light switch, which is generally at a good height for most people in a natural stance, one can see where the technique is ending and if there is any unnecessary/unexpected movements. It also helps ensure the punch is ending in the same spot each time or not.
• Gedan berai to the inside of a door frame (without hitting it, but stopping within an inch each time), about 75% power/speed. Basically the same idea as the focused punching at a light switch. I wanted to see if Steve could make the same changes to one of his blocks that he had made to his punch. We went over the basic mechanics of the block and how it was similar to a punch in that it had a clear starting point, a standard path, a twist and a strong finish, and when he should be relaxed and when he should tense.

• Week 4 – Before I reviewed any of the drills with Steve I asked him to perform Heian Shodan again, I was looking for changes from the first week. I was not surprised to see that he was still struggling with his stability; we had not worked on stances and movement yet. I did see improvement in relaxation on both his punches and blocks, but improvement on the end point of his punches only (his downward blocks were too circular in their path, swinging wide of his body, most likely due to way he was turning). I then had Steve demonstrate the drills he had been working on. In those, being in a natural stance, I saw the improvement I expected, especially with the downward block. Without a point to focus on Steve’s punches still had movement at the end; however, when I gave him a target, the punches ended much more cleanly. I explained that he needs to be able to visualize a target if a real one is not present and still be able to execute a focused technique.

• Punching and blocking (gedan berai) at a target – continuation from the previous week. This time in addition to doing practicing in a natural stance Steve is to practice part of the time in front stance, so that he begins to get the same sensations while in a fighting stance. This will also be the beginning of adding a step to the drill.
• Hikite – It was more noticeable as Steve went through his kata than during his demonstration of the drills that his hikite was suffering a lot of the same problems as his punching and blocking. I reiterated to Steve the purpose of hikite, and demonstrated how it should be performed. Steve’s hikite was overly loose, especially when at his side, having lots of extra movement. We discussed that when the hikite is pulled back to its final position that it should be firmly located at the side just at the top of the pelvic bone (by the oblique). As part of the other drill I asked Steve to also focus on his hikite, and explained that in order to truly achieve kime, all parts, including hikite, needed to be incorporated appropriately.

Steve has really started to make some improvement in his katate techniques and relaxation on his way to gaining a better level of kime. It is still early in the process, but he is showing signs that the different drills are helping. Wanting some feedback I asked Steve how he felt about his work and progression, and the explanation and drills I was giving him. He said that he felt it was helping and that he was encouraged by it. As for my expectations, some things worked better than others, and some things took a little longer than expected, but overall I am pleased that I saw improvement each week. I am looking forward to assisting Steve further with the incorporation of stepping and turning, with continued improvement of his punching, blocking and striking, culminating with him able to perform a powerful and explosive, yet relaxed, Heian Shodan.


Craig Lawton
Triangle’s Best Karate
December 6, 2007

Individual Training: Transitional Movement with Shazeel Sharfaz

Stratton Lobdell
Kenshusei Research Paper Dec. 07
Individual Training: Transitional Movement with Shazeel Sharfaz

Each student has their individual reasons for training and each student has their own strengths. In the course of our training we must learn to explain and demonstrate correct form. We must also be able to see what our student’s weaknesses are so that we can move their training in a positive direction.
Shazeel has been training in our school for about 6 months and has several years of previous experience in Tae Kwon Do. His movements in the beginning were very choppy and awkward. The low stances we favor in Shotokan were new to him and he tended to go up and down with each step, knees locking at the wrong time. This caused him to have a “gidi-up” movement as Sensei called it. His transition for stance to stance was an issue because it slowed him down and made it impossible for him to focus him energy forward through a technique. In short, he had no oi. What is oi? That is the subject of another study, but what we are doing is working toward the standard.
One of the challenges is to have a baseline; the standard by which Shotokan movement is judged. Within the setting of Triangles Best Karate we have the benefit of two high ranking and technically proficient sensei to use as our standard. If future, for us to be able to pass on our knowledge, we as Kenshusei must also be at that level or some where near it. The goal here was to move Shazeel closer to that standard by breaking down the movement, practicing each component, putting it back together, and making it seamless.
I chose Shazeel to work with because he trains regularly and diligently. He is genuine in his desire to improve. This was important in this case because the length of the assignment was short and we had only a few weeks to work together before I would have to report on the results.

The Training Process:
We worked together after the regular class for 15 or 20 minutes on 5 different occasions. Each time we assessed his progress, worked on the next focus point and then I gave him an additional thing to work on until the next class.

1. Keep leg bent- don’t stand up during movement: Shazeel had a tendency to come completely upright in the middle of each movement. As he passed though the center both legs were completely locked out and his center of gravity was constantly moving. This was making him unstable. I felt that in order to begin to address this we had to first establish our beginning and end point so we could work toward the center. Homework assignment: static stances 5 minutes in front stance each leg, each day. Low and correctly balanced.
2. Slide the foot across the floor- don’t pick up the foot with each step: Next we worked on not lifting the foot and maintaining connection with the floor. Here we were emphasizing the transition. Part of the choppiness was the result of not using the front leg to pull; Shazeel was pushing off with the back for like a runner starting a sprint. The back leg was following through the same way and leaving the floor as though he was high-stepping forward. Here is emphasized the need to stay low throughout the movement and compress the front leg without relying on the back leg to propel him forward. I introduced Fudo-dachi to force him to stop relying on the back leg. Homework assignment: static stances 5 minutes in front stance each leg, each day. Low and correctly balanced.
3. Put on socks to help slide - use fudo-dachi to avoid jerky movement at end: We continued to move in fudo-dachi to eliminate the hitch at the end of each movement. Because Shazeel was having trouble getting the motion right and could not get the muscle coordination the way I was looking for, I had him to the sliding motion with socks on. I have found over course of learning and teaching karate that often it is important to do something differently to “get the feeling” of a movement, then incorporate the feeling back into the original movement to achieve the goal. By getting Shazeel to feel the smooth transition I was trying to teach he was able to bring that back to his front stance. Homework: slide foot stepping in front stance at home on different surfaces (Thanksgiving week).
4. Body down, rear foot toes forward, heel stay down: After to holiday, Shazeel and I got back together and he had made significant progress on our original issue, transitional movement. This had led us to another issue. He was moving better, staying lower and had virtually eliminated the “hitch” but now his ankle flexibility had become a more apparent issue. As he was stepping forward, the load leg was staying compressed well and his body was staying at a constant height, but as the movement finished the back heel was coming up off the floor. We had helped improve his connection to the floor on one side but sacrificed on the other! Homework: cat stance to work ankle flexibility.
5. Review all previous items, examine progress: Over the course of these sessions in the past 4 weeks Shazeel has shown good progress on his transitional movement in front stance. We will continue to work on his transitions and apply the same ideas to back stance, and kiba-dachi.

In working with Shazeel and coming up with ways to help him improve, it has helped me think more analytically about how we can pass information to our students. In helping him to improve his transitional movement I had to first be able to identify the problem he was having. Being able to actually see the issue is a large part of helping to fix it. Once I had figured out what the problem was I had to find a way to help him correct it. As we corrected one issue, another became apparent and the process began again. This short exercise demonstrated the teaching cycle of karate that never ends. One thing leads to the next and the teaching and learning process never ends. Once we have achieved some level of competence and skill, the best way to expand your own knowledge is to pass on to others what you have learned. Through teaching and explaining to others we refine our own knowledge.
In order to explain a technique we must first be able to do it, then to analyze it, break it down into its parts and pass the knowledge in a concise way to the next person so that they may understand it as well. This beak down and analysis is not part of the daily practice that we do. It is through the process of teaching others that we begin to truly understand what we are doing.
Within the limited role of being Shazeel’s instructor on this single facet of Shotokan karate I had the opportunity to see how this common problem that all beginners face can be surmounted not only by one but by an entire group. The basic techniques I used to pass this small bit of knowledge to Shazeel can easily be utilized for an entire class. Break the technique down, demonstrate its parts, allow each student to get a glimpse of the final goal and let them get the feeling for it, put it together as a coherent whole, DRILL IT. Shu Ha Ri – the circle cannot be complete until we teach and eventually we may learn to improve our karate and the karate of others. The goal is to transcend technique and move without thinking, to complete the movements correctly millions of times so that we no longer need to analyze.

Time to Teach!

For this assignment, we were first asked to choose a new karate student that trains fairly regularly, and exhibits the motivation and desire to learn. We were then tasked with identifying a specific technique that the student needed assistance with, and work with that student to implement a specific course of action to help correct and refine that technique.

Background information:

The student I chose was Dale Jones, currently 8^th Kyu. Dale is 38 years old and has been training in karate for approximately 8 months. An amateur hockey player since the age of 2, Dale is no stranger to hard training and sweat and he started his karate training in very good physical condition. During the ages of 16-23 he trained in hockey 5-10 times a week during the regular season and for the last 9 years he has consistently trained/played 2-3 times per week.

Dale in 1984

Technique deficiency:

The technique that we decided to address was Dale’s kokutsu dachi. Dale has a tendency to collapse his knees inward while in zenkutsu, kokutsu, and kiba dachi’s, all outward tension stances, and this tendency is most visible during kokutsu dachi, particularly the rear knee. I have been working with Dale prior to this assignment, helping him learn and refine his kata (Heian Nidan) for a recent kyu test and it was during this time that I first noticed his problem with outward tension stances. Being a hockey fan myself and watching hundreds of games but never playing myself, I could only make an educated guess at the reason for his habits. Hockey players have a natural tendency toward inward tension stances, especially when they are about to make or receive a hit on the ice, which happens very frequently during the course of a game.

Dale in 1975 – Notice the position of the knees

Hockey players also generate their speed from angling their knees inward and pushing off using the inside edge of the blade on their skates. It is also important to note that the ankles are taped solid to avoid sprains and breaks and there is no flex in them whatsoever. I talked with Dale about my assumptions and he confirmed that decades of playing hockey have patterned in a natural tendency for inward tension stances and karate training has been his first experience with outward tension stances of any kind. In his own words “on the ice, if my knees are out, I’m dead”. When the time comes for Dale to begin learning advanced inward tension stances like sanchin dachi and hangetsu dachi, I believe that he will adapt to them more easily than most because of his understanding of proper tension, balance and center of gravity.

Course of action:

At this point, we had identified a technique that we wanted to work on, and more importantly, we had identified the reason behind the deficiency. For some people, they may have trouble with a particular technique due to injury or some other physical limitation, but for Dale it was simply muscle memory working against him. I didn’t want him to “unlearn” the feeling of inward tension stances since he’ll continue to use them while playing hockey and he’ll certainly need the skill set as he becomes a more advanced karate-ka. He simply needed specific drills to develop the correct feel for his outward tension stances. We started with static kiba dachi, pressing the knees out, toes straight ahead, tanden tucked, back straight. I gave him a tip that helped me with kiba dachi and described it as trying to press into and grip the floor with the outside edges of the feet which helped the knees press out into the proper position. Dale would then hold this position for 1-2 minutes at a time and practiced this after class in addition to his supplemental kata training, as well as at home. We then moved to having Dale move from kiba dachi to kiba dachi, focusing on keeping the knees out until very little adjustment, if any, was needed in between movements. Most recently, Dale has begun to drill shifting into kokutsu dachi from kiba dachi by rotating one foot outward, perpendicular to the other foot and shifting from 50-50 weight distribution to 70-30 while focusing on not collapsing the knee of the rear leg. As before, Dale is holding this position for 1-2 minutes at a time before shifting to the other side.

In the last month or so, Dale’s kokutsu dachi has definitely improved and he has a much deeper understanding of outward tension stances.

Dale Jones – Kokutsu Dachi 12/3/07

A quick note regarding general instruction for kokutsu dachi:

The drills and exercises that Dale has been training were tailored for his specific situation and are in addition to his regular instruction. Most beginning students start karate with no tendency towards either inward or outward stances as they are both completely new concepts to them. Instead, the focus should be on developing muscle tone and flexibility in muscle groups that are seldom used by non karate-ka. Besides drilling kokutsu dachi and kiba dachi, abductor exercises such as training the lift for a roundhouse kick, band training, and ballet (plie) squats, are all extremely useful in helping to develop the muscle tone and strength necessary to perform outward tension stances correctly. For Shotokan practitioners, this process provides a good strong foundation from which the karate-ka can more begin to learn and incorporate more advanced techniques, including inward tension stances that would otherwise be almost impossible to perform correctly without the natural progression that consistent training of kihon provides.

Continued training:

We have just started to work on Dale’s movement from kokutsu dachi to kokutsu dachi, moving both forward and backward. Ankle flexibility is definitely an issue as Dale has a tendency to “roll” his rear foot as he’s moving as if he were wearing his hockey skates and so he has been drilling the transition slowly, to help build the proper muscle memory and strength and we plan on increasing the speed as fewer and fewer adjustments are made.

I have no doubt that Dale will continue to improve at a rapid pace. He loves to train and is eager to improve and learn new techniques. He remains enthusiastic about karate and his willingness to train after class and at home, coupled with an excellent attitude toward the critique of his training will make him an excellent karate-ka and a great example to his peers.

Luis Santana

Triangle’s Best Karate