Shotokan Karate
Taught by Paul Plevakas, Karate Sensei, Third degree Back Belt (SanDan)
and Dr. Jolie Bookspan, Karate Sensei, Master Instructor, Fourth degree Black Belt (YonDan)

Inducted, Black Belt Hall of Fame
International Martial Arts Association Man and Woman of the Year 2004, Instructors of the Year 2009.



Your gentle teacher Paul Plevakas Sensei
Member of the United States Ju-Jitsu and Shotokan Karate Associations.
Training in Shotokan, Shorinji-Ryu, Goju-Ryu Karate, Tang Soo Do, and Ju-Jitsu.

 

About Class

Classes are traditional style to get you in shape, body and mind. We train positive physical and mental skills and discipline.

Small classes, personal attention.

Tournament opportunities and rank advancement training available, not required.

Paul Sensei's Facebook Karate Group page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/36001290918/

 

 

Who Is This Class For?
For adults who want to get back to martial arts, or start for the first time.

If you are out of shape, older, or have injuries, this class coaches you in healthy movement patterns to be able to get back to real training. The teachers are trained and certified in injury prevention and rehab techniques.

Those already holding rank may attend wearing their rank belt. They are expected to meet requirements of the rank or work back toward them if they have been out of training.

Students who want to advance belt rank may work up through Black Belt, based on merit and work.

 

When and Where

Our training center (dojo) was at 2100 Chestnut Street, downtown Philadelphia. Currently we are looking for a new location.

Contact Paul for groups or private classes at your location, including online - Paul@PaulPlevakas.com.

 

 

Special Opportunity for Thai Massage

By advance appointment. Wonderful for family members while you take class.

Done fully clothed, bare feet, lying comfortably on a soft mat.

More about Thai massage on Dr. Bookspan's web site here.

 

What to Bring

Do gi (clean karate uniform) and belt. New students may wear white t-shirt and athletic pants.

Bare feet

Enthusiasm

Good Work

 

Contact

Phone (215) 778-2634

E-mail Paul@PaulPlevakas.com

 

 

Paul Sensei breaking five flaming boards at a public demonstration

 


 

Begin

The first of the Niju-Kun: Never forget Karate begins with rei and ends with rei. Rei means courtesy or respect, and is represented in Karate by bowing.

Our classes at Temple University

 

  

 

Fall seven times, stand up eight.
shichi ten battou" also pronounced as "nana kolobi ya oki"

- Japanese proverb 
Japanese martial arts require 8 out of 7 effort;  students must solve the proverb through work

 

 

Sensei (teachers)  Dr. Jolie Bookspan and Paul Plevakas,  Yudansha (Dan - black belt rank),   Mudansha (kyu rank)  at our dojo (training hall)

 

Never forget: karate begins with rei and ends with rei. Rei means courtesy or respect, and is represented in karate by students respecting the dojo.

 


 

Dojo Kun – Training Hall Principles

These kun are the guide, philosophy, mind set to your training.

Each rule is numbered "1" because each has equal merit.

With each training session at the JKA dojo, students kneel in seiza and repeat these five precepts out loud.

There are several different translations. The Dojo kun are not to force morality, but remind of universal positives. Instead of mindlessly repeating as a chant, you remind yourself of using training for good:



1) Seek Perfection of Character (Work to be good) - Jinkaku kansei ni tsutomuru koto.

1) Defend the Path of Truth (Be sincere) - Makoto no michi o mamoru koto.

1) Foster Spirit of Effort (Put honest effort into everything you do) - Doryoku no seishin o yashinau koto.

1) Honor the Principles of Etiquette (Respect others) - Reigi o omonzuru koto.

1) Guard Against Impetuous Courage (Develop self-control) - Kekki no yuu o imashimuru koto

 

 

Click to hear native pronunciation of the Dojo Kun by student Lisa Nakata

calligraphy by NakayamaSan

 


 

Class Textbook

Healthy Martial Arts by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Click BOOKS page to order on-line, or request in class at discount to our students.

 


 

Stretching

 

We teach healthy stretches that directly train martial arts positioning, balance and range, and which directly train and practice everyday healthy body position for healthy movement habits outside the training hall.

Just as not all foods are necessary or healthy, neither are several common stretches. We change them to healthier ones.

For more about this exciting better way of stretching, and to learn one set of quick simple stretches that we use, click the Stretching Smarter article on this web site and scroll down to Six Quick Stretches.

 

 


 

Kata
There are mudansha or kyu kata, and yudansha or dan (black belt) kata. We start with mudansha.

 

First kata, Heian Shodan. 10th Dan KanazawaSan demonstrates (twice)

 

 

 

Second kata, Heian Nidan. Demonstrated by Hirokazu KanazawaSan

 

 

Third kata, Heian Sandan

 

 

 

Fourth kata, Heian Yondan:

 

 

 

Fifth kata, Heian Godan

 

 

 

In Shotokan Karate, after the first five Heian katas, come the Tekki katas

 


Here is first Tekki, Tekki Shodan, by OSensei Gichin Funakoshi, recorded 1924

 

 

 

Second Tekki, Tekki Nidan, 1924 recording of O-Funakoshi San (the very honorable Gichin Funakoshi)

 

 

 

Tekki Nidan, again, by KanazawaSan

 

 

 

Third Tekki kata, Tekki Sandan

 

 

 

Anaku Kata

This kata is done completely differently in Shorin Ryu, Kenpo, Shotokan, and Shito Ryu styles. The difference teaches not to argue which is "right."

Ananku means "peace (or safety) from the South." Here is a Shotokan Anaku by Seibukan Shorin Ryu Chief Instructor of India Renshi MalaysianRaegoo

 

 

 

 


 

Traditional Kedakitai Body Hardening Conditioning

 

Sound of the strikes in the original movies was lost in transfer to these gifs. Originally was very loud.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

Laugh and Learn

 

Making fun of Osu! Karate Master - Amazing Performers - Masquerade TV

 

 

 

 

No Drugs

 

 

Karate Terms
Native Japanese pronunciation audio files follow terms

 

Location / Direction

Migi right
Hidari left
Ageh rising
Jodan upper
Chudan middle
Gaedan lower
Naka - from inside to outside
Soto - from outside-to-inside

 

Stances - Tachi (Pronounced with "T" when the word comes first or stands alone: tashi)

Heisoku dachi. Blocked foot stance. Stand straight feet together, toes facing forward. (The "t" sound changes to "d" when the word follows another: Heisoku dachi)
Musubi dachi. Open foot stance. Stand straight heels together, toes facing outward.
Sansen dachi. Fighting stance. (sen means "fighting") Feet apart, toes facing inward.
Soto hajichi dachi. Arch eight stance (outer figure 8 stance, feet apart toes out)
Naka dachi. Inner eight stance (inner figure 8 stance, feet apart toes in)
Heikou dachi. Parallel foot stance. Stand straight feet apart, toes facing forward.

Zenkutsu dachi. Forward stance
Migi zenkutsu dachi, Right forward stance
Hidari zenkutsu dachi. Left forward stance
Koukutsu dachi. Back stance
Migi kokukutsu dachi. Right back stance
Hidari kokukutsu dachi. Left back stance

Kiba dachi. Horse stance. Feet wide and pointed forward.
Shiko dachi. Sumo stance. Feet double shoulder width, feet pointed out. Like horse stance with feet out.
Tsuru ashi dachi. Crane stance. One leg, other foot on outside knee.
Neko dachi. Cat stance
Neko ashi dachi. Cat foot stance

Click to hear native pronunciation of the tachi by student Lisa Nakata

 

 

Keri - Kick

Keri ageh. Rising kick (pronounced with "k" when the word comes first or stands alone: keri and keri-ageh)
Mae geri. Front kick (the "k" sound changes to "g" when the word follows another: Mae-geri )
Mae geri ageh. Front kick rising
Jodan mae geri. Upper front kick
Chudan mae geri. Middle front kick
Gaedan mae geri. Lower front kick
Yoko geri. Side kick
Yoko geri ageh. Side kick rising
Yoko tobi geri. Side jump kick
Mawashi geri. Roundhouse kick
Ushiro geri. Back kick
Hiza geri. Knee kick
Oi geri. Lunge kick
Kansetsu geri. Kick to joint or knee
Kakato geri. Heel kick
Booshi geri. Hat kick (kick off someone's hat)
Tabako geri. Cigarette kick (kick someone's cigarette from their mouth or hand)
Tama geri or kogan geri. Kick to testicles. Kokan geri (spelled with 'k') is general any-gender groin kick and more polite

Click to hear native pronunciation of the keri by student Lisa Nakata

 

Uke - Block (Uke means "receive" in Japanese. You deflect incoming strikes. Do not suffer the hard impact.)

Mawashi uke. Roundhouse block
Morote uke. Two hand block
Morote naka uke. Two hand inside block
Juji uke. X block ("Ju" is number ten. Written as X)
Gedan tegatana juji uke. Lower body hand-sword X block
Hiza naka uke. Knee inside-to-outside block
Hiza soto uke. Knee outside-to-inside blockUchi - Strike
Age uchi. Rising strike
Mawashi uchi. Roundhouse strike

 

Tsuki - Lunge Punch

Katana - Sword (pronounced with "k" when the word comes first or stands alone: Katana)

Te gatana. Hand sword, also called shuto. (the "k" sound changes to "g" when the word follows another: te gatana)
Se gatana. Reverse hand sword
Ashi gatana. Foot sword
Gedan tegatana. Lower body hand-sword
Gedan tegatana juji uke. Lower body hand-sword X block

Body - Kalada

Te. Hand
Ashi. Foot
Hiza. Knee
Hiji. Elbow
Kokan. Groin
Soto. Arch of the foot
Koteh. Forearm
Ago. Jaw
Kakato. Heel
Kombushi. Fist, when used alone. (Changes to "ken" when the word follows another: Uraken -Back fist. However, "ken" alone is sword.)

Te - Hand

Te gatana. Hand sword (shuto)
Nukite. Piercing hand
Ippon nukite. One finger piercing hand
Nihon nukite. Two finger piercing hand

-ken - Fist

Uraken. Back fist
Koken. Arc fist (bent wrist strike with back of wrist)
Heyken. Flat fist (leopard hand)

Mawashi - Roundhouse, go around, using circular or turning movement

Mawashi geri. Roundhouse kick
Mawashi seashi geri. Roundhouse instep of foot kick
Mawashi kake. Roundhouse hook
Mawashi uke. Roundhouse block
Mawashi uchi. Roundhouse strike

Moro - Moves Using Two

Morote. Two handed
Morote naka uke. Two hand inside block
Moro ashi. Two foot
Moro ashi dachi. Two foot stance

Naka - From Inside to Outside

Naka uke. Inside to outside block
Naka hachiji dachi. Inside figure 8 stance
Naka ashi. Ball of the foot

Soto - Inside-to-Outside

Soto uke. Knee outside-to-inside block


 

Belt Rank

 

 


 

Helpful Stories

The Kru Ba. Photos and story of the Muay Thai Monks on horseback who work against drug violence around the Thai Burmese border areas. Link takes you to my Kickboxing syllabus page for the story.

Can a computer predict a fight outcome? Computer Fight Simulation. From Dr. Bookspan's column, The Fitness Fixer™ which ran on Healthline.com from 2006 to 2010. Archived on BlogSpot. When Healthline ended the column they removed all the movies, comments, and most accompanying illustrations and photos. Later, they removed the articles and put their own articles on the same links. A few, including this one, are left on the BlogSpot archive for Fitness Fixers on Martial Arts. Formatting and links were not preserved.

Thaipusam festival. Pious Hindus walk miles pierced with hundreds of skewers. Read why: Thaipusam - Exercise of Body and Spirit. Archived on Blogspot.

See Paul Sensei in a Karate Punch Analysis study next - Comparison of a front punch, novice and black belt.

 


 

Comparison Of A Front Punch Using High Speed Filming - Differences Between Experienced and Novice
By Dr. Jolie Bookspan

In the mid 1980s, I did many studies investigating which differences in human movement determined injury potential and athletic performance. In another kind of study, I wanted to know what made the difference between the punch of a black belt martial artist, and the same punch by an athletic person without training.

In present day, a computer can directly pick up the locations of the subject's joints at each point in time, generating a three dimensional computer image of the person as they move in real time. Software automatically calculates, draws, analyzes, and records the images.

Back when I did these studies, we didn't have any of that. I did it all manually. I filmed two subjects using 16mm high speed filming. An athletic man who had never done martial arts was subject #1. My husband Paul, who had earned his black belt a few years before that, volunteered as subject #2.

I put markers over the center points of their major joints, and bands around joints which initially faced the camera but would rotate during the punch, so that the joint center would still be determined. Both executed a front reverse punch with their dominant arm. (Paul had to use traditional hyperlordotic position, rather than healthier neutral spine position, just for this comparison.

I have done other studies comparing my neutral spine adjustment and found it to be a stronger punch, try it on my page for Fixing Swayback


After waiting a week for film developing, I went into a darkened lab and used a film projector to throw the image of each of the thousands of frames, one by one, against a large computer digitizing tablet hung on a wall. I then digitized each joint point of each projected image, in each frame, of both subjects, frame by frame, with a digitizing Graf-pen. I sent data points from each frame by (300 baud acoustic coupling) modem to a text editor on a mainframe in another building at the University's new computer center. I wrote my own FORTRAN programs to generate data summaries and used packaged International Mathematical and Statistical Libraries (IMSL) cubic spline programs and subroutines for data smoothing.

This was all to get each knee, hip, ankle, shoulder, wrist, elbow, neck and other filmed joint points into a computer to see exactly where and how fast they moved. Projecting each frame against the wall also allowed me to trace the subjects' outlines to make series of line drawings of their punch, and to make stick figures showing joint center placement.

Here are some data and the actual drawings I made. There were no layout programs back then. You can see the scotch tape where I affixed labels. I need to get these pages scanned in higher resolution next. Until then, enjoy:

 

 

The untrained subject is below, first

 

Below is Paul Sensei
Paul is left handed so I had to reverse the images to make exact comparisons.

 

 

 

Below are comparisons of the angular velocity of each subject's wrist, elbow, shoulder, and hip

 

Below are comparisons of the angular acceleration of each subject's wrist, elbow, shoulder, and hip

 

Below are some center of gravity calculations and comparisons.

As you can see, there was a lot of hand-calculation and charting back then.

 

 

 

Then I could use an advanced machine called a typewriter so that I didn't have to hand write the entire study paper.

 

 

Not long after, with improvements in automating this process, action video games were first flourishing. I was invited to a computer-generated imagery (CGI) development studio to be their "movement representation figure." They put the dots on my joint centers and filmed me using high-speed 3D computer graphics modeling as I did martial arts and tumbling moves. Not just one punch, painstakingly done, but jumping, spinning, flying all over the studio, and up and down walls.

The software automatically generated a mathematical, "wireframe" 2-D representation of my three-dimensional form. From it they animated a wild female warrior action figure for their fighting/mission genre arcade and video gameplay. They also used skeletal animation for when I would morph (on-screen) into various animal forms. I never got royalties but it was fun.

This is a big fun topic. I can post more about motion capture analysis of various sports. Let me know what you'd like to see and learn.

 


 

Class Texts

Healthy Martial Arts
Wealth of training for body and mind. Avalable at discount in class to students.

The Ab Revolution™ No More Crunches! No More Back Pain! Revised FOURTH edition expanded. Now in eBook and Kindle.
No crunches, no flexion which compresses vertebral discs. Combines sports medicine rehab with fun and functional exercise to workout at the same time you retrain your abs and back for healthy movement during all your activities, and learn neutral spine.

Health & Fitness in Plain English- How To Be Healthy Happy and Fit for the Rest of Your Life
New Revised THIRD edition. Thirty-one chapters on health, nutrition, exercise, and pain prevention.

ALT =[“Healthy Martial Arts by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Training for all athletes in all sports, body and mind. More on author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]      ALT =[“Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Fix causes using scientific methods you can do yourself. Available from author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]   ALT =[“Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Effective quick methods for healthier range of motion during daily life, sports, exercise, and at home. Available from author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]   ALT =[“The Ab Revolution 4th Edition by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Replaces all eariler editions. Available from author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]    ALT =[“Health and Fitness in Plain English - How To Be Healthy Happy and Fit For The Rest Of Your Life by Dr. Jolie Bookspan THIRD edition. Available from author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]

ALT =[Diving Physiology in Plain English - new eighth edition 2021 with Blue Cover and white text: by Dr. Jolie Bookspan]   ALT =[“Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine Review For Physicians Board Exam Guide by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. Available from author web site http://drbookspan.com/books”]


 
More Classes With Paul Sensei


Self Defense. Sensei Paul also teaches Self Defense. What a great class. Click to see the Self Defense syllabus.

Home Repair and Home Repair GREEN. Not only is Sensei Paul Plevakas an experienced and gentle martial arts teacher, he is a licensed general contractor, and member of NARI - National Association of Remodeling Industry. Learn in your home with your personal home repair coach. Take his fun, hands-on Home Repair Class.Click here for class schedules and here for the Home Repair class syllabus. Private home repair coaching - www.PaulPlevakas.com