Here is a Shotokan karate follow along class working on six strikes from shizentai.
1. Ura Zuki (upper cut)
2. Mae Empi Uchi (forward elbow strike)
3. Tate Zuki (vertical punch)
4. Mawashi Empi Uchi (round elbow strike)
5. Choku zuki (straight punch)
6. Yoko Empi Uchi (side elbow strike)

Try and keep the shoulders down, don’t let the fists come away from the body on the elbow strikes.

Drive from the legs, through the hips, then snapping the attacking sides hip back on completion of each technique.

Be sure and have a strong hikite (pulling hand) on each strike.

These short classes are designed for karateka to practice at home. We try to cram as much information as possible into each karate class and hope you enjoy them. Oss!

Taken from one of our live karate classes

This follow along karate class is the first class of three

Click here for part 2

Click here for part 3

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Our main style is Shotokan karate, but we do also add Okinawan kata into our syllabus and training.

I hope you enjoy this shotokan karate follow along class. Oss!

Shotokan karate follow along class

So we are using the snap back to develop power in the elbow strikes. We often talk about the bounce!

And sometimes when we say bounce it comes after a punch comes back to hikite, we then immediately strike again with the same arm, it’s that transition from hikite to the second strike that we are reffering to when we say bounce in this instance.

Make sure your hikite arm comes all the way back before you attempt the second strike, but the instant it hits the hikite position at the side of the body, it explodes forward to strike again.

We hope you enjoyed this shotokan karate follow along class. If you get a chance, please check out our Shotokan Community. We are adding new content on a weekly basis, which include, shotokan kihon, kumite and kata tutorials, live kata class and shotokan karate follow along class recordings, individual kata moves, bunkai and much more.

We have members from all over the world who practice Shotokan karate. Many of our members already practice at a Dojo and use our online Dojo as extra training and many of them even take our ranking qualifications. We welcome all karateka with open arms, regardless of affiliation.

Within our karate membership site we have lots of shotokan video tutorials and articles, covering every aspect of Shotokan karate, to help your karate get better. We even have an instructor training program and live zoom classes, plus! we continue to add more content every week. Oss!