Karate

[Gangsterfist]

I took an okinawan karate called Ryukyu Kempo. It was a complete system with katas, weapons, etc. It is what they trained the Bushi warriors back in the day. It also has grappling, pressure point fighting, and ground fighting. Overall its not a bad system, but its pretty external. My sigong (don't know the japanese word for it) was a man named taika Oyata (not sure if that is spelled right). I took about 3 years or so of it before I ever took WC. Its different, but overall I don't think it was that bad of a system. Plus I got to learn how to use the Sai's and bo staff which was fun. I never got high enough ranked in class to train kitana/wakizashi, but I would have loved to. Here go some links.

http://www.ryushu.com/oyata.html

Taika is pretty old now but I saw him at a tournament about 10years ago doing a demo. He was in his 60s then and took on 6 teachers of Ryukyu kempo at the same time with a cane, and beat the holy snot out of them. It was great.

[SevenStar]

If you are into okinawan styles, try to find a good shorin school.


Kano's guys beat TJJ guys, by the way, not bjj - there was no bjj back then.

the tjj guys trained in a less efficient manner - more techniques, no sparring. the judoka did the opposite - more specialized range of techniques, plenty of drilling and sparring.

[Ray Pina]

I learned Isshin-Ryu growing up... it's a powerful, get right to it, I can take your punch but kill you with mine type of style. (not what I'm looking for in a style now but admittedly have as a mind set ... still young, dumb and full of cum).

My sensei's sensei wold climb a ladde, lean over. push it away and land on his knuckles. He had knuckles on top of his knuckles. I have some photos too from when I was a kid with sledge hammers and bricks and all kinds of beat the hell out of yourself training.

[Vash]

OMA: Isshinryu, Gojuryu, Shorinryu, Uechiryu, Ryukyu Kenpo.

Don't have any positive experience with the Japanese karate styles I've come across.

For the record, I'm biased towards Isshinryu.

[rogue]

video of kata from Shotokai branch of Shotokan

[Nick]

Goju. It's a great style. Any Okinawan style is, really.

Later...

[norther practitioner]

I don't know much about the JMAs or OMAs.... but I have liked the Goju I've seen.

[ZhouJiaQuan]

from personal experience. if you really want to study karate... Shorin-ryu or goju-ryu. both are pretty good, and i know some friends of mine study them and can fight well.(these people would fight well no matter what style though)

i think find a good teacher...


actually, even better...find a yakuzua school/boss/gangster that teaches karate...pretty much gauranteed good fighting

have fun

[PT-Kali]

If you have the guts and pain tolerance I suggest Kyokushinkai. Don't say I didn't warn you...

[Songshan]

I studied Shotokan Karate for about 2 years before I began studying Shaolin. Shotokan karate is a good strong Okinawan based style. It is very similar to Gojo ryu and Shorin ryu. In fact some of the katas are very similar. I also found that Shotokan's Kumite (sparring) was very useful and simple for real fight situations. I would agree with the post that says studying any Okinawan art is beneficial. Learning in Japan is very different and there are probably no "Mc Dojos" over there. So its worth looking into.

[GOLDEN ARMOR]

Ozzies check it out.

Just started 8:30

[norther practitioner]

How was it?

[rogue]

Well my love affair with karate continues. Besides the Okinawan style I'm learning I've also taken a few private lessons from a Shotokan sensei who was an inner circle student of a high ranked sensei. Looks like there is more to Shotokan than I thought and that is lethal techniques and how to train them. Lethal being a cool sounding word that in this case means choking, breaking, hitting "secret" vital points and slamming the opponent into the ground. For some odd reason the training version of the techniques look very much like MMA. The lethal/actual techniques look like MMA would if the guys in the ring wanted to kill each other rather than win the purse, a belt and a snapshot with the ring girl. The philosophy was pound, ground and pound again all done in as short a time as possible. The blocky stiff execution Shotokan is known for was not evident in the least with all techniques being done as simultaneous as possible. Ground fighting was minimal but he did use an open guard on me and swept me when I did one of the throws wrong and tried to regain control.

Funny how the lethal techniques of a classical art would look so much like the techniques of a "mere" ring sport.

[WanderingMonk]

how do you know that they are teaching you karate? It is entirely possible that they are just selling MMA under the karate brand. do they have secret manuals which show these moves were originally developed in the hidden, dangerous, bad side of street of okinawa?

Obviously that this is just a way to milk money out of innoncent americans.











j/k

[Vash]

Originally posted by WanderingMonk
how do you know that they are teaching you karate? It is entirely possible that they are just selling MMA under the karate brand. do they have secret manuals which show these moves were originally developed in the hidden, dangerous, bad side of street of okinawa?

Obviously that this is just a way to milk money out of innoncent americans.











j/k

WE ARE UNDONE!!!!

Congrats on finding a quality Shotokan group. I've not had the pleasure of running into anything resembling high quality in regards to Shotokan, but this area is not a mecca for martial arts.