29Bill

I think I'd feel better about what I'm currently doing if I there were more hand to hand work. I have seen VERY little interpretation of the Bunkai to kata... and I DON'T LIKE trying to figure it out for myself. I don't really see a lot of applicability of many of the moves in the kata I have done... much of it seems aesthetic and nothing more... I've seen interpretation of some of the moves... but, in my mind it typically doesn't make a strong connection with reality. I like what I've seen of Kenpo in that there seems to be a strong emphasis on literal explination of sequences of moves and likely opponent response... I don't have a lot of time to do kata and ponder the various possible interpretations of each move... I'd like someone to do most of the thinking for me... (I know that sounds lazy)

That is the irritating part. It's difficult to get a feeling of what a style entails from a few classes. I've been in Shorin Ryu for almost two and a half years and am still not clear what is coming I am interested in studying a style which teaches me how to connect the dots between a series of attacks/ responses... My current style... ok... I can parry the punch and simultaneously strike beneath or maybe put an arm in a joint lock while kicking to the knee... what then??? at this point I don't know where to go... My current breadth of learning with regard to response to various situations and attacks seems fairly limited... and it's nearly impossible to know what a style will teach you until you've spent quite a while exploring the style

Any thoughts on a comparison of Kenpo and Shorin Ryu??? I've been taking Shorin Ryu for about two and a half years and feel that I've been given various ingredients (punches, kicks etc)... and have to put them together in a meaningful way myself. I've been watching some video's on Kenpo and am intrigued in how they seem to teach a series of moves in an attack/ response series. Any thoughts?

Does anyone here have a critique of Krav Maga??? I've been fairly impressed when I listen to practitioners of the system... Does anyone see problems with the system... if so, what are they?

I really enjoy the one-steps and self-defense that we do... I wish that we majored on those and minored on Kata. I like them because they are a prearranged response to certain attacks... and that's really the kind of system I'd enjoy... something that felt more concrete... and less abstract... any idea as to what styles would do that?

These are good thoughts... thanks... one more question though... what are your thoughts on the systems that don't use kata? the United States military teaches soldiers to fight and doesn't use kata... they repeatedly teach attack and response attack and response... Is there enough to be learned from Kata that it's worth all the time devoted to it? Didn't Bruce Lee even compare Kata to learning to swim on dry land? I apologize for this thread... I know that this has to be a discussion that has been hashed out a thousand times on here. Thanks for responding.

Hey, thanks for the welcome and replies. It's not that I'm totally resistant to kata... i mean, I can see the benefit of establishing certain movements within muscle memory, I'd just like an art that either doesn't put as much emphasis on it... or at least incorporates as a meaningful part of the whole... where I curently attend, they speak of bunkai or also the interpretations of the kata... but we rarely practice or spend time learning the interpretations. Kata seems like an independent thing that we just do... and obsess over obscure details of hand positioning etc... the irritating thing is that I've been to several Shorin Ryu schools and everybody teaches the details of the same Kata's differently and have reasons for doing do... so I'm thinking, if everybody has reasons for the variations... then what's the point of being so dogmatic about how it SHOULD be done?... when actually it's all subject to interpretation... using the opening moves of the Wansu kata as an example... in one school, i was taught to place my first two fisted knuckles beneath the first two knuckles of the opposite bladed hand... the other school taught to place the two fisted knuckles beneath the wrist of the opposite hand... I've been corrected on this minor positioning error several times and am unsure of the practical significance of this hair-splitting... and this is only one example of the many positioning errors that are repeatedly obsessed over for hours on end

I have been taking Shorin Ryu for approximately 2 and a half years. I begn taking it as somewhat of a confidence booster... I'm not your biggest guy, but I'm not the smalliest either (about 160 lbs, 6 ft tall, and 33 years of age). Anyhow, enough history, on to my question... my interest in Karate is knowing how to handle myself in physical conflict. The school I attend is taught by a guy who's been in Shorin Ryu or it's sport version for approximately 30 years and he constantly goes to seminars etc... so I'm sure he's very informed... The basic elements of what we do seems to consist of: kata, one-steps (attack and response schemes), self-defense (breaking away from grabs and joint locks), and kotiate (sp... body hardening). I really don't anticipate being physically attacked many times in my life... ( I try to avoid trouble) although I'm not precluding the possibility.. however, I'd like to spend my time in Karate doing things that feel practically useful... and the honest truth is that I've had difficulty finding the practical use of Kata (especilly bo and sai) and get VERY bored with hours of kata. Sometimes I can see a point to kata (maybe in teaching the body to reflexively move certain ways) while at other times it seems a useless waste of time. I honestly get very bored with kata... I have spent so much time recently practicing a particular bo and empty hand kata... bored .. just so I can move up in belt and learn the other hand to hand stuff. It becomes frustrating at times when I've had friends playfully come up and grab me from behind and nothing I've learned comes to my mind... in that moment... it's like my mind freezes in panic... not that they're actually going to harm me... because they're friends who are just playing... but in frustration that I don't feel that I've learned anything that reflexively comes to mind. I feel that I spend so much time doing kata... that I don't spend the time in hand to hand interaction... which appears more practically useful. Now, with that said... I don''t mind spending years refining skills... if some sort of hand to hand proficiency is in the future... but I spend a lot of time deliberating the value of what I'm doing (Kata and bored)... I'd like to take Krav Maga or some other reality based system and spend the vast majority of time in learning and practicing hand to hand and weapon defense skills (instead of spending hours refining a Kata) but I'd have to drive 70 miles to do so... which is not easy considering my schedule. Any suggestions? The choices in my area, as far as I've researched, include: Hapkido, aikido, Kenpo, Shorin Ryu, Judo, and a strip-mall karate school that teaches a lot of flashy sport Tae-kwondo and some Mixed Martial arts/ Grappling (they also offer Hapkido and have a guy who teaches Kali and a guy who used to have his own dojo and claimed to teach Jeet Kune Do concepts).