mathemajikian

Thanks for all the responses, most have them been eye opening. I don't think the instructors I met had any medical issues they just seemed to have bad eating habits. While talking to one I actually watched him finish off two large starbucks coffees, and a box of donuts.

So, I've been to a few dojos in my area, and I’ve noticed that a lot of the instructors are extremely overweight. When they demonstrate techniques they look really bad and, horribly unbalanced; however, some of them seem to have a lot of martial arts experience/knowledge. Many of them have actually lived and trained in Japan! I've seen photos of these instructors when they were younger and they all seemed to be in shape, and I would have loved to train with them then, but now that they have let themselves go I'm sort of wary. So, what do you guys think? Can an overweight instructor teach you to be a good martial artist or will the fact that they can no longer walk the walk effect the training you’re receiving?

I was looking around my town for a Jujutsu class to supplement my Isshinryu training and stumbled across an Soryu Karate dojo. I've done a web search and cannot find any meaningful information about this style. Is this a legit system of martial arts or some modern day construction? Here's the dojo website address: http://shinryukan.us

I've been studying Isshinryu for about two months now, and have noticed that most of the techniques from Chart 1 seem like One strike, One Kill types of movements. I'm aware that if any one of these techniques connects you'll be in a world of hurt, but if you don't take out the bad guy after the first few seconds, how effective will these techniques/Isshinryu be in a continuous fighting situation? What happens after the element of surprise is lost and the bad guys still there? I don't doubt Isshinryu in any way. I'm just trying to get a glimpse of the big picture.