you cant join shotokan or prolly any style of karate and expect to know how to fight in 2 weeks or 2 months you wont know enouph to fight in the street, if you do fight you will loose. shotokan takes time to learn i think its better to take the time, and learn basics after basics instead of going straight to learn how to fight. practice makes perfect you have to know basics and kata helps alot on your basics and form thats why shotokan is so up on kata. Shotokan karate is the power house style of karate, when you get in highter belts like i am, you develope power and lots of it, its really unbelivable, at least to me it is. Shotokan karate is all about form in fighting, we belive that form is one of the most important things. if you learn form during your basics, it will come automatically in a fight. in shotokan we get our power from our hips, the hips are the punch, the fist is the delivery system. shotokan karate is a effective style, and does work in the street, i am walking proof. i hope you learned something about shotokan karate from what i said.