tao plao

English was indeed my first language but after 10 years in Thailand it ain't what it used to be. Thanks for the correction. Being a Wado guy I checked over at the Takamura ha Shindo Yoshin Kai website for confirmation and lo, the spelling used there is "jujutsu". By the way, in my few visits to train in Japan I've seen that many of the high level Wado guys have significant judo experience as well and they draw on this in their sparring very effectively. But they don't distinguish techniques as "judo" or "karate". Since Wado is more about a set of principles than a collection of techniques, any movement that is compatible with those principles (which derive from Shindo Yoshin-ryu) can be freely adopted.

In March this year I graded to Shodan in Wado Ryu (JKF Wadokai).

I can put in another word for the Guseikai branch in Calgary. I don’t know of this particular group but Guseikai is a very solid, traditional Wado organization headed by Dr. Hideo Takagi in Japan. I also train with a sensei who is one of Takagi Sensei’s senior students and I have hade the honor of training with Takagi Sensei himself. This guy is the real deal and his senior black belts are all technically very strong. Their body movement is smooth and sharp. Takagi Sensei has produced many top competitors in Japan. I don’t know how competition-oriented the Calgary group is but I would think that in any case you would get solid instruction with them and they’re worth investigating.

In our Wado dojo we sometimes practice throws as interpretations/extensions of kata moves. But we also have 2 throws that are formally taught as part of our syllabus (JKF Wadokai). These are found in kihon kumite kata numbers 5 and 10. As with kihon kumite kata in general, I think these 2 throws derive more from Wado's jiu-jitsu heritage than from the Okinawan side.