opinions on goju-ryu please

[xianzhong]

I am a goju ryu karate practitioner and my club was formerly affliated with CMAC but left after about a year I started training. I trained for 6 years in CANADIAN style Goju Ryu Karate Do and got my shodan-ho in it. After I got my shodan-ho, my club has transitioned to the Okinawan Meibukan Goju Ryu style of Karate Do (from Meitatsu Yagi, the most traditional of Goju Ryu). We have been training in that style for the past three or four years now and now officially part of the International Meibukan Goju-Ryu Karate Association (aka IMGKA, https://www.imgka.com).

 

Enough with the background...

 

all I can say his, Canadian/American style of Goju Ryu could be considered very flawed. It's basically been passed down by at around 4 generations of teachers/senseis with very limited knowledge or just basic knowlegde of the real applications of the Goju Ryu system and it's techniques. With that limitation (and incorrect knowledge) they decided to change, blend, or incorporate other styles of technique to what they seemed correct (or asthetically pleasing). And pass it on still by saying it's completely traditional, practical, etc...

 

I gonna keep this short for now, I'll post some later maybe, but overall the Canadian/American systems of Goju Ryu are very inferior too the original Okinawan (and even Japanese) styles. Why? cause the Western teachers passed their knowledge (for money mainly?) with a limited understanding of the ar. So basically, they had maybe a equivalent to Shodan, which in no way gives you the ability to teach the system, except for the basic techniques, punches, kicks, stances, etc. They were taught to forms, but they had no idea of what the applications were, so they just changed the moves, or made up their own techniques to compansate for their lack of understanding. Most, I believe changed the techniques to make it suit or look more like other systems of Karate, mainly because they looked better, but didn't really take into the combat worthiness of the technique, rather, what looked better for forms compeitions or performances.

 

Many of the teachers in CMAC, are good guys and very nice. But many are also ignorant, and are lazy too really research about the system they are training in and compare it with theirs without bias.

 

I admit, most are McDojos, I still consider my club a McDojo, so, blah...continue later, sorry this is mostly just babble....