Which Style???????

[delta1]

Some places she has been turning down, because of the spiritual part. I was just wondering if there is a style of karate that focuses on self-defence, with spirituality at the minimum.

 

If there is an American Kenpo school nearby, you might check it out. Most AK schools are completely self defense oriented, and the closest thing they do to anything spiritual is the formal salute (which has absolutely no spiritual meaning). At least this has been my experience. You do end in the classic hands folded in prayer position, and you can do what you want there. But you usually only have about 2 sec. to do it- except when my brother leads it. He likes to pray, and he likes everyone to know he's doing it (sort of a Pharasitical hangup). I sometimes say "Aaahooooom" just to annoy him. Or "For what I'm about to do to this *^#!, please forgive me". But I wouldn't call that particularly spiritual. It just makes class a little more interesting. (By the way, that is only when we work out together, not in an actual class with others. We're not disrespectful, just me and my brother have a long history of annoying and fighting each other. )

 

Another advantage to AK is that the vast majority of schools speak English. We don't 'uke', we dummy. Even our ranks are in English. And we don't bow, we salute. We train in a school or studio, and our instructor is an instructor.

 

If you're interested, ask and I'll tell you more about it. There are also a couple of others here who do American Kenpo.

 

Good luck, and hang in there trying to find a good school that suits you. It is a good thing to spend a little time now looking around for the right school, instead of changing or droping out later.