Shotokan or Kyokushin?

[elfordo]

I'm new to this forum but i want to know which style would you choose and why?

Most of the time this question gets answered like choose by the teacher if he is good or what not.

I want to know art wise which is the better choice, competion, fitness and self defence wise.

So which is the better style, who has trained in these styles and why do you like them.

Thankyou

[granmasterchen]

shotokan is your typical karate, depending on the instructor....it can be a very well rounded and balanced art form.

kyokushin is more of a full contact art that is becoming more sport oriented like in the k1 tournaments.

at their fundamentals each are very similar being a basis of karate.....it depends on the instructor of course.

kyokushin used to be big into katas and breaking, but it is becoming more of sport like I mentioned above. Take it from me (living, training and teaching in Japan for the past 3 yrs) many of the kyokushin schools have dropped breaking, pressure points, weapons and kata from their curriculum and focus solely on the basic strikes and sparring full contact. The basis in many are that skill is not so important anymore, if you have the basic idea of the technique then you are good.....strenght and speed are the important factors to these new age schools....sad to say.

if you are into full contact competition go to kyokushin...

if you want to work on many of the basic fundamentals and a long term goal of a life time of martial arts then go for shotokan....

[Meguro]

GMC, have you been teaching Kyokushin Karate in Japan for 3 years, Shotokan, English or all of the above?

[Patrick]

Hello,

As you already have a topic for this discussion, I am going to close this one and redirect you over there.

http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=23006&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=

Thanks.