Old School!

[Gen_Tora]

Well I define "old school" as the core methods, techniques & practices of the founding idea for a martial art. In the terms of Japanese Karate (shotokan) the training was origionally what would be considered insanely hard. This then, could even be recreated in spirit by modern training methods. Striking a post = heavy bag work. Carrying clay pots = wieght training. Bare knuckled semi contact sparring = full contact padded fist sparring. In Funakoshi's own words "15 kata is enough exercise for a life?"

In my own words, why does modern shotokan have nearly 30 plus kata to shodan? Why we need 28 flavors of white belt? Why do we need 10 levels to a yodansha (black belt) when the founding master had only five? Simple Comericalism, & in 3 to 5 years we'll see water down MMAs just to make a buck....

The question of whether your art is old school or not, isn't the day it was born but the spirit it embodies...

[patusai]

Americanization is the answer! Americans wanted to (and still do) re-invent Karate better. I'm afraid that as a result much of the wisdom of the past as it relates to karate has been lost. Some American "Masters" made changes to kata and karate because they did not understand why they were asked to do what they were doing. The philosophy of "Well it makes no sense to me so let's change it" is American. The thought of deeper study to better understand something that you don't understand in a kata...sometimes never happened. After all, "I'm a 'Master' you know!"

All of these changes really started in some styles from day one after Americans received black belts in Japan and returned to the USA. It's be "growing" ever since with each new generation. It's not going to change. Someday you will see 15 kyu levels and many more black belt levels too. I know that they go up to 10 but waaaaay back in the day (Shotokan) did not they go up to 5? Back in about 1971 or 1972 our dojo was talking about a guy our west who sewed two white belts together one op top of another to make a much wider belt and he claimed himself a 12th degree. Never heard anything more about that. Pretty soon, if there are not already, you will see belts beyond 10th....perhaps colors such as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum...that would take it to 14th dan.

Sorry about the rant....the other day I saw a kid, maybe 15, coming out of a Dojo with a belt that had at least 3 different colored full length stripes(I think it was) Black, Red, white and Blue belt and it appears that this belt is either high kyu or lower dan level.

[Gen_Tora]

No you can't blame only the Americans, the Japanese messed karate up with commericalization pretty badly. Since Funakoshi was Okinawan by birth, after his death allot of japanese students wanted to make karate in japan better then karate in okinawa.

Bare in mind that in Japan & the rest of the world Okinawa is called the Ryu Kyu (school boy) Islands of Japan. Now tell an Okinawan he's Japanese You'll have a fight on your hands lol

I belive any martial art with a largely commerical base will become warped over time. There are already 15th Dans in some systems, I was so happy with my shodan in shotokan (still am) when I first got it. Sadly by todays standards I'm godan or something, I've used shotokan techniques that some of the local sandans never saw before.

[patusai]

You make a good point about Japanese vs Okinawan. Already 15th dans! Well, well. Such a shame. I guess I just wasn't meant for these times....thank God I'm an old man.

[kivikala]

It is not "Americanization" per say. If anything it is just a copy-cat of the problem that already plagued Japan during Funakoshi's time. Michi (street) dojos we popping up faster than cell-phone stores. It seemed like anyone with a days worth of training was opening a new dojo and becoming a master of this or that. To the way I hear it told it was epidemic in proportion. Here in the US we are just "following tradition" hehehe.

[Gen_Tora]

There is an idea, a street dojo hmmm.....