A little research.

[jion]

- No our dojo is not affiliated with JKA.

- We absolutely do not train at anytime to compete.

- If a student wishes to compete, it is his or her own choice to go.

- The dojo or the instructor does not hold competition classes for the whole dojo so that one or two can compete.

- Most of those (including myself) who have gone to competitions, were greatly disappointed in the "sport".

- Most of the weapons kata, hand kata, and self defense were flashy and ineffective.

- People were scoring points in kumite by just touching the top of the head gear.

- Needless to say, it took only a couple of tournaments to realize that our training at our Shotokan school was not comparable to what was being represented at the competitions.

- Maybe that is why our instructor doesn't teach or promote tournament style practices and only focuses on what has been handed down to him by his instructors and theirs before them.

Are we at the same club??

Firstly, Shotokan, and even more so, Itosu's karate was geared towards school children and benefiting people's health. I'm not an expert on Qigong, but he used many ideas from that in his karate.

Funakoshi trained under him, Matsumura and Asato. Both Matsumura and Asato were combat-oriented practioners, whereas Itosu, like Funakoshi, were school teachers.

When Funakoshi went to Japan he chose Itosu's karate and not Matsumura or Asato's. A clear example of this is when you compare Matsumura no Passai with Itosu no Passai and Bassai Dai. And I don't mean just the form, but its bunkai. Maybe even Bassai Sho is closer to the original combative kata than Bassai Dai (the Sho version was not chosen by Funakoshi for the Shotokan curriculum).

This schoolchildren's karate became what we now know as competition karate. Without Itosu's changes, karate would probably have never left Okinawa. We probably wouldn't be here at all!

My firm belief is, there's only one karate. Shotokan teaches and delivers a very high level of physical skill, and a perfect foundation for continuing karate studies. Shotokan is however not a beginner's karate, it is a japanese style of karate (quite different from Okinawan karate), it has lost some of its heritage, but in no way is it any less than other forms of karate. No matter what some of the 'purists' here say.

My tip is to learn older versions of Kanku, Bassai, Empi, Hangetsu, etc. Compare them to the Shotokan versions, and practise them with Itosu's and Funakoshi's goal/intention. And you'll see just how much Shotokan has to offer.

[RichardHangHong]

I must admit I've been to a few Shotokan schools and the large majority are focused on competition.

However, the school I am studying at the moment although they do a lot of competition orientated training the last couple of months have had lots of jutsu/application based training.

The other school I studied at, but had to stop because of work commitments did lots of applied training in their classes. Focusing more on developing power and how to strike most effectively in a self defence situation. They do a little bit of competition but not much and it's clearly not the focus of the class.

[jaymac]

jion, I do not think we are at the same school. The last time I was in Germany was -----------> well I was never in Germany but I would love to go sometime. I like what you have written in regards to itosu and funakoshi. I am greatly saddened to think that there are Shotokan schools over here in the states that have dropped the teachings of these great Martial Artists and developed a sport style of karate but continue to call themselves shotokan.

[getawaytkd]

most martial arts are judged these days

[Scully]

Competitions were made to let different fighters to test their skills against other warrior who use different ways of fighting. (defensive, offesnsive etc) different to what they expeirence in their own dojos. Sadly this is not the case in most competitions nowadays. Rewards, trophies etc have made people, on a vast majority not everyone, forget the true meaning of a battle between to dedicated fighters. However, it is not possible to say that a whole type of martial art, e.g shotokan karate, is taught for competitions. Not once have me or my sensei trained in competition style. (im Black Belt shotokan by the way) We have traiied souly to improve and become better and even for our own personal reasons (as with everyone else). We have mentioned competitions, but like I said earlier, for a challenge outside of my dojo.

Do not label an art as competition or anything else. We all have our own individual reason for training. If people think shotokan is good for competitions, let them think that, however, I dont think that. I use it for my own reasons.

Do not threat on what people say on the art, just worry about what you think of it.