Any Sport Karate in the Seattle Area?

[lostinseattle]

Anybody know of any good sport karate places in the Seattle area?

Required:

Must have sparring.

Must do tournaments.

Must teach sport karate, not TKD. (Karate allows takedowns in sparring).

Must allow wearing mat shoes. (Can't stand grimy mats).

Thanks!

[bushido_man96]

Do a google search of the area, and see what you come up with.

[legkicker]

What kind of "sport karate" do you mean? WKF rules? If so, this is who I would reccomend in the Seattle area: http://www.minakamikarate.com/

My first tournament ever, was one of Minakami Shihan's tournaments when I was a kid. I would reccomend his dojo over the WKA.

If you want Kyokushin or something similar send me a private message...send me one if you want a particular style. I live very close by the Seattle area and I know of goju ryu, shorin ryu, shotokan, kyokushin, and many other styles in the Seattle area.

Oops, I just saw your mat shoes requirement, umm...good luck with that in Karate unless you have a medical reason. If you do some more Americanized style of karate you could probably wear shoes but in Japanese/Okinawan styles, probably not(from my own experience never seen it). I competed in some "open style tournaments" that had more of the americanized styles where you compete with foam dipped sparring gear and I don't remember takedowns being allowed. NOt to say there isn't takedowns allowed in the more Americanized styles.

[lostinseattle]

Actually I'm looking for total sport karate, like nothing serious or traditional at all ... I guess what you're calling Americanized karate.

I'm kindof tired of these schools who put so much emphasis on character development and all that. Because why? This is the 2000s, and that stuff just takes time.

So I'm looking for a cheesy style school that does flash over substance, and a lot of tournament sparring to win tropies.

It might sound bogus, but basically I just want a school that does a lot of sparring.

[legkicker]

What I'm saying is from my own experience what you're looking for doesn't allow takedowns, usually, anyway. I crosstrained in an americanized/japanese shito ryu dojo at the same time I was in a totally traditional Japanese shito ryu dojo. The sweeps/takedowns were allowed at the more traditional tournaments vs. the americanized one. I think maybe if you found a sport jujutsu school this would work for you, perhaps but I don't know of any in Seattle.

I'd suggest doing a google search and just looking in the phone book. By the way, Minakami's dojo does do sparring, a pretty decent ammount of it. Minakami, WKA, and many other traditional dojo around Seattle have lots of tournament opportunities.

I haven't kept up on the freestyle/open tournament scene in over ten years so perhaps they have some with takedowns allowed now besides the sport jujutsu ones? I really don't know.

[lostinseattle]

Yeah, I checked out the sport jujitsu, and once again, nothing in the Seattle Area. It looks like James DeMille used to send his students but now he's branched out into higher $$$ activities. LOL

So many sellouts ... guess there's more $ in less training. LOL

[lostinseattle]

Anyways I found a place, Ring Sports United, that does MMA style boxing/kickboxing/jujitsu, etc., with no katas!!!

So thanks for the help, but I think I'm just going to forget about karate.

[legkicker]

umm, you should have just asked me..so you're in Bellevue and going to train with Mark and Kim Messer. Eric Dahlberg used to teach jiu jitsu there, so did Rodrigo Lopes.

You'd rather train there than AMC in Kirkland, ay? Or even Demon Jiu jitsu in mercer island? Or Gracie-Barra in Seattle, or in Ballard? By the way, RSU won't allow you to wear shoes(for kickboxing).

I have friends at RSU so let me know when you start. They also have that Koei Kan dojo in the same business park as RSU.

Unless they have a new jiu jitsu instructor, the jiu jitsu at RSU isn't the best(as marcelo/demon/gracie-barra). The boxing and kickboxing is good, though.

p.s. I told you to forget about Karate since you didn't want to do kata and wear shoes

[legkicker]

Ok...I will repeat this again just so you know. The guard found in BJJ wasn't stopped being done in Judo(kosen, at least). Do-jime was a technique that was banned from competition by the Kodokan in 1916 because it's a technique used to scissor and crush a person's ribs. Too many internal injuries to organs were happening by this technique. I've been told there was one individual that would do thousands of squats every day to have a strong do-jime.

A sankaku variation is still used by some Judoka to do to the head in which you're literally crushing/squeezing the head, too.

I really don't think that a good BJJ person is open for groin strikes as much as you do, but you're entitled to your opinion.

Not wanting to get grimey and sweaty with guys is fine but I'd rather practice that way instead of ever ending up on the ground with someone and not knowing what I'm doing. I also enjoy newaza(ground grappling)and stand up(tachiwaza)grappling. It's all fun to me, but hey, this is me, not you; different strokes for different folks.