Question about Goju Ryu

[Justin Treadaway]

I have been reading up on the style(Goju Ryu) a little and noticed that the name means hard/soft, linear/circular. I read that it has a lot of joint locks and take downs and actually has some ground fighting. I am currently taking sil lum kung fu which is the same way hard/soft, linear/circular, and external/internal. Sil lum also has joint locks, take downs, and ground fighting. I was wondering what the higher rank stuff of Goju Ryu was like. I tend to veer away from the really hard styles: Korean and a lot of karates. The block/punch or block kick styles. This style however interests me. I just wanted to hear some input from people who actually practice the style.

[TraditionalDan]

The transition from kung fu to goju would, I believe, be quite a smooth one. Goju can definately be of the contrasts you are looking for, but sometimes so can shotokan.

Give a class a try, I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

[Justin Treadaway]

Unfortunately there aren't any Goju Ryu schools around. But I would like to cross train in the style if I could. Not that i am not enjoying my kung fu class and it is very very very effective and enough. But I am always curious . I was just wondering if it would worth my time or not. If I am basically learning almost the same thing then it wouldn't really benefit me. I would like it to be similar but yet different if you know what i mean. But if its too different it would not merge well, such as TKD, just wouldn't merge with kung fu.

[P.A.L]

also look into uechi ryu , it's a okinawan karate style based on white crane gongfu.

[kotegashiNeo]

High Level Goju (Jundokan) is incredibly rough and powerful. I once had a high ranking Okinawian grab my forearm with such force that I thought he would crush my bones and I swear he could have squeezed harder easily. Goju fights in the closest of distances. The grappling that occurs in goju is almost all standing but it is fierce powerful and quite honest one of the best styles I have ever seen. I wouldn't how ever call it soft, it yields butthen it snaps back extremely hard

[shogeri]

GJK is good for those interesting in progressing into standing jujutsu, or Thai Boxing, etc. They use locks, and sweeps, and throws, while maintaining a lower center of gravity.