What style is this?

[RW]

It looks like a mcdojo to me. There is this local karate club in which I am not interested at all, but something caught my eye:

1) They simple refer themselves as "karate" (no style, not shotokan, not shorin ryu, etc).

2) The belt ranking is very weird, it goes like this:

White

White w/ 1 black stripe

White w/ 2 black stripes

Purple

Purple w/ 1 white stripe

Yellow

Orange

Green

Blue

Brown

Black (several dans)

Black w/ white in the center

Black w/ red in the center

3) They have some weird katas like "yosno kata 1", 2 and 3, which are basically the same, it's neko ashi dache followed by a different defense and then advance forward in zen kutsu dachi and oi tsuki.

Weird...

[Grego]

Sounds kinda fishy if they don't give the style they practice. Perhaps you should ask them.

I agree that their ranking system is a little weird, but I wouldn't called it a mcDojo based on that alone.

You're correct to be a bit suspicious though. Once you ask, and they still can't give a style, you should avoid it. Also, you might want to ask one of the students. If a student can't tell you what style of Karate it is, then I wouldn't bother. Or, if its a style like "Smith-Kai" or "awesome-ryu" then I'd skip too.

[Josie]

I've never heard of purple being before yellow. Ever.

I find that kinda weird. I think that fact that they're not saying what style they practice is alone enough to say that's it's a bit fishy.

[jaddensinn]

I disagree that the school is suspect or a mcdojo just because it doesn't state what type of karate they teach. Karate in the 90's became a blanket term for martial arts and in many cases was just the best thing to put on a martial arts schools' sign. Now, you kinda start to see that many schools just say they offer "Martial Arts", because that's the more acceptable blanket term now. Anyway, the head instructor of the school probably just has a diverse MA background and probably doesn't teach a one of the "pure" or traditional forms of karate.

[Kruczek]

Well some googling has turned up:

Shikara Ashi Te Ryu as the only style on the internet that teaches Yasno 1, 2 , etc.

It appears to be a latino dominated karate style based out of California from what I can see (and the fact that everything I have to read is in spanish lol).

Shikara does not translate to english through any translators, I assume it is actually Shi Kara Ashi Te Ryu which the last three words mean "Leg Hand Style" - that in itself is VERY fishy to me.

After a few guesses I have come up with "Chikara" which translates to power. This would translate the style to "Powerful feet and hands style".

That is about as much speculation as I want to give without knowing more - as always the best thing to do is just go ask lol, but that Purple belt after white is rather odd and amusing.

[bushido_man96]

I disagree that the school is suspect or a mcdojo just because it doesn't state what type of karate they teach. Karate in the 90's became a blanket term for martial arts and in many cases was just the best thing to put on a martial arts schools' sign. Now, you kinda start to see that many schools just say they offer "Martial Arts", because that's the more acceptable blanket term now. Anyway, the head instructor of the school probably just has a diverse MA background and probably doesn't teach a one of the "pure" or traditional forms of karate.

I agree here. I think it would be worth checking out, at least. Ask any questions you can, and if they avoid your answers, then it is probably time to leave. Also, watch a class, and see how the students look, and how the instructor teaches. It might be worth a try. Never judge a book by its cover...

[sensei8]

It looks like a mcdojo to me. There is this local karate club in which I am not interested at all, but something caught my eye:

McDojo? OK? Maybe/maybe not!

1) They simple refer themselves as "karate" (no style, not shotokan, not shorin ryu, etc).

Yeah, this doesn't mean anything because I've seen "Karate" on mostly every Tae Kwon Do Dojang's (school) because "Karate" is a universal tag for mostly every Martial Arts school worldwide; per the laymen consumer. A consumer identifies every Martial Art as "Karate!"

2) The belt ranking is very weird, it goes like this:

The belt ranking for me here is weird only because Purple is listed right after White Belt. Thing about that is...rank can be anything and in any order with all kind of combinations of stripes/colors. I mean, the white stripe in the center is usually reserved for women in Judo as well as Jr. Black Belts, therefore, the order/color/stripes/etc are not restrictive nor are they etched in stone. A style can do whatever it wants, no matter how weird and strange it may look to me. I didn't see the camo belt amongst it belt ranking...did anybody? Hhhmmmm...

3) They have some weird katas like "yosno kata 1", 2 and 3, which are basically the same, it's neko ashi dache followed by a different defense and then advance forward in zen kutsu dachi and oi tsuki.

For me, the name is meaningless, as to it's Bunkai/Oyo and Kata's other beneficial elements. I've seen some weird Kata's that had equally weird names, including who, where, when, why, what, and how a technique(s) appear at in the Kata's of a style.