What gives Life to a new style?

[boxingking]

Shotokan,Kyokushin are the well known styles and have a rich history when it comes to there establishment.

But what about the more obsecure styles...

Which got me wondering about Koei-Kan Karate as well as Enshin and ashihara style karate...How did they get a life of there own?

How does one simply start there own style? Do they need a blessing from the former karate instructor/style?

Best Regards

[Harkon72]

A new style is a lifetime's work. Many so called masters have a hash together system based on poor qualification. MMA has been the main culprit in making these so called styles up. I know a Goju Ryu 3rd Dan, bored of his style who now teaches an unrecognised hybrid style of "REAL" martial art. In my opinion, he's not qualified to teach techniques he just "likes the look of". He can't just add them as he pleases without gaining a certificate at least in grappling, muay thai and any other style he wants to play with. My advice to him is to stick to what you were taught, practice and excel in it.

[brickshooter]

Shotokan,Kyokushin are the well known styles and have a rich history when it comes to there establishment.

But what about the more obsecure styles...

Which got me wondering about Koei-Kan Karate as well as Enshin and ashihara style karate...How did they get a life of there own?

How does one simply start there own style? Do they need a blessing from the former karate instructor/style?

Best Regards

Whay they all need is a loyal following of qualified instructors.

That's pretty much it.

[boxingking]

A new style is a lifetime's work. Many so called masters have a hash together system based on poor qualification. MMA has been the main culprit in making these so called styles up. I know a Goju Ryu 3rd Dan, bored of his style who now teaches an unrecognised hybrid style of "REAL" martial art. In my opinion, he's not qualified to teach techniques he just "likes the look of". He can't just add them as he pleases without gaining a certificate at least in grappling, muay thai and any other style he wants to play with. My advice to him is to stick to what you were taught, practice and excel in it.

I hear what your saying! For example some mma fighters mockingly come up with "Cowboy karate" or "karate mafia"

But it seems like enshin karate as well as machida karate have at least professionalism and effecitiveness to it!

[Harkon72]

Don't get me wrong, Martial Art Cross training can work. A strong style of Karate coupled with BJJ or Sambo would be very effective. The key is to train proficiently in BOTH. You can call your style of fighting anything you want; it's just that the building of the foundations have to be sound to make it credible and effective. My sensei is 4th Dan Shukokai Karate and 1st Dan Kickboxing; he never mixes them in class, they are separate. When I asked him about ground work he said he knows some but would never teach it in the karate class as he is not qualified to include it in the syllabus.

[JustLuke]

MMA aside, I think that a lot of the traditional new styles (for example, the many established flavours of Karate) arose from:

1) Personal styles. Martial artists who had learned an orthodox style adapted it to better fit their body-types, preferences, and individual interpretations, which they later taught to others. This taught style either given a new name by themselves or by their students and a new style was born.

2) "Feature creep". A martial art is passed down through the years by word of mouth and by means of teacher-to-student instruction, and over time subtle differences between the performance and abilities of the teachers and students are built upon and become compounded. After a few teaching generations, this results in a style that is markedly different from the original taught style - and someone or some group decides to preserve it as a new style altogether.

As far as recently created new styles go, both of the above can be true here, too, but all too often, new styles are hashed together for other less worthwhile reasons - for example to create a money making "product" or to boost the ego of the "grandmaster fantasist" who patched his style together.

My own personal style is influenced by two "orthodox" styles of karate, Shotokan and Shorin Ryu, along with American Kenpo Karate and to a lesser extent other martial arts that I have been exposed to, and features all new kata and modified versions of traditional kata to document the techniques and theories codified by them. The reasons why I practice/develop it (in addition to continuing on with my Shorin Ryu training) is because it best fits my body-type, is a rewarding intellectual as well as physical challenge, and is an attempt by me to create a structured series of kata with unambiguous bunkai interpretations for a wide variety of useful techniques. One day I will teach it to others, if only to my own children. Will it become established as a new style? Who knows. I think that anyone who "creates" a new style just for the sake of "becoming famous" has his/her priorities all wrong.

[Harkon72]

I think that anyone who "creates" a new style just for the sake of "becoming famous" has his/her priorities all wrong.

This is the key, a style should be a natural progression of learning; not a way to make a name for yourself.

[Dobbersky]

I think that anyone who "creates" a new style just for the sake of "becoming famous" has his/her priorities all wrong.

This is the key, a style should be a natural progression of learning; not a way to make a name for yourself.

Totally agree with this!

I think its much luck that comes into play. If a Senior Instructor already has a large Student base prior to the Split then its easier to move on with the "new" style but if one is starting from scratch and needs still to find 1 student let alone the 100th student then its a lot harder, sometime impossible. I think Dojo's open and close all the time due to student turn around.

When I created my "new" style I did it to merge what I was doing so I only needed to pract 1 art not several.

I've never claimed a salary from the club and its not a huge club either but it would be nice to have the Dojo full time in several locations, although I think this might not happen as I would need students who are as dedicated as I am to assist me and also open their own Dojo's too

[Kevin Wilson]

I think that anyone who "creates" a new style just for the sake of "becoming famous" has his/her priorities all wrong.

This is the key, a style should be a natural progression of learning; not a way to make a name for yourself.

Happens to often ....

[pers]

Isn't this what karate has been suffering from ? Too many chiefs and not enough Indians ?

taekwondo which is an off shoot of karate has been in olympics for years ... why do you think that is ? isn't it becuase of their unity and staying together ?

Edited September 3, 2012 by pers