Why is it so difficult?

[muttley]

All I want to do is find a club in my local area that teaches good self defence. After years of Shotokan Karate, I thought I had found a club but fell out of love with it, not sure if it was the club or the style that I just stopped enjoying. My trouble is finding a club that fits in with my shifts at work.

I want a martial art that will help with close combat as most of the stuff I face at work is in close quarters in confined space and some times against multiple opponents. I just can't seem to find a club that fits in, maybe it's partly down to my own bias towards Karate.

I see loads of clubs that are teaching a mix of "freestyle Karate", Kickboxing, Kung Fu etc etc but nothing more specific! It's starting to annoy me now.

[mal103]

Shotokan will give you what you need eventually, you will need to find a good club/instructor though....

There are plenty to choose from and not all will provide what you want - or some not straight away - so it may take a while. Shotokan itself takes a long time to learn and it's only really past Shodan that you really start learning - in my humble opinion of course.

Good hunting.

[muttley]

Thanks, I got to Shodan before quitting (and starting again, then quitting and starting again), like I said, I thought I had found a club that I liked but they never did any kumite at all, not even semi contact stuff which annoyed me as how do know what if feels like to be hit if you never get hit or what adrenaline does for you in a confrontation without experiencing it?

I might have found another Shotokan club in my area (been there all along, but I thought it was linked to the other club I trained at and it isn't). Going along tomorrow to check it out and see how it goes.

[Harkon72]

I think it all depends on the Sensei, our teacher shows us traditional karate but he has a real attitude to self defense; we don't do karate for karate sake, we are very aware of the real world. Some Sensei think that bunkai and self defense has no place in the dojo; I suppose they are the purists of the art, but in my opinion, if you don't know the application in real life, then I'm afraid you might as well do aerobics.

[muttley]

It really is the problem I am finding at the moment, the clubs in my area (mainly KUGB) don't do this. I am hoping that the club I am going to check out tomorrow is a TSKA club (Tradiotional Shotokan Karate Association), never tried a club of this association before so we shall see I guess.

It annoys me that in the time since I started training in the 80's, Karate (in the UK at least) has been so sports orientated. It's become a victim of the law suit society we now have, nobody wants to do something that could lead to being hurt, even if it is for the better in the long run so dojo's now deliver a very watered down version of karate.

[Harkon72]

There are far too many that teach the bare minimum for a ransom. I know of a few schools that have point semi-contact sparring; the fights are never continuous, all they do is play tag with each other. Some of these "Fighters" are "World Champions" at a sport we used to play in the playground. Good luck in your search, I hope you find an Art that you can be proud of.

[Wastelander]

I don't know where you live in the UK, but John Titchen teaches practical karate based on Shotokan in the Wycombe area. http://www.d-a-r-t.org.uk/dart-classes.html

You might also see about schools that art affiliated with Iain Abernethy, Peter Consterdine, or Geoff Thompson. They are all well known for having practical approaches to karate, but I think they run private schools, so you may have to find schools run by their students.

[Nidan Melbourne]

Depends on your sensei of they are knowledgable in it. A friend of mine runs his own karate school and often has self defense seminars, also has seminars for females to defend themselves.

[CredoTe]

...

I want a martial art that will help with close combat as most of the stuff I face at work is in close quarters in confined space and some times against multiple opponents. I just can't seem to find a club that fits in, maybe it's partly down to my own bias towards Karate.

...

Since Shotokan is a derivative of Shorin-Ryu and other Okinawan-te arts, I would think it has at least some ability for in-fighting. I can't say for sure since I'm not a Shotokan practitioner, but Shorin-Ryu definitely has a lot of in-fighting techniques.

Thanks, I got to Shodan before quitting (and starting again, then quitting and starting again), like I said, I thought I had found a club that I liked but they never did any kumite at all, not even semi contact stuff which annoyed me as how do know what if feels like to be hit if you never get hit or what adrenaline does for you in a confrontation without experiencing it?

I might have found another Shotokan club in my area (been there all along, but I thought it was linked to the other club I trained at and it isn't). Going along tomorrow to check it out and see how it goes.

Yeah, any MA school that doesn't engage in any sort of kumite practice is doing somewhat of a disservice. Even if they just did light contact continuous sparring they would be teaching their students a lot about how things work in a real situation.

...

It annoys me that in the time since I started training in the 80's, Karate (in the UK at least) has been so sports orientated. It's become a victim of the law suit society we now have, nobody wants to do something that could lead to being hurt, even if it is for the better in the long run so dojo's now deliver a very watered down version of karate.

It is much the same here in the States. I have a similar outlook about it, as well. Very annoying, indeed.

There are far too many that teach the bare minimum for a ransom. I know of a few schools that have point semi-contact sparring; the fights are never continuous, all they do is play tag with each other. Some of these "Fighters" are "World Champions" at a sport we used to play in the playground. Good luck in your search, I hope you find an Art that you can be proud of.

Lol... SPOT ON...

I don't know where you live in the UK, but John Titchen teaches practical karate based on Shotokan in the Wycombe area. http://www.d-a-r-t.org.uk/dart-classes.html

You might also see about schools that art affiliated with Iain Abernethy, Peter Consterdine, or Geoff Thompson. They are all well known for having practical approaches to karate, but I think they run private schools, so you may have to find schools run by their students.

Great share, Wastelander

[muttley]

Looking around, there seems to be no end of kugb clubs in my area and "kids karate". However there just seems to be nothi g for applied martial arts in my area of Kent. Maybe there just isn't the need.

Seriously thinking of opening my own dojo!