Opinion's on the following styles.

[GojuRyu Bahrain]

Hello,

- Wado Ryu;

- Kyokushin;

- Shotokan;

- Goju Ryu;

- Uechi ryu;

- Shaolin kempo.

Hi MrNice,

Out of your list I have practiced (to some extent) all styles with the exception of Kyukushin.....for me, Goju Ryu is The Thing, because the fundamental stategy fits me best. BUT, as others mentioned before, all styles can be the best depending on you, the instructor, and lots of additional circumstances.

[unknownstyle]

It will depend on what your intentions of use are. kyokushin seems to be very tournament based in my opinion. Wado and Shotokan will use longer stances than that of your okinawan styles. Uechi is about developing a hard body and using devasting attacks to beat an opponent. Goju also develops a hard body and tends to have more in depth kata training than the others. I have no knowledge pf Shaolin Kempo so i won't comment.The Okinawan styles tend to be a bit more hardcore in their training philosophy. Shotokan, Wado Ryu and Kyokushin you will see more in tournament than the otgers

[Archimoto]

Thank you for all the replies! Honestly, the way I think about it is:"It's not the style, it's the teacher and the dojo."

I disagree. I think that it's the practitioner. I've seen some terrible MAists come out of fantastic schools with fantastic teachers and I've seen some fantastic MAists come out of terrible schools with terrible teachers.

I agree with this. It's the teacher AND the student.

[Hawkmoon]

Hello,

So what are your opinions on the following styles? Think about ups and downs etc.

- Wado Ryu;

- Kyokushin;

- Shotokan;

- Goju Ryu;

- Uechi ryu;

- Shaolin kempo.

Kinda curious on the opinions. I'm aware that there's other styles, so if you'd like to voice your opinion on another style, it'd be very nice!

Regards,

Me.

like others have said its not so much the school/style that makes the art or artist, its the student and the teacher.

I see no point at all in doing a thing that does not work, feel right or gives poor results if it gives any at all, just because...

If it feels wrong its because it is wrong for you, try something else!

To me you have to see, try experience a thing to decide on a thing.

We don't buy a car because it was the first one we spotted with a 'For sale' sign in the windscreen.

Same goes for our homes, even the food we eat.

Try each or as many as you can from your list.

Take some time to have high points as well as low points, say six weeks.

(Yes 6 weeks!)

At the end of that time one or two will stand out in your mind as the best one, the one that made you feel complete, satisfied, the one that had you feel you accomplished something good!

Thats the one for you!

Good luck, enjoy you are at most possibly the most exciting part of your MA career!

[wildbourgman]

I was going to start a new thread but this has been talked about a bunch already.

I want to express some things that I've been seeing but didn't want to start a debate. I come from a Shotokan background originally and I now also train Shorin ryu. I see that Shorin Ryu has more aspects of a fuller fighting style, but I think it also has some weakness in todays society especially in the west.

The first thing is that my Shotokan experience was hard training with fewer techniques that we worked on over and over until we were very sharp. We didn't do alot of bunkai, little to no tuite, and were very ridged in many aspects until you became a higher rank.

Over 24 years after my last Shotokan class, I'm in a new town as an adult now with no Shotokan and I'm wanting to get my kids into Karate. After a bunch of research I find a Shorin Ryu school with a great instructor. After watching the first few classes I notice that many of the students technique looks rather weak and they seem to forget what they have learned.

Well now that I'm also training there I have come to see that one of the problems is that Shorin Ryu has so many more techniques that are practiced along with weapons. It appears to be very difficult for students to get sharp and hone there skills because they don't have the repetition.

The kids class for example ranges from beginners to blackbelts 6 year old to 16 year old and it's one hour two times a week. Not trying to get into a which is better debate, but I can see one of many reasons the Japanese didn't get the whole Okinawan package. It's alot of information to digest and then to try to have it become muscle memory and a fighting instinct in this day and age, I don't know.

[chrissyp]

It will depend on what your intentions of use are. kyokushin seems to be very tournament based in my opinion. Wado and Shotokan will use longer stances than that of your okinawan styles. Uechi is about developing a hard body and using devasting attacks to beat an opponent. Goju also develops a hard body and tends to have more in depth kata training than the others. I have no knowledge pf Shaolin Kempo so i won't comment.The Okinawan styles tend to be a bit more hardcore in their training philosophy. Shotokan, Wado Ryu and Kyokushin you will see more in tournament than the otgers

I agree with unknownstlye, it's what your intentions are, what you're hoping to accomplish. Do you want to do one style for just fun? self defense? Competition? And then it goes down, to what kind? MMA? Point fighting? Full contact?

Along with the the saying "No such thing as a bad student, only teacher", there is two sides to this. With martial arts, you get what you put in. I've found I could make shotokan effective for what I want to do (kickboxing/mma) but it required a lot more work then other styles to apply properly, it's just a matter of putting the work in, and finding the style the lends best to what you're wanting to achieve.

[Wado Heretic]

The only system on the list I can comment on is Wado-Ryu. I put together some bullet points and I hope they are useful to you;

Advantages:

 

Good balance between the Kihon, Kata and Kumite elements.

Introduced to Jiyu Kumite (free sparring) relatively early.

Ohyo, Kihon and Kata Kumite (Not to be confused with Bunkai) are relatively uniform between clubs, and give early and easy access to Wado-Ryu fighting concepts and principles. That should not be translated as easy to pick up and perform well though.

Has a number of unique Kihon Waza which emphasise the core stratagems of Wado-Ryu, and which are not found in other ryuha.

Has a breadth of kata, while not being too vast in scope.

Have a number of kumite exercises derived from Jujutsu which are not found in other Karate systems, providing insights into combative notions and solutions not confronted by other ryuha.

At it uses natural postures, and techniques based on Tai Sabaki and Kazushi it is suited to older practitioners or those of smaller stature.

Principles of power generation are taught for percussive, trapping and grappling ranges making it suitable for training at all ranges.

Disadvantages:

 

Kata are primarily of Shuri and Tomari decent, lacking an influence of Naha Te limiting, to an extent, what can be explored via the Kata.

Kata have been modified and follow a distinct way of thinking, making a comparison to analogues from other systems practice of the same kata difficult to make.

Great divides on Bunkai, some teachers have embraced the concept, where as others prefer to utilise the kumite exercises established by Ohtsuka Meijin alone.

Relating to the Bunkai divide, some favour the jujutsu heritage of the system over the karate heritage and vice versa, hence leading to differences in the kind of practice methods you will find between clubs.

Hojo Undo is a low priority for most, though flexibility and cardio are trained to be developed as in any martial art plus Makiwara, hand weights, and Tetsu-Gata are not alien to many Wadoka. However, it is far from that experienced in Full-Contact or Okinawan systems.

Originating as a hybrid style with a distinct flavour and modus operandi, cross training can become a confusing rather than illuminating experience for one exploring Wado-Ryu or moving from Wado-Ryu to other ryuha.

Lacks Kobujutsu or weapon practice native to Wado-Ryu, despite the presence of Baki-Dori against the Knife and Long sword.

Other comments:

I personally no longer believe in the mantra that training hard in any style is a worth while venture. There is some absolute junk out there, and despite my own experience in seeing some great martial artists arise from terrible teachers and terrible students arising from great teachers I would not sell yourself short. Do not do yourself a disservice by settling, make sure you find a teacher that gives you feed back you can work with. That will matter more than the system alone in the end, a good teacher.

[sensei8]

The only system on the list I can comment on is Wado-Ryu. I put together some bullet points and I hope they are useful to you;

Advantages:

 

Good balance between the Kihon, Kata and Kumite elements.

Introduced to Jiyu Kumite (free sparring) relatively early.

Ohyo, Kihon and Kata Kumite (Not to be confused with Bunkai) are relatively uniform between clubs, and give early and easy access to Wado-Ryu fighting concepts and principles. That should not be translated as easy to pick up and perform well though.

Has a number of unique Kihon Waza which emphasise the core stratagems of Wado-Ryu, and which are not found in other ryuha.

Has a breadth of kata, while not being too vast in scope.

Have a number of kumite exercises derived from Jujutsu which are not found in other Karate systems, providing insights into combative notions and solutions not confronted by other ryuha.

At it uses natural postures, and techniques based on Tai Sabaki and Kazushi it is suited to older practitioners or those of smaller stature.

Principles of power generation are taught for percussive, trapping and grappling ranges making it suitable for training at all ranges.

Disadvantages:

 

Kata are primarily of Shuri and Tomari decent, lacking an influence of Naha Te limiting, to an extent, what can be explored via the Kata.

Kata have been modified and follow a distinct way of thinking, making a comparison to analogues from other systems practice of the same kata difficult to make.

Great divides on Bunkai, some teachers have embraced the concept, where as others prefer to utilise the kumite exercises established by Ohtsuka Meijin alone.

Relating to the Bunkai divide, some favour the jujutsu heritage of the system over the karate heritage and vice versa, hence leading to differences in the kind of practice methods you will find between clubs.

Hojo Undo is a low priority for most, though flexibility and cardio are trained to be developed as in any martial art plus Makiwara, hand weights, and Tetsu-Gata are not alien to many Wadoka. However, it is far from that experienced in Full-Contact or Okinawan systems.

Originating as a hybrid style with a distinct flavour and modus operandi, cross training can become a confusing rather than illuminating experience for one exploring Wado-Ryu or moving from Wado-Ryu to other ryuha.

Lacks Kobujutsu or weapon practice native to Wado-Ryu, despite the presence of Baki-Dori against the Knife and Long sword.

Other comments:

I personally no longer believe in the mantra that training hard in any style is a worth while venture. There is some absolute junk out there, and despite my own experience in seeing some great martial artists arise from terrible teachers and terrible students arising from great teachers I would not sell yourself short. Do not do yourself a disservice by settling, make sure you find a teacher that gives you feed back you can work with. That will matter more than the system alone in the end, a good teacher.

Solid post!!