looking for Okinawan Karate in Kalispell, Montana

[kearickson]

Hi my name is Kenny Earickson I moved to Kalispell 8 months ago and I've been looking for Okinawan Karate ranging from Shorin Ryu, Goju Ryu, Isshin Ryu, and Ueichi Ryu I have not found any listing in Kalispell or the surrounding area and I wanted to see if anyone on this forum knows anything or anyone practising Okinawan Karate whether corporately or privately in Kalispell or the surrounding areas thanks.

[Kanku65]

Welcome to KF

I'm not so sure about traditional Okinawan in your area.

I do however know there is an ISKF dojo. Not sure who teaches there, just that it exists.

What made you decide to look for a traditional Okinawan style outside of the other arts you practice?

[Wastelander]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

As far as your quest for Okinawan karate in your area, I'm afraid I don't know of any. It looks like you are in a pretty remote (but probably beautiful) area, so your options are going to be limited. The closest Shorinkan dojo I know of is in Bozeman, which is quite a long distance from you. Google didn't turn much up in your surrounding area, but you might be able to find a dojo by going to the websites of Okinawan karate organizations--they often have listings of affiliated dojo, sorted by country and state. Good luck!

[kearickson]

@Kanku65 Thankyou for you letting me and I do know of the ISKF dojo as I've training there. The reasons why I want to train in Okinawan Karate and it may seem frivolous is because of practicing and training in an authentic, historical, and ancient art that has not been changed or water down. Not implying, however, that Shotokan is watered down or authentic but Funakoshi did makes changes to Karate as he introduced and taught Karate in Japan. It seems that the changes he made was not acceptable to Okinawa I'm not even sure to his own masters but he was advised not to come back to Okinawa and perhaps I'm assuming he would of been looked down upon with shame as honor was a big deal in Okinawa as it was in Japan. Funakoshi is known as the "Father of modern Karate." not saying it's good, bad, or different but implying that if one wants to learn and train in an authentic and ancient form of martial arts to go back to it's roots in which for Karate would be in Okinawa. Lastly, I would like to train in okinawan karate to be able to learn kobudo weaponry. If I can sum it up this way training in Okinawan Karate would be partaking in the living but not stagnant tradition that has been passed down from generations to generations because the Okinawans are the keepers of the keys to this wonderful ancient art and we don't want to lose it.

@Wastelander thankyou for your response and I tried to contact Shorinkan and I haven't heard anything back from them I'm not sure if the dojo is currently active as I've visited the Shorinkan website and there was no current information about it. The only Okinawan karate I've found so far is Ash's Okinawan Karate which Isshin Ryu Karate in Bozeman but it's too far of a drive from Kalispell perhaps my best bet is sticking with ISKF dojo but I sure would love the chance to train in Okinawan Karate.

Thankyou everyone for your help and please keep me posted from time to time if your hear anything as I'm always looking

[Wastelander]

I will say that, even on Okinawa, karate has been changed. My KishimotoDi teacher actually told me that he knows a very old man on Okinawa who learned old-style karate before WW2, and that man said that they changed karate after the war to be more like Japanese karate so they could sell it to the Westerners stationed there. He actually admitted that he forgot almost all of the old-style karate material because of that. It can still be found, of course, but it's not so easy to come by.

Sometimes the organizations don't keep their websites updated very well--Crowder Sensei may not have his dojo, anymore, or he may simply not have a website. If you Google him, you can find phone numbers that are supposed to be for his dojo. At worst, it will be a wrong number. You can try looking into other organizations, as well. There could be Goju-Ryu, Uechi-Ryu, or other Shorin-Ryu organizations that have instructors in your area, but they may not have websites or advertising for their dojo. You can also try contacting other martial arts schools in the area--a lot of them will know each other, and might be able to get you in contact with the kind of instructor you are looking for.

[Montana]

Wow..Kalispell? lol Now this is funny...as I moved OUT of Kalispell to Spokane, WA at the end of Feb, 2008..and i taught Shorin Ryu in Kalispell (and Columbia Falls) from 1985-2005. I quit teaching because of knee and back issues.

I have several students in the kalispell area, including a Sandan, but as far as I know they all quit training when I quit teaching.

Finding an Okinawan school ANYWHERE is not easy, as it's not nearly as prolific as some systems out there.

[wildbourgman]

Kearickson, I understand how you feel although I was first a Shotokan practitioner that moved to an area that only had Shorin Ryu. To me this has been a blessing it's opened up my view of martial arts and helped me with my understanding of Shotokan.

Now here's my pitch for Shotokan's differences. When I first walked into my Shorin Ryu dojo I thought some students were sloppy, weak, and ineffective with strikes. I also thought that the curriculum was far too extensive for anyone to become effective at any one thing. In my view they didn't "start with perfection" as my Shotokan instructors insisted from white belt on up.

What Shotokan will help you with whether you need it or not is lower stances and increase leg strength, focused strong strikes that are designed to use the entire body in order to end a fight with one strike. You will also learn different fighting distance that can have it's place when you need it.

Now before I start trouble with my friends that practice Okinawan martial arts (as do I). The negatives I saw in the Shorin ryu dojo were also recognized by the Sensei and the Senior officials in the federation and they have been corrected in our area. Here's the funny thing, one way they corrected the sloppiness and weakness in our Shorin Ryu club was "Tanren training".

The tanren training was basically performing Shotokan styled techniques and stances until the conditioning and focus was increased.

I recently went to a Shotokan camp and had many Shotokan folks that are really interested in learning the history, traditions and the original bunkai that Okinawan styles offer. If Shotokan is all you can get use it to your long-term advantage. There are distinct differences in Shotokan that can add to your Okinawan training, just as Okinawan training is adding to my Japanese training.

[Montana]

I just got home from a 12 hour graveyard shift and I'm beat, but when I have time I'm going to come back to address what you, from a Shotokan perspective, view as "sloppy and weak", as the entire focus of Shorin Ryu and Shotokan are like totally different.

In a nutshell, Shorin Ryu doesn't

1. "generally" train for a one punch knockout (seldom happens that way in a real fight)

2. train to put their entire body into a techique.

3. And what you consider sloppy, weak stances in Shorin Ryu are done that way intentionally because Shorin Ryu is a fast moving, VERY mobile system that incorporates "body change" (or change of body) in nearly every technique taught.

I'm retired now due to joint issues, but practiced Shorin Ryu for some 30 years, and taught the system for 26 of those. I trained with Sensei Kuda Yuichi and several other high ranking and respected sensei's of the system.

I don't know who you're learning Shorin Ryu from now (or in the past?), but as in all systems, there are good instructors..and not so good instructors. Maybe the one you're working with isn't the best?

*YAWN*...what started out ot be a quick, short response ended up a bit longer than I wanted to in my tired condition, but I hope it made some sense.

[wildbourgman]

Montana, go back and read what I wrote. I did not say that the style of Shorin Ryu (which I'm a proud practitioner of) was sloppy and weak I'm saying is that some of the students at our dojo was subpar at that time.

I also said that my instructor and other federation officials in our system recognized and rectified this. My Shorin Ryu instructor is very good and I'm very thankful he's doing what he does and specifically for what he's done for my overall martial arts training.

One of the ways this was rectified was increased tanren training, which to me resembled basic Shotokan techniques.

That's all I'm saying. It was a minor problem and now it's better.

To me this is about whether or not Kenny can get something out of a Shotokan class, especially if that is the closest style available. I think that Kenny can pick up some very useful training from Shotokan just as I am learning some very useful things from Shorin Ryu. There is no controversy here.

[wildbourgman]

http://counselorsassociated.com/kdkmt/

Kenny do you know anything about these places ?

KODENKAN of Montana Martial Arts Dojo

1550 Ashley Lake Road, Kalispell, Montana 59901

Danzan Ryu Jujitsu; Shorin Ryu Karate; and Kobudo (weapon related arts)

Jbj Dojo Karate & Tai Chi

Jbj Dojo Karate & Tai Chi is a Martial Arts School offering Aikido, Isshin Ryu Karate, Kempo/Kenpo, Kendo & Shito Ryu Karate classes in Kalispell, MT for kids, men and women. Jbj Dojo Karate & Tai Chi is Located at 2449 US Highway 2 W.