Should I learn Traditional Okinawan Karate or the sport, non Traditional Type?

Question

I am going to start karate and i was wondering whether i should take traditional okinawan style. I know that there are other karate style which are mainly sport and sparring. I went to the traditional karate dojo and the sensei said that he doesnt really like to leave everything to sparring. He said he likes to learn the katas and do everything the traditional way. Is this good or bad? I am looking for the most real or original way of karate. Also one that will help me the most in fitness and discipline.

Is Traditional Okinawan Karate good style or is it better to do the sport karate with the competitions and all that and not do things the traditional way?

Answer 1

Keep true to traditional styles, I do. And with your training you can compete seperatly if your school does not offer competitions. Trust me, you'll be glad you did this.

Answer 2

I would avoid the sport karate and focus on the self-defense.

Answer 3

As others ahve pointed out, it depends on what you want or hope to get from studying karate.

I would add that just the general categories of sport or traditional are very vague. Rarely do you find a "tradiotinal" dojo that is honestly, truly traditional. And some sport karate dojos have great masters teaching who know good tradiotnal karate as well.

I can't tell you how many "traditionalists" I have met that are just hokey ("we only do kata"... because they can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag... etc).

The best thing to do is to do lots of research first...like you are doing here now (good man!). Since it will decide the path you take for months or years..the research is worth it!

Good luck!

Answer 4

It depends on why you're studying it in the first place.  Go with the sport-type if you want to fight for trophies and simply for the fun of competition.  Take traditional if you're interested in defense/attack techniques that will be more useful in real fighting scenarios.  Both have their own merits, but I think it makes more sense to learn what will be more effective in real world situations.

Answer 5

It all depends on your interest personally I feel that traditional is the way to go

Traditonal styles are the root of the more modern sport styles and thought modern may be fancy and neat with out the root the tree will fall

Answer 6

William P nailed it as far as the fact of Okinawin karate being excellent for self defense. As the other posters have stated base your descision on whether you want trophies or self defense, although as was stated sometimes the lines can be blurry, it all depends on the teacher.

As for your instructors wanting to stick with kata, this is good to hear. Many people on here will put kata down, but that is only because they have never had it explained properly, never had a teacher that could explain it, or are just parroting what Bruce Lee said. the fact is that if it is trained properly kata can help provide you with excellent self defense.

Any school you attend should teach kata this way:

Teach you all of the movements first, and make sure you have a basic undertsanding of the flow of the kata.

Teach you basic self defense using motions from the kata, using progressive resistance where as you get better at the technique your partner resists more and more.

Also make sure that they do not neglect sparring with contact, as this is importent for many factors. If you have any other concerns please feel free to e-mail me and I will do my best to help you. I have trained Isshin-Ryu which is an Okinawin style for 18 years.

Answer 7

I have one name for all BJJ practitioners .....Masahiko Kimura ....hehehe.  BJJ started out broken ( BJJ's founder's arm that is by Kimura ).  Take Traditional Okinawan Karate man.  You can always seek sports later down the road.   Self-Defense should come first, then worry about the sport aspect later.  Its very important to understand the aspects of sport and self-defense techniques and the "suddle" differences between the two before moving onto contact sports.  Besides Okinawan Karate blows any modern day art out of the water dude.

People that don't have a clue about Okinawan Karate can talk all the sh*t they want, but being a former Okinawan Karate student I can truely tell you that it is the best art I've ever studied and that's no lie and I've studied many over the past 20 years.  I'm currently a MMA coach and my best student is 3 - 1 in MMA cage matches.  Let me tell you something man MMA has nothing on Okinawan Karate unless a MMA pratitioner has studied Okinawan Karate and understands it's dangerous "joint attacking" ( known as pressure points in Okinawan Karate ) capabilities.

Too many people are all on a MMA kick, but I know what works and what doesn't through experience and study and research.  Okinawan Karate is where it's man especially on the streets where it counts most when it comes to your own personal safety.  Any body says anything different then they're very foolish.

Answer 8

Karate is broken sir, try Brazilian Jujitsu. It whomps everything besides a few methods of light punch styles.

::EDIT:: You might also like Krav Maga. It can be nice and sick.