Brother John said:
Shito-Ryu is a very fine style of Karate to devote a study too. It's emphasis is on tradition and power. It has many good beautiful Kata that develop poise, good form, timing and agility.
In my opinion: Shito-Ryu's shortcomings?
Tradition and formality based on 19th century Okinawan/Japanese culture takes precedence over anything else.
It is a Hard style. Speed of adaptation is limited at best.
It's fighting techniques are only mildly related to anything that could be considered realism. It's effectiveness in preparing one for real strife would be the qualities that it engenders (those that I said it's Kata impart), but NOT it's fighting techniques or even it's basics. It's paradigm for training and preparation for handling a physical assault are based on late 19th century idealism.. which is outdated.
First off let me say that for all intents and purposes Shito Ryu is essential a “Japanese” art based on an Okinawan art and not really Okinawan any more per say. Much of the “ura” waza have been scrapped off to make way for safer tournament style training.
I have to add that Japanese dojo and Japanese style based dojo spend waaaay too much time on “basics” kicks, blocks, punches, etc. We call this “junbi undo” = calisthenics. It’s like doing an hour of push up and calling it fighting.
In our dojo we do “junbi undo” as a warm up and then move on to actual training techniques.
Shito Ryu has all the cultural trappings and rituals or Japanese culture. It is therefore an extension of Japanese ideas and not Okinawan.
In Japanese society and dojo students are not encouraged to ask questionsÂ….in fact they are practically discouraged from it since asking questions is seen as questioning authority. This is simply not done in traditional Japanese culture.
Due to this fact it prohibits learning quickly.
In my teachers dojo (he is Okinawan) questions are encouraged, they are expected… in fact it is part of the 10 Guiding Principles of our dojo. “Questions should be asked freely, always strive to understand what is being taught”.
This principle is pretty much in exact opposition to the Japanese line of thinking.
As far as preparation for the “modern world”….well people have not changed too much in the way of kinesiology over the last 1,000 years or so and pretty much move, punch, kick and grab in the same way. I don’t think 19th Century idealism has much to do with actually fighting. I think it has to do more with “cultural/martial geneocide” than anything else. People went from doing “jutsu” to doing “do”. However, many teachers and schools still teach “jutsu”. I could go on for pages about this but I don’t think Bob has the band width to handle it.
If people compare old out dated arts to modern ones like the UFC/MMA/NHB stuff and think…. “all that old stuff are “museum arts”, they can’t adapt to the modern way of fighting”.
Think again….Look at the rules for Greek Pankration if you want to see the “REAL” tough guys. They made the UFC look like a Girl Scout Jamboree!
As with any style the more you advance the more difficult the progression so one has to look inward instead of outward. If people look at an art and say “well this art lacks this or that” then it is their own fault for not looking deeper and discovering more of the art.
In my opinion a true martial artist will never say this or that art lacks something. I am not trying to insult anyone by saying this but I think most people are used to having things served up to them and not used having to do the “digging” themselves. I would ask my teacher “what does this move imply?”….his answer was usually “what do you think it means?”. He wasn’t trying to be a smart *** nor was he trying to cavalier aobut my question. He wanted me to use my head for something other than a target for my fellow student’s punches. So I would go and think about the move and come back and ask again, he would give me a hint or two and I would think again. Eventually I would get enough clues to put it together or he would just do the technique on me very quickly and painfully and then I had to figure it out from where I felt pain. Either way I never forgot the technique and it made my learning progress quickly.
When I got shodan I thought “well I know everything there is now” only to be handed my *** by someone who knew more shortly afterwards. There is always more in your art to learn….always. I have found in my own training that every time one question gets answered 4 or 5 more seem to pop up, one door closes and another opens. My training is always evolving and therefore “my art” is too.
