jujutsu_indonesia
Black Belt
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arnisador said:I'd like to hear more about this! Would you start a thread on the Wado-ryu approach to fighting and how it differs from that of, say, Goju (which I studied for a while)?
Mr. Arnisador asked me to write a new thread about Wado and Goju, so here it is. I am just a kyu rank student so my explanations are likely to be very basic and could be erratic as well, so if there any confusion, please contact people who are more informed than I am
As a caveat, I must say that there are Sportive Goju and Sportive Wado, and there are Traditional Goju and Traditional Wado. In multi-style competitions, such as WUKO style or WKF style, all Karateka uses the same basics and mostly same sparring strategies. But those are sportive version of Karate, it is standarized so everybody are doing same thing. In the traditional Dojos, the stylistic emphasis are more pronounced. Here I am trying to describe the traditional Goju and Wado as I know them.
Here it goes.
I studied Goju for 3 years in high school. However the University where I continue my education does not offer Goju Karate. I was looking for a place to train and discover a club in another University near my home (very close in fact) which offers Jujutsu and Wado-ryu Karate. I said to myself, Karate is Karate, so I joined. And now it has been 5 years ever since I train in this club.
Goju and Wado-ryu is perhaps the most different of all Karate styles. Goju and Shito-ryu is rather similar because the Katas are similar. Wado is more closer to Shotokan but not quite. Only some Katas are rather similar, but the way of movements and way of thinking is very different. Let me give some examples.
- In Goju, training with equipment is very important, such as makiwara, clay gripping etc. In Wado, such training is not emphasized at all.
- In Goju, body conditioning is important. Goju Karateka are trained to be able to absorb light and medium punches and kicks using Sanchin training. In Wado, body conditioning like this does not exist.
- In Goju, to deal with an attack usually we get close and use circular block such as Wa-Uke to trap the opponent's hand then counter with the other hand. In Wado, the idea is centered around footwork and evasion, that is, evade, not block the attack.
- In Goju, the grappling techniques such as throws and locks are taken from Bunkai of the Kata. In Wado, the techniques of throws and locks are inherited from Jujutsu, and in fact are still done in ancient Jujutsu way, as paired Kata. In Japan, Wado-ryu is known as hybrid style: Wado-ryu Jujutsu Kenpo Karate-Do. Goju-ryu on the other hand is considered as the most pure Karate style, no hybridization whatsoever with other martial art.
- In Goju, there are lots of emphasis in breathing exercises, and there are Katas designed for breathing exercises and Ki development, such as Sanchin, Tensho, Seienchin, Suparimpei, Seisan etc. In Wado, they also have Seisan but the movement are rather different, and there are no emphasis in breathing exercises.
These are the differences that I can think of, there are more to come when I can remember them