What do you think ??

[Mike Todaro]

I have been studying Shorin Ryu Karate. I like it, but I was wondering what other people think of the form.

[ryanhall]

Welcome to the forums, Mike.

I'm not sure what you want from your question, so here's a few answers:

1) If you like it, keep doing it.
2) I think that it is one of the better forms of karate.
3) It is not very high up on my list of things to study for practical self-defense. If you hit the pads hard and spar enough (real sparring, not point), you will gain some useful attributes that can contribute to your ability to protect yourself, but it is the very rare instructor who has his/her head on straight in terms of understanding what real world violence entails.

[jcolvin]

I was watching a special on the idiot box last week about Martial Arts and Bruce Lee said ( and I am paraphrasing here), "Basically MA is your expression..." Therefore, it matters not what others think about it only that like Ryanhall said that you enjoy it.

i hope you stick around the forum and give insight into why you train this particular form and what the benefits you have gained from it.

[Gunjin]

My first post but I think it's relevent...

Shorin Ryu Karate is the one style that I actually trained the longest in. I enjoy it still but no longer am near my dojo.

Fortunately, my Sensei was an advocate of Full Contacting Sparring so we did many kicking and punching drills as well as spare once a week, sometimes twice. It was definately not the "Sport-Point" type of sparring. We couldn't punch to the head but full kicks to the head were legal.

We also did the traditional Katas of course. What made those unique was that my Sensei would go around to each student as he was counting the cadence and either punch or kick us repeatedly to ensure proper body position. I also believe it was for body hardening as well. I would some times get more bruises on my legs from katas than I would from sparring.

My roommate thought I was crazy because I would always come limping home but I really enjoyed the training. Personally, I don't believe in the sports orientated stuff, so I felt lucky to be learning how to exchange blows with full force as well how to be able to take a few blows. Knowing how to stand up to someone and exchange blows was important to me for my personal self defense knowledge. I believe the sports type fighting doesn't expose you to what it's like at the recieving end of a full force punch or kick. I'm not ever going to be in a "point" tournament, so for me I didn't need that type of training where one is taught to 'pull' their strikes.

So my opinion on Shorin Ryu isthat it was great FOR ME, becuase of where I was training and what I was gaining from the training. Ultimately, when it comes down to Shorin Ryu for you, you need to ask yourself if you enjoy it? is it teaching you what you want to learn as for as your personal goals? (competitions, self-defense, confidence, etc...)

[Half-Asleep]

If you like to study it u should keep doing it if your aim is to enjoy it. i have no idea how efficient it is although my opinion of many forms of karate isn't heaps high no offence to karate or n e thing it has its use just doesn't seem like the logical way to fight after training in ninja i dunno what sort of karate i did i don't think it was the sort u are doing though.

but as jcolvin when paraphrasing bruce lee it isn't about n e particular style u fight with its how u express yourself using the art form and how u use it. Like i have trained in a few martial arts and although i call my self a ninja thats mostly kos it sounds kool hahaha if i were ever in a fight i would no be using only ninja there would be a part of all the forms of martial arts i have studied used. Admitedly it would be majority ninja but thats only kos its the most recent thing i have studied. So if u can use it for the purpose u want it for then keep it up. If u want to be able to do something with it that it isn't easily used for then maybe ditch it for something else maybe ju jitsu or judo or maybe even TKD even though i will prolly get told of for saying that lol.

Originally posted by Gunjin
My first post but I think it's relevent...

We also did the traditional Katas of course. What made those unique was that my Sensei would go around to each student as he was counting the cadence and either punch or kick us repeatedly to ensure proper body position. I also believe it was for body hardening as well. I would some times get more bruises on my legs from katas than I would from sparring.

hehehe my sensai told us that when he was training in japan his sensai went around asking questions of their stance he asked my sensai if his groin was covered my sensai sed yes... he found out it wasn't when he was kicked in the groin... he now knows to not make that mistake again and is better for it. No pain no gain theory although ppl where he was training at the time would come in fine and leave with broken fingers and the such... not so good if your job is a professional computer person or something which is why i didn't train that way with him but yeah there is definate merrit in that method of training.