why do karate?
Karate isn’t the fastest route to the top of the mountain. there are still good reasons to do it.
What I mean is: if you want to be a gnarly fighter in 90 days or less, try going to an MMA gym. That’s what they’re there for. Karate can make you a fighter, but it has other goals and other considerations that maybe make things go a bit slower than some of the contemporary schools of mixed martial arts in this particular area. MMA is incredible, and in many ways it is quite similar to karate, but with a pedagogy laser-focused on combat readiness in the quickest, most efficient way possible. But MMA isn’t for everyone. Our founder, Ansei Ueshiro, once said that anyone can learn karate.
So what does karate offer, if not the fastest route to lethality?
scalability
Karate is uniquely scalable to the practitioner. The way you train, or want to train, at 20, 40, 60, 80, is going to differ. The depth of your training, too, will change over time. Karate’s deep library of solo exercises (kata) and compliant partner drills make it possible to train for a lifetime. When or if you’re interested in training that involves resistance or pressure testing, that is available to you, too.
Longevity
While karate includes a wide array of techniques effective at inflicting damage to an opponent, it can be trained with sensitivity to age, injury, and trauma in ways that other martial arts are not as readily able to accommodate. Trained in a traditional fashion, Shorin-Ryu karate provides myriad physical benefits, from cardio endurance to flexibility and functional strength.
community
Karate can offer us something that is increasingly hard to find: community. We’re here together, training with and alongside each other. Some of us have trained for years, some for a few months, some for just one day.
mindfulness
The founder of Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu, from which tree we are a green shoot, had a saying: 拳禪一如 (Ken zen ichi nyo), or “the fist and zen are one.”
Our founder didn’t require anybody to meditate, but his teacher, Shoshin Nagamine, did. Choose your own adventure. Meditation is available at the dojo weekly.