Kframe, I guess the point that dunc and Dean have been pointing out is that you are looking at the wrong thing and drawing conclusions based on that. If you look at the actual kata in the actual ryu, you will see that techniques "start" from a variety of distances, including from behind, from the side, from being grabbed, etc. If you take each kata from each level of each ryu in turn and analyse them, you will see if there is a bias for any particular distance(or attack for that matter) or not. As these arts were dealing with a variety of attacks(some against weapons, some against grabs or throws, some against strikes), you will soon realise that they had to be well versed in all ranges of combat, with each ryu demonstrating it's particular philosophy and flavour in the handling of said attacks. It isn't really important what most people in most bad videos demonstrate, as those things do not represent the real ryu. That's the point.
