I have been looking around for some time now for a traditionally taught martial arts school and I could use some direction. I live in Broward County Florida and there are many schools in and around the county plus Palm Beach and Dade Counties so sorting through what would be right for has been a task. In previous posts I was attempting to find a "self-defense" art, but realize a good SCARs online course would fit the bill there. :jester: (Insert maniacal laugh) If I want a true self defense school I will look that direction but I want the traditional art. I have posted a few times before regarding some arts and made some discoveries. I had a small introduction to Choy Lay Fut yet ultimately the art was not for me. Currently I study Tai Chi yet it is in a casual setting rather than a school setting. I enjoy my time there and will continue to use it to help ground myself. Ultimately I long for more organized school and based on what I have researched a traditional Japanese art is the direction I am leaning. First let me say that idea of a Koryu is an attractive pull for me. Jujutsu being what I am more interested in. I realize true koyru is only found in Japan, with very few exceptions in the US. I am not interested in learning any of the Iaijutsu at this time. Beyond this initial pull I have am not opposed to different arts. One of the difficulties I seem to have is that many of the arts I have researched such as Seido South Florida Karate, Daito-ryu Aikijujutsu, do not have largely established schools or only meet one day a week. Perhaps that does not matter but a sense of community and someone to practice with is always a plus and meeting more than one day a week is much preferred. Down here BJJ and MMA are king (not a direction I want to go) so these other arts probably don't have the popularity. That said I am hoping there might be a diamond in the rough so to speak. Anyone have any suggestions? Are there any other Japanese styles down here that have good reputations and community? What about other styles that teach in traditional manner?(Anything off and around the FL Turnpike is a plus because I can travel further in a shorter amount of time if need be.) Thank you in advance and I look forward to the replies.
pretty sure there's hayashi-ha ****o-ryu karate in florida. it's the style i started with and to date consider "my" karate style (hell, "my" martial arts style, as i consider pretty much everything else i've done both inside and outside karate as building on my hayashi-ha base), so i can heartily recommend it on that basis. http://hayashiha.jp/english/dojos/index.html#loc01 lists http://www.nosskarate.com/ which is in florida, but i don't know how close (or not) that is to you. if it's accessible, though, it'd be great to have one more in the style
Thank you for looking into that. Oviedo IS in Florida just a few hours too far North for me. Thank you for information though!
Just so ya knows,that's the "traditional" method of teaching T'ai Chi-not a big club where 40 people are "following along" copying the teacher's form. Of course,"casual" shouldn't equal "poor quality".
By casual I meant exactly just that....not in a school with lots of people so there is attention to detail and learning grounding not just the form. Memorizing the form isn't the Tai Chi...only part of it. At least in my limited scope of what I have learned thus far.
There are some very good schools down here since Gracie BJJ is heavily integrated in South Florida in terms of martial arts. That said I am not drawn to the art.
I found this http://www.atemi-ryu.com/home Does anyone know anything about this? His teacher is here http://www.sanuces-ryu.org/
Well I'd view those as being "pseudo" traditional, more than anything else. The video clips I've seen don't instil much confidence either.
I'm not good with specific style names so I can't tell you one way or the other, but personally, at the beginner level, I would look more at specific schools than an art. Do a free trial class at any school that's reasonably close and looks potentially interesting to you. If you don't end up liking the place that's ok, and if you do, that's great! You might find that one place wasn't your art-of-choice, but you really like the instructors and classmates and the style of the class, and you stick with it. Don't be afraid to shop around! Then you probably shouldn't go for BJJ Personally, I'm in the opposite boat. I really want to do BJJ but it's just not available to me right now :/
When you say "traditional", what is it that you're looking for? Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is older than Japanese Karate, for example.
