Wado and other styles of Karate

Discussion in 'Karate' started by david123, Sep 3, 2013.

  1. david123

    david123 New Member

    Hi

    Apologies if there is a tread on this but i cant find one in the search engine.
    I am taking up karate.my town has Shotokan and Wado ryu.I wanted to take up shotokan because i heard wado is a mix of karate and jujutsu.(i want to train karate)its not possible for me to train the nights the shotokan classes are on but i can train the Wado ryu nights,so my question is how does Wado differ from other karate styles,im aware Shotokan is Japanese karate and so is Wado.There are no Okinawan clubs in my town.i heard these two styles are similar in many ways but also some differences from a jujutsu imfluence in Wado.
    Any information is appreciated.

    Cheers
     
    Last edited: Sep 3, 2013
  2. bassai

    bassai onwards and upwards ! Moderator Supporter

    As with any style , it can vary .
    On the whole Wado ryu is fine , and in some respects more "complete" than Shotokan , due to the inclusion of jujitsu techniques.
    Go take a look and see if its what you want is about the best advise.
     
  3. LemonSloth

    LemonSloth Laugh and grow fat!

    Best bet is to go take a look at the Wado class and see how you feel about how they practice.
     
  4. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

  5. david123

    david123 New Member

  6. GaryWado

    GaryWado Tired

  7. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    I like to think of you posting with a pint of Bombardier by your side.
     
  8. GaryWado

    GaryWado Tired

    Hello,

    The "Jujutsu" element of Wado is probably nothing like you have in your mind’s eye (unless you are conversant with the Koryu Bujutsu of Edo period Japan)!

    And anyway, you are unlikely to notice said influence, and certainly at the early stages of the training, there is probably little difference in terms of approach, between Wado and Shotokan karate.

    Main thing is each dojo is different - I wouldn’t worry about the style, concern yourself more with how good the instructor is.

    Gary
     
  9. david123

    david123 New Member

    Hi

    I attended 2 wado ryu classes over the last week.Im less satisfied than i thought i would be,it doesn't seem like the karate i have witnessed(shotokan in particular)this could be my lack of understanding but wado seems like a waterered down version shotokan.as i said it could be my lack of understanding,but some things seem very different,even the feeling of the technique looks different.shotokan looks like it has more power and looks more effective.i heard the founder trained with Gichin Funakoshi for maybe ten years,could this be the reason it seems to lack karate's personality? the club was a WIKF club which i heard is a good wado organization so i dont think it was a poor club persay.
    i think it will be shotokan for me in the future.

    Thanks for the help
     
  10. Dead_pool

    Dead_pool Spes mea in nihil Deus MAP 2017 Moi Award

    Wado isnt shotokan, but it definatly is karate, and it definatly can be effective.

    What is it about shotokan that you are attracted too?
     
  11. Sam

    Sam Absent-ish member

    If you really want to do Shotokan then find a way to go and do it. I am wondering whether your view's on Wado are partially due to you being so set on Shotokan. On the other hand it's perfectly fine to just not like something.

    If you're looking at techniques of someone who has been practising for some time, they are powerful and have all the other bell's and whistles on. That doesn't come straight away, if it doesn't feel how you think it should, from how it looks (my mind hurts just typing that) its because it doesn't and won't when you or anyone else is starting out. That's not the style, that's the learning process.

    Let us know how you get on with Shotokan if you manage to get to a class, it will be interesting to hear your opinion when you've tried both.

    Good luck!
     
  12. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    What's funny for me as an outsider looking in is that jwt is one of the few people I've seen with Shotokan that looks effective whereas Wado always looks pretty reasonable to me.
     
  13. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Also, as suggested if your frame of reference for what Karate is comes from Shotokan then that's going to colour your perception.
    10 years training in 1920s Japan was a lot, especially as Otsuka already had 25 years of martial arts experience when he started training with Funakoshi. As well as his training in Shotokan he also trained in Shorin Ryu and Shuri-Te, so it's pretty safe to say that Otsuka understood karate.
    Indeed, if you look this video of Shorin Ryu (the style that Funakoshi and Otsuka both learned) I'd say that to me they look more like Wado than Shotokan.
    [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwZRjqP7KH4"]Shorin Ryu Karate applications - YouTube[/ame]
    Conversely Shorei Ryu, the Okinawan style that Funakoshi studied and but Otsuka didn't (beyond it's integration into Shotokan) looks much more like Shotokan.
     
  14. LemonSloth

    LemonSloth Laugh and grow fat!

    The thing I'm finding about Wado is that the "power" of Wado Ryu comes from far more subtle body mechanics than other styles I have seen (I come from a Goju Ryu background though. They're not obvious and you have to feel them in order to really understand them, but they most certainly work.

    Still, if you feel that you'd rather practice Shotokan then go for it.
     
  15. david123

    david123 New Member

    Yes true,as i said its probably my lack of understanding i'm certainly not trying to put wado down its just not what i was expecting after my idea and perception of karate was more what is done in shotokan and the okinawan styles.
    Just not my cup of tea i guess
     
  16. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    Like I said before, I find Shorin Ryu and also Goju Ryu to be quite different from Shotokan.
     
  17. david123

    david123 New Member

    As i understand it a big part of Shotokan heritage is Shorin ryu,i know that shotokan movements were made larger etc but that seems relative to its overall development.Shotokan for me seems closer to the Okinawan and also in mindset than wado were bunkai etc can fit much more easily into its training.

    I see where certain individuals took the Wado framework and applied bunkai and applications not in accord with Wado principle i hear its not called Wado anymore but leans towards more traditional karate.hence for me anyway Shotokan can be closer to its karate roots.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2013
  18. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    Awww.

    :love:

    Mind you, it's not often you've seen me do Shotokan, unless you're thinking of my PK fb page?
     
  19. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    I greatly enjoy your "bitesize bunkai" videos.
     
  20. Ben Gash CLF

    Ben Gash CLF Valued Member

    With this kind of oddly prejudiced thinking you are never going to like Wado. You do realise that Karate as we know it only existed for two generations before Funakoshi? And that Funakoshi's teachers and indeed Funakoshi greatly modified their systems. The idea of a traditional Karate in Funakoshi and Otsuka's day would have been bizarre. Shorin Ryu didn't even have a name when Funakoshi and Otsuka studied it, and the first effort to formalise Karate as a style didn't occur until the 20th century.
    Indeed, the Chinese styles that influenced Karate are themselves likely less than a hundred years older than that.
    There's no point getting worked up about "tradition" over two styles that only have a decade or so between their founding. Not to mention that the subsequent history of Shotokan has been somewhat controversial in certain areas. You can only judge them on their merits as a system, and both are obviously Karate. Yes they have different flavours, but that's because of the different beliefs and experiences of their founders (and in many ways Otsuka was as much a contemporary of Funakoshi as a student) not because of any supposed watering down or corruption.
     

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