Wonder what's the difference between Gojuryu and Gojukai? Does Ryu means the style and Kai means the organisation? Because Gojukai from what I read is still a gojuryu. Need confirmation on this.

Next on Kyokushin. Reading it as being the toughest karate style, and people know about its full contact sparring. So how other karate styles fit in with Kyokushin? Does it mean Kyokushin is above all other styles? Or it's mere toughest in physical way?
Also does it mean Kyokushin practitioners in general has better skill & stamina, due to their vigorous training?

I'm confused, if the sparring is full contact which may injure the opponent, where's the peace teaching in karate it lies? I read from Gogen Yamaguchi about his ideas on free sparring, that during the event, emotion is no longer the priority, what's left is fighting spirit (this is just what I remembered, not quoting or rephrasing ).

But he was talking about non-contact sparring here, and common sense, if it's full contact, males especially with big egos, will fight only with rage and filled with anger. This is for me oppossing the meaning of karate itself. I really have no clue about kyokushin's training methods, but being very tough to replicate Mas Oyama's experiences, it's tough.

Ok, to sum up, what I'm wondering is how Kyokushin relates to other karate styles, not in term of history, but the methods of its training.

Goju ryu and Goju Kai are basically the same. Goju Kai was the original Goju style founded by Chogun Miyagi which was handed down to Gogen Yamaguchi, then to Goshi Yamaguchi. The was a big split from Goju Kai after Goshi Yamaguchi took the reigns as a lot of people did not believe he was the right man for the job. As i believe Tino Ceberano was one of the people that believed that.

As for Kyokushin, Kyokushin was founded by Sosai Mas Oyama. He trained under Gogen Yamaguchi and as the story goes one day went to the mountains to perfect his karate and some sort of epiphany and devoloped the Kyokushin style which was based from him punching trees and breaking rocks in the mountain and derived a theory of One hit One kill. Mas Oyama is actually an amazing guy he completed a 3 day 300 man kumite, 2 min rounds and its knock down rules, in three days he knocked down 300 people! full contact, rumour has it that he wanted to go for a 4th day but his opponents didnt want to hehehe.

And with kyokushin full contact, when the train they do a lot of conditioning exercises in the dojo, and obviously dojo sparring is still controled but there is still contact to the body. A big misconception of full contact styles is when they train the try to knock each other out in training, which is wrong. Think about training for a full contact tournament, if ur sparring partner tried to knock you out when training you wont be able to compete!!

BUt generally the kyokushin tournaments, the rules are full contact to the body, no punches to the head but full contact kicks to the body is allowed.


- GKRBJJ

We train full contact. And we do body conditioning (males more than females) to prepare our bodies for this full contact sparring.
We also do not begin sparring until we have trained with the club for 12 months or more.

In saying that there are 5 levels of sparring.
The higher up in these levels that you go the more "control" you are expected to have.

Now you are probably asking why you need control when it is full contact????
For the same reason that BJJBoy just said.
We are not there to KNOCK each other out. We are there to learn how to take a punch or a kick. How to give a punch or a kick. And how to avoid being kicked or punched.
We use protective gear on the chest, groin, limbs and head to prevent injuries but are still expected to execute some degree of control.

We have this rule where a level one sparring student can only spar against a level four student (except for girls - we can spar each other), this is because a level four student has experienced hits and can TAKE a few and has also learnt and developed control so that the newer sparring student can learn gradually how to take a hit or how to dish one out.

I know it's rambling but I hope you can make some sense out of it all.

Doesn't it comes down to what you are trying to achieve for yourself?
Do you want to toughen yourself up and be able to take hits and dish them out? Do you want to develop a good repertoire of basics which will be at your disposal should you require them? Fortunately there is something available for all sorts in Karate.

Thanks for reply =) .. after 2 months hehehe. BTW I don't do karate anymore, after visiting many practitioners: podiatrist, chiropractor, occupational therapist, even counsellor, the way my feet is structured is too much disadvantages for me. I'm doing aikido now.

wow mysrh
when did this happen???

good luck in the aikido though
let us know all about it
im sure everyone is interested

Hows that workin out for ya?

I don't really know much about Aikido.

Could you tell us a few things about it?

Greetings All

Just about Goju Ryu and Goju Kai, yes they are basically the same.


However Goju Ryu was originally founded by Chojun Miyagi then Gogen Yamaguchi founded Goju Kai.

Goju Ryu has many derivatives. I currently study in the Shushin Kai dojo under Sensei McConnell Brown who is under Shihan Kenshu Hideo Watanabe.

Basically out styles lineage goes like

Kanryo Higaonna - Chojun Miyagi - Seko Higa - Kanki Izumikawa - Sosui Ichikawa - Masashi Sudo - Kenshu Hideo Watanabe - Graeme McConnell Brown

Greeting Dropbear


We seem to have similar lineage

Kanryo Higaonna - Chojun Miyagi - Anichi Miyagi - Morio Higaonna

all no relation

cheers
Freek

Theres some pretty impressive names there
So how important is lineage in a martial art?

IMO it can depend how good the teacher is. Sort of like having a flash car to compensate...


Mick

Oi - I resemble that remark!!!!

Do you resemble a porche or a jaguar, Matt?

After so many weeks of not being able to train I'd say he bears a greater resemblance to a porch than a jaguar.


Anon

So the six pack has become a keg, resulting from all the six packs consumed?

Lineage doesnt really mean much.

Funakoshi coulda taught me. Doesnt mean I was a good student. You can also have ppl saying that "I was a student of Funakoshi" when in fact they only once went on a 2hr course with him.

Also depends if you consider the guys in the lineage to be worth anything!

Quite right Rancer, lineage only gets people to the door. Making them stay or not is up to the dojo instructor. Of course new students who know nothing of karate history will not even care about lineage.

The problems can be when a head of a organisation is great yet his lower instructors are not as good. You hear great things turn up for your first lesson and are disapointed.

Or often in reverse a average master starts a organisation, but is more a business man so surrounds himself with great instructors.

In the business man case the smart masters move over to become chairman and/or technical director, therefore allowing the best instructor become the head Sensei. This often removes the murky business issues from the quality of the karate, something that has affected GKR and many other styles. However like all people some egos are too big to make this decision despite it being the best thing for the style.

Cheers
Freek