Afternoon everyone, I'm a martial arts practitioner of 30 years standing and until three years ago I ran a karate club in Leeds - a Wado Ryu variant with a big self defence bias with a number of other black belts.

Having had a break whilst my kids were young I've recently gotten the bug again and taken up Shukokai karate in Leeds and am also considering re-starting my own dojo as a solo project.

In the past I've trained in Shotokan Karate and Judo as well.

Welcome to the forum... and good luck with your dojo project. I look forward to hearing how it goes. Perhaps you could begin a 'Dojo Diaries' thread detailing your experiences in getting the dojo off the ground?

Taisabaki wrote:


Greetings from up in Kilmarnock.

Good luck with the project.

John

Posted in wrong place. Post deleted.

HI my name is matthew iam from Solihull UK

Greetings from up in Scotland, Matthew.

I've just had a look at your profile, Matthew, and it says you study 'ryu karate'.

May I ask which ryu, as 'Ryu' is a Japanese word which means school or method.

For example, the basis of my Karate studies is Shito-ryu, or the School/Method of Itosu and Higoanna in English. Other styles with ryu included in the title include, Ishinryu, Wado-ryu, etc.

Also, you mention in your profile that Karate was formalised in a part of Japan called Okinawa.

As an Okinawan Karate stylist, I feel I need to slightly correct you on a couple of things.

First; whilst Okinawa is sovereign Japanese territory, Okinawa itself is a semi-autonomous, devolved prefecture, which means that Okinawa's relationship to Japan is simmilar to that between The Channel Islands and The UK.

Second: whilst the basis of modern Karate was codified on Okinawa, the formailsation of Karate as a recognised Martial Art actually happened in the 1920's in Japan proper; not Okinawa.

Anyway, I look forward to rading any future posts here on the MAI forum.

John.

wado Ryu karate. to your last message.