Sep 2009
Wiki
30/Sep/09
Not long ago I was doing some research for a magazine article and goggled “American Karate.” There sure are a lot of dojos with that name! There wasn’t much information on the “style” however. So I figured I might add my two cents. I went and started a page on Wikipedia and took some of the information in my latest book (on American Karate) and posted it. Go check it out and feel free to improve it—that’s what Wikipedia is for.
So what is the American style of Karate? Well, it isn’t really a style as much as an approach to the martial arts. In the West we are all about taking bits and pieces of other cultures (the melting pot) and making it into something unique, and hopefully better. Of course, the melting pot approach isn’t always better. It really depends on your own ability to sift through the myriad of possibilities and decide on the best methods for you. Just travel around the country like I have had the opportunity to do and you’ll see some “Americanized” schools that are woefully inadequate and others that are amazingly effective.
So it boils down to the individual once again. As Funakoshi is reputed to have said, “The style doesn’t make the man, the man makes the style.”
So what is the American style of Karate? Well, it isn’t really a style as much as an approach to the martial arts. In the West we are all about taking bits and pieces of other cultures (the melting pot) and making it into something unique, and hopefully better. Of course, the melting pot approach isn’t always better. It really depends on your own ability to sift through the myriad of possibilities and decide on the best methods for you. Just travel around the country like I have had the opportunity to do and you’ll see some “Americanized” schools that are woefully inadequate and others that are amazingly effective.
So it boils down to the individual once again. As Funakoshi is reputed to have said, “The style doesn’t make the man, the man makes the style.”