I think shorin-ryu is considered a whole different style of karate because of its emphasis on speed, quickness and agility. As opposed to naha which from what ive discerned, is power based.... probaly the same sort of differences you see if you look at like... Savate compared to Muay Thai... savate is concerned with finesse, elegance and speed, Thai of course is almost strictly power based, smash and kill it seems.

Cat stances are all over the place, quick hand movements with quick steps. The other karate(which ever) rely more on rooted stances, flat footed. Maybe a better example is Muhammad Ali's style of boxing is considered different than Joe Fraziers, but yet they are both still Boxing. Just my thoughts...

Kwoondo Shorin-ryu is not a legitimate style. It doesn't even make sense. "Kwoon" is a cantonese word for dojo (training hall). In other words, not only does the style translate as "training hall way, shorin (shaolin) style", it sounds kind of like a Japanese/Chinese version of Spanglish. Is that really a style you want to train? Another alarming fact is that the soke claims to have trained under "Musashi Miyagi". I have done extensive research on the history of karate and I have never come across this person. Of course, it would be impossible to know every karate master from Okinawa. However, Musashi (Miyamoto) was a JAPANESE Samurai while Miyagi (Chojun) was an OKINAWAN karate master. Okinawans and Japanese do not speak the same language. Both the style name and master's name are linguistic contradictions. It seems that your sensei picked the names of two famous martial arts masters and invented Musashi Miyagi. Just a hunch. I think Mr. Tosh should do a little more research before "inventing" karate styles. I'm no expert, just a 20-year practitioner of Okinawan karate and a second generation student of Hohan Soken--Bushi Matsumura's great-grandson. Do your research. Find a REAL teacher.

Bodhihuss, how are you? Can I ask who you trained in Seito with? I am kind of a fan of the Matsumura systems.

Shorin ryu intersted me because it seems very similar to kenpo when it comes to it's techniques. It seems to emphasize rapid open and closed hand attacks.

If your trying to help me out thats cool, I appreciate it, but try not to use so many japanese and okinawen words, they are real strange to me and will only confuse me.

It's kind of like reading the history of china. The city's, towns, provinces, states and people all seem to have similar names. I can never tell them apart.

I haven't seen the way master Tosh teachers, I've only seen some of his demo's on his website. I wen tto his school once, I haven't gone back yet, but I will probably go some time next week to check it out.

The last resort I have is the new Gracie Jujutsu school that opened up here about 2 years ago, it looks like it has enough students now so that I can get a good diversity of ground training. Although as I said before I got this phobia about rolling around the floors with sweaty guys. Not exactly the way I wanna spend my time.

I currrently practice TKD, and I'm gonna still keep that up, but I want something eles. The ITF school that opened up near by does not impress me, nice teacher but it's just not for me.

Check this video of some Shorin-Ryu sparring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6AyjSXL-9M

Nice flying jump kick,lol,too bad it didn't work out.

I was unaware that Shorin Ryu had "Point Sparring" and that did not look like Shorin Ryu to me. Probably an off shoot or different style.

As funny as that footage was, that was actually more fluid than the uechi ryu tournament I went to.

received an e-mail from Dan Tosh, as did others of this thread no doubt. basically giving his resume and the main message of how we should 'stay silent' when we don't know the school/style/person we are talking about.

fair enough, but aren't people allowed to raise flags to possible warning signs:
high ranking 'grandmaster' with his own style.
style name is a mix of languages.
hall of fame ties with certification/rank.
etc
etc

It could very well be exactly the school someone is looking for...the only way to be sure is to join for a while and check it out.

Let us know, Tek. ...anyone else have actual experience with 'Kwoondo Shorin-ryu' ?

I still haven't met Mr. Tosh, I've only been to his dojo once. And I didn't stick around for long. Were his credentials impressive?

I had no idea shorin ryu was such controversial art. WHo created all these damn verions of the art? Do they all not practice the same kata? Do they all not have the same exact movies/techniques?

I mean SheeSH, I do WTF taekwondo and I understand there is an ITF taekwondo and as far as I can see we have the same exact techniques and pretty much practice similar forms. The only difference is that WTF taekwondo emphasizes sparring more. But they still are the same style.

Don't tell me that the Okinawen styles are like this? I thought all the styles were standardized and that the only seperation was by which organization each school took part in.

How many styles of shorin, goju, uechi,isshin, shorinji ryu's can there be???