Hello

A friend has found an Okinawan karate class that he is keen to try. Upon looking in to it, it seems to be associated to the OGKK association which seems to teach something called Jundokan. I looked it up and it seems to teach a style of Okinawan Karate.

Despite my research I have a few questions about it if anyone can help:

i) It doesn't seem to do much (if any) free sparring. Is that correct?

ii) Is it Jundokan Goju radically different from any other kind of Goju, or is it being a seperate branch more of a political thing?

iii) What sort of conditioning is entailed in the class? My buddy is a distance runner (marathons and ultras) so he doesn't want to do anything that is detrimental to his running.

Thanks for any assitance folks.

P.S. I sent an email to the instructor a week ago, and no answer back yet, hence my post. The class is too far for me to go to check it out, so I appreciate any info.

Mark Bishop mentions this school of GojuRyu in het book Okinawan Karate.

The Jundokan was founded under Eiichi Miyazato.
i) the book mentions some prearranged sparring and light free sparring. Also kakie is practiced.
ii) Not radically different I believe. One of the bigger associations IOGKF is lead by Morio Higaonna who trained and teached in this Jundokan style under Eiichi Miyazato, before Morio Higaonna foudned this IOGKF.
iii) Classical Goju Hojo Undo seems to be practiced. I don't believe distance running will be negatively influenced that much. He is the one conditioning, so he must determin the intensity.

Try also Google: "Jundokan Okinawa" and/or "Eiichi Miyazato", "Jundokan International", "Teruo Chinen"

Good luck, also to your friend!

Thanks Ives! Will pass this along.