Most of my critique lands on the culture in styles more than the tools taught in the Kata, though I will talk about that too.
CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE:
Before I argue my point, I want to give credit to my teachers. I didn’t truly blossom as a martial artist if it wasn’t for Rick Wilson and Rick Bottomly teaching me Uechi-Ryu. If I had ended up somehow doing Okinawan karate with anyone else, and then gone into MMA, I probably wouldn’t have the thought process of combative creativity I have now. Yes even Goju-Ryu which I am going to praise. My MMA coach Calen Paine of wise warrior gym greatly evolved me too, but without the two Rick’s giving me a Uechi base, I would be another generic student of his instead of the “Mad Genius” he’s termed me as.
My two original teachers researched other Uechi-Ryu lineages, looked at other karate, looked at Chinese kung-fu styles and Taiji to help bring Uechi-Ryu we did to it’s roots, which was a chinese martial art. As a result my karate had a unique flavor compared to most Uechi-Ryu, which talked of Chinese origins but did not fight in a Chinese way.
More over beyond researching the styles Chinese roots, both of them wanted to be effective. Uechi-Ryu was a vehicle to teach good striking and dirty boxing, knife defense, take downs. They looked at RBSD regarding flinch responses and interceptors, strangely finding them in our system. They looked at MMA for pressure testing and high percentage techniques. They looked at Aikido, Systema, Muay Thai, anything they could. They stayed true to the style of Uechi-ryu by always referencing the form, but sought wisdom and subtly everywhere. Many of the interceptors taught in RBSD can be seen in the Uechi-ryu form. Many of the circular blocks and wrist movements in Kata lent itself well to our own schools version of sticky and push hands. Many of the frames of uechi-ryu works well in the clinch through the transitions when stepping in the form helped steal balance.
But most important was the body mechanics we learned looking at southern white crane and Taiji that fit well inside the Uechi-ryu style. Suddenly every movement could do something, it had meat to it.
And the reason this was all possible is because Uechi-Ryu is a simple system, with few major forms for the system that are short and easy to perform. It only has three, the rest of the forms were added for demonstration or padding out the curriculum. This allowed my teachers the ability to study wide and easily test and apply their new wisdom within Uechi-Ryu, because there wasn’t as much to pick apart. The macro elements of the style were already well known to us, it was the micro we had to discover through general research of martial arts.
Beyond my teachers, there are some good Uechi-Ryu Karateka, many of them old but dying Okinwan masters. In North America there is Art Rabeesa, the late Van Canna, Bob Camball, and Jim Malony (I find many of his students have fast hands, power, and generally also skilled in boxing and kickboxing)
So why am I giving Uechi-Ryu a critique?
I don’t know which Okinawan master said this, but I believe it’s true. To paraphrase him, he said:
“Most karate styles are like a large lake. You can’t see the end from where you stand. But if you step in it, it’s shallow. Bue Uechi-Ryu is like a well. You can see from one end to another, but you’ll never touch the bottom.”
Based on my teachers, I believe the intent of what he said to be true.
But the fact is, if I had studied the same style anywhere else in the city and most parts of the world, I would have learned circular styles without engaging the ground or my knees. My movements would be segmented, my form would probably be performed with few transitions unless it was black belt, and even then, most of the form probably wouldn’t be transitions, despite the fact Uechi-Ryu lives in the transitions.
In Canada I would have to find Jim Malony and anyone with his lineage to learn how to fight., though I would not get the “chinese connection” from them. I would have to go to Bob Camball for that. Almost every other Uechi-Ryu person I have worked with either wasn’t tough, or if they could fight, it wasn’t really using the movements of the style.
Even in Okinawa much of the best masters are dead. If you watch videos and tapes of them practicing, they practice hard conditioning, segmented strikes. They can throw straight strikes with good mechanics, but never the form, and never more dynamic or complex movements. The closest thing to the Chinese connection many of them have is arm rubbing, nothing like Sticking or push hands, certainly not the complex Kakie and Tegumi found in Goju(I’ll talk more about Goju-ryu later in this post) hell the Uechi guys try to train like Goju and Shorin people going solid hard and strong, which is great. But most importantly, segmented movement. So much of what they do is in segments, constant “Go no sen.” But the movement of Goju and Shorin actually kind of work for that kind of choppy movement, lots of chambering and big movements, swings and explosive clinches that lets them get away with such choppiness or even thrive in it. Uechi-ryu movement however does not work segmented, not like Goju, Shorin or shotokan.
If the Okinawans do have some Chinese style drills, it must be taught only among them or higher levels. Maybe some uechi-ryu practioners agree with that, that the ‘true’ soft energy of the style should only be practiced by those ‘worthy’ or something.
But guess what? The kung-fu guys do it almost at day one, including the white crane and southern styles uechi-ryu is based off of. Goju-Ryu does it at least at higher levels, well outside of Okinawa and proudly showcased within it.
And that’s just talking about the ‘flavour’ of the style. There is a love of lots of pre-arranged drills that look pretty, but not only don’t really teach much fighting outside of basic cordination, but even give you bad habits. They do lots of these, you need to learn more and more of them until you get your black belt. Time that could be used doing broken timing drills or sparring is devoted to literal fake fighting.
Beyond that, often many of these teachers, even in Okinawa have clearly never grappled, some of their applications, bunkai and techniques wouldn’t work against anyone competent. I can say the same about many Goju-Ryu and especially Goju-Kai schools, many of them don’t know how to grapple either, but people like Taira and others have popularized Tegumi as a big part of Goju-ryu, which gives them a bit more of a culture that accepts it. Perhaps that isn’t Uechi-ryu’s fault it doesn’t have that culture, since Goju-Ryu is more wide spread and common than Uechi is.
Then there is the striking. Malony, Van and the other North Americans I mentioned are really good strikers. Thing is, it might just be isolated to their circles. I don’t remember the details perfectly, but an Okinawan master(I won’t name him) who has a reputation in Uechi-ryu circles for getting his biggest and strongest black belts to beat the shit out of North Americans in sparring and conditioning invited Malony and some of the others I named to his dojo in Japan.
Like he did many times, he got his biggest and meanest black belts to spar hard with these guys, his black belts from okinawa, the homeland of Karate and Uechi-Ryu.
Well this group of North Americans did not get beat up, but instead embarassed the shit out of the Okinawan masters senior students.
I tell this story to ask: Why did a bunch of foreigners doing their own thing who do Uechi-Ryu disconnected from the source able to absolutely embarass these guys?
Because along with the men being scary tough and natural talents, the North Americans dabbled in boxing and supplemented Uechi-ryu with kickboxing. Meanwhile the uechi-ryu guys never spar the way the style is taught, instead doing touch contact sparring which Uechi-ryu is infamously badly designed for.
“But wait Adeel, doesn’t that mean Uechi is awesome because they did that?”
I never hated Uechi-Ryu as a style. It’s the culture. I want to elaborate down here.
THE CULTURE: A PROBLEM BEYOND JUST UECHI.
The culture influences the mechanics, so I’ll talk about both here.
For whatever reason, Uechi-ryu karate is practiced in many ways like a japanese style. The stances are short yes, the movement more compact. But the sparring and drilling is highly cookie cutter, regimented, and segmented. As I said above, lots of pre-arranged work and the only dynamic training with any kind of broken timing or distance is point sparring. Just that alone makes it hard to benefit from Uechi-Ryu training. I have praised Chinese movements being good for Uechi-ryu many times, but Chinese kung-fu suffers from this problem as well. They either do nothing but sticking and pushing with no dynamic grappling or striking. Sanda/San-Shou and Chinese wrestling are changing how kung-fu is practiced, but as of writing this blog, it still isn’t common. This is a problem with many traditional styles. Many of these schools don’t teach interceptors or scenario training regarding an ambush or high pressure that would exist in a self defense situation. They are almost artifacts.
Uechi-ryu is no different than many traditional styles in general.
And then there is a fear of cross training or learning about your own style looking at other schools or systems. Many Uechi-Ryu schools will allow cross training, but never letting what you learn somewhere else influence how you do your own fighitng in Uechi. Yes I understand sometimes mixing styles can keep from learning one properly. But a Uechi-ryu person using knowledge of throwing from Judo or wrestling to see grappling application in the Kata isn’t a bad thing, if anything it reveals real Uechi-ryu.
Doing some drills you were not taught in your primary styles can often enhance the style you do without changing it. Such as using numbers for padwork like boxing and kickboxing, but using the movement and style of striking of karate or kung-fu.
But many schools think the way it’s practiced is perfect without it. The teachers and everyone around them falls in love with whatever is already there. Apparently the teacher knows best, no possible holes in his knowledge. Nothing that can further explore the style. If Sensei pulls his pants down and tells you to suck, you better suck boy!
THE FRAME AND LACK OF FLOW.
Segmented movement with an emphasis on snapping punches, kicks and blocks with a push pull motion works for many other styles of karate…other than Uechi. I may not think it’s ‘optimal’ or the best way to fight, but to segment a movement, then concentrate on a single powerful bursting strike with a push and pull works for many styles inspired by incense fist or native to Okinawa. Shurite styles like Shotokan and Shorin can still do some good stuff with segmented but focussed strikes, because of how the body is positioned, how the hand in the kata grabs or clinches, the room they have, the twist of the hip.
Now as someone who likes Chinese martial arts mechanics like sweet and sour sauce, I don’t think this is the best way to move and fight. But even if I am right, the Shorin-Ryu guys and Shotokan guys can make it work, it even crosses over in sparring and their self defense work. They explode in single big strikes when sparring in point form or full contact, and if the school is updated with knowledge of how Funokoshi REALLY used the chamber of the fist, they pull bastards in close quarters and smash them with fore arms and fists. This style of moving works for them.
Now lets talk about Uechi-ryu. Many schools don’t move the feet or knees, not even the hip when doing circle blocks or strikes. But for the sake of argument, lets say this is a decent Uechi-ryu school that has body mechanics.
It’s important to remember Uechi-ryu is based on southern crane and southern kung-fu styles. We chamber sure, but only really in sanchin and a few places in other forms. Usually our hand is not in the chamber position. Our hand movements are small and subtle, our body machanics arn’t from big coils but subtle movements of the knees. Transitions of the hands and turns are EVERYTHING, and segmenting destroys the transitions. Many will do the forms just turning regularly then striking. What’s the point? Why even bother talking about the chinese origins?
More over Uechi-Ryu schools will tighten the muscles. Dynamic tension is great for certain things, but at some point the kata must be done relaxed. This is especially bad when many schools refuse to turn the knees or hips. When Hung-Gar or Goju-Ryu use dynamic tension, it isn’t to use it during a fight, but to feel the connection and movement of mechancis as they move. It makes you aware of every movement. But lots of Uechi-Ryu doesn’t connect the feet, hips and hands at all. It’s pointless.
SO WHY THE LOVE FOR GOJU-RYU?
Part of it is because simply put, I think it’s cool.
But let me explain further.
The culture:
Just like other traditional styles, Goju-Ryu can often suffer from the same cookie cutter bullshit. The same lack of acknowledging tactics and scenario work for the street, the lack of aliveness and broken timing, the closed mindedness and many other issues.
But Goju-Ryu is also really big, and has had some good top down changes. Youtube searches of Uechi-ryu will find some guy sin Russia or Israel doing badass stuff, but most of it is pretty meh. But Goju? Lots of clips of sparring that would put Kyokushin to shame, great use of body mechanics. Despite being not purely a chinese style, they embrace their chinese influence by doing Kakie drills(Similar to push hands for balance, with some variations with strikes and flows like sticky hands) they will do tegumi. There is simply much more Goju-Ryu, therefore a deeper pool of talent for coaching and performing it. The culture is more rich as a result.
But mostly that Chinese connection dude! It’s more deeply embraced in Goju. That’s kind of ironic, since Goju was an indiginious Okinawan style that had influences from Chinese white crane. But Uechi-Ryu was a style developed by a dude literally travelling to China and learning kung-fu, then coming back to Okinawa. Yet it’s Goju that does the more Chinese inspired drills while Uechi-Ryu schools do them a great deal less.
The Chinese connection is important for Uechi. And of all the reasons I stated above, that’s the most important one.
Goju is more broad.
Remember how I talked about that story of the Okinawan master that talked about how most styles are lakes that go as far as the eye can see but shallow? While Uechi is like a well you can easily see, but it’s deep enough for endless exploration?
Well I still believe that’s true and good.
Boxing as an art has what? Jab variations, hook variations, cross variations, upper cut variations, overhands, foot work, head movement and postures. It’s all just the tops of your hands.
Yet attacking only with the tops of their hands, boxers will completely wreck guys who learn punches, kicks, elbows and other tools simply because boxing examines it’s few tools very well. Boxing drills like it’s style and how a fight goes down, then they actually do realistic sparring.
Boxing is awesome. I won’t shit on it.
Yet….
Yet at some point, you can explore a few tools endlessly, but it’s the same damn thing endlessly. Meaning your not expanding. Boxers in MMA kept getting taken down and pounded or submitted. They had to expand their skills by using wrestling to stop the take downs, because no matter how deep boxing is, they had to study wrestling and BJJ.
In self defense boxing works very well, yet still scenario training is needed to answer issues like weapons or ambushes, interceptors are still needed to be taught, some from of siezing the limb to deal with the weapon arm. Some form of take down or take down defense and a more developed clinch.
In other words, no matter how deep exploration can go for a style with a few tools, it’s always good to learn more tools.
Goju-Ryu not only has that sweet and sour sauce chinese drilling inside it, but it also thrives with the regimented segmented movement as well. Going back to culture, it embraces a two pronged way to express the style. Fast and loose or focused and precise.
It can use the subtle motions of the knees and feet with fast hands like Uechi-ryu, or it can cause those stacked expanding heavy strikes.
WHY THIS POST ULTIMATELY DOES NOT MATTER FOR ME.
If it isn’t obvious. I’ve done much more than Uechi-Ryu. I’ve been doing Taiji and MMA for years.
The differences between power generation and mechanics between Shotokan and Uechi-ryu don’t matter to me, because like GOju-ryu, I know both.
My Uechi-ryu and Tai Chi teacher taught to stack and expand the power like Southern Lohan inspired styles like Shorin and Shotokan. I might as well have done Goju-ryu with having both expressions of power inside my karate and general fighting. I’m not the best at closing the distance, but I can do it because my teachers taught me to, while I also fight dirty boxing in the pocket Uechi-ryu style because well…I do uechi.
I was lucky enough to be in a Uechi-Ryu school that had an amazing culture, I think I made that clear above. One that didn’t just teach what Uechi-ryu had, but anything it could for fighting. Uechi was the foundation to something more.
SO WHY BOTHER WRITING THIS:
Basically because if you like Okinawan karate, you’re more likely to find a good Goju-Ryu school than any other Okinawan style.
Because I realize how fucking lucky I was to walk into the one karate school that kind of did it all.
Because Uechi-Ryu could be so much more than it is now. Much more. It’s there, it has the tools. We know the history of the style, we know what kind of training was done back in those days. It’s not hard for Uechi-Ryu schools to do it. It’s not even that the Okinwan masters arn’t aware of it. Yet it’s not a priority for some reason.
More over we know with modern sport science that pre-arranged work only works well in teaching initial movement. Once something is known, the training must be dynamic. Dynamic doesn’t mean hard sparring. It doesn’t have to even be sparring, drilling in a way with broken timing has the same results. Yet not only Uechi, but so many martial arts refuse to do even that.
Yes karate shows up in the UFC, but mostly point karate foot work. There is so much more that can show up in a combat sport with lax rules like that. More than foot work, but an entirely different way to move and hand fight.
In self defense karate can be more than a collection of lethal techniques, but an entire system, a broad with with broad skills.
If you want to do general martial arts, research hard and cross train. Lots of gyms offer both RBSD and MMA together which would teach you plenty of cool things.
If you love Okinawan karate specifically, but want it to be effective in multiple context then I recommend Goju-Ryu. Check the quality of the school of course, there is lots of bad Goju. But due to sheer numbers there are more good schools than bad, or at least ones that will teach you different ways of moving.
What's the deal with Adeel? 