JJ and Karate

I have been practising JJJ for about 9 months now and have been looking at other styles to cross train in. Been looking at Kickboxing or BJJ but was wondering about Karate.

Will the two styles clash? Or will they go well together?

 

depends on what kind of JJJ you do. wado-ryu might be your best bet (see: http://www.martialartsplanet.com/forums/showthread.php?t=105702)

 

Pretty sure it's Juko Ryu JJJ? Might be wrong though...

 

Obviously, karate and jujutsu are very different arts. Karate generally is almost all standing and primarily a striking/kicking art, very different from jujutsu. But if you've only been training for nine months, that's probably a good thing. Most martial arts instructors I know say that cross-training works better for beginners if the two arts are very different from one another.

 

Nine months and you're still unsure?

I'd hope your teacher would have give you the run down on what it is you are learning.

Got a website?


Like the others have said mixing arts can be tricky and it's going to depend on what you're doing.

 

Yeah, I think they'd go very well together. The ability to do some hard striking should complement your jiujutsu nicely and many of the cultural and linguistic traditions will cross over and make it feel familiar. To be honest, I think specifically aiming for wado karate would be pointless as the "extras" that wado brings to the table (i.e. the jiujutsu techniques and principles) will be covered in your JJ anyway. I'd just try and pick one of the big four Japanese styles (shoto, wado, ****o, goju), or maybe one of the knockdown styles if you fancy a challenge, and stay away from "Uncle Bob's karate ninja warehouse" and you should do fine.

 

lol @ Uncle Bob's karate ninja warehouse.

 

JamesR,

One type of thing you might have to watch out for are things like how your particular style of Jujutsu generates power for areas such as atemi or how your foot work works in tai sabaki etc.

You might find significant differences between certain styles of JJ and Karate, juggling the two could cause problems without a good grounding in one or the other.

 

It says it on the wall but I've no particular interest in what the "Style" is, just in what I am actually learning.

I boxed for about 2 years so I am guessing in Karate they will have me punching very differently? tbh - I am leaning more towards kickboxing

 

That's a shame in a way as what "style" it is has a direct relationship to what you are doing and why, you're going to be missing out on a huge chunk of training, IMO.

 

I don't see how? I went to a Shotokan place for 2 lessons and it was pure katas, didn't see anything that impressed me.

Went to my JJJ place and just from the first night I could see how good the place was. I really couldn't care what style it is as long as I like what I see. I think it is Juko Ryu (But this means nothing to me, so why would I care?)

I go by what I see and do. If we face each other in a horse stance and do un-realistic techniques then I won't be going there. If we throw punches at each other and turn them into throws / sweeps / techniques etc then I will stay (As I have done)

 

Possibly.

Fair enough. I guess the only thing to keep an eye out for is quality control. There are lots of different things that call themselves "kickboxing", and some are of dubious quality.

Same goes for most martial arts though.

 

I'm not likely to go to a McDojo, I know exactly what I want and it is clear to me what constitutes one.

There is a place up the road that is £4 per lesson and from the looks of it, it's run the same as my old boxing place but obviously they have kicks and knees involved. (Loved my boxing gym, £1 and you could go 4 days a week )

 

Well depending on your experience then you could have missed a great deal and of course two sessions is just that two sessions.

It'll all depend on what's being taught at the time, perhaps the teacher felt it appropriate for the class to be working on that specific area?

Maybe the next week they worked on sparring, you don't know as you missed it.

My point about missing out was because if you don't understand the why and the background then you don't, IMO, fully understand the technique, system etc

I feel you miss out on internalising certain aspects. Now in a RBSD that has a goal to deliver easily applicable skills in as fast a manner as possible this type of thing might be less of a focus but even so behind all that there will still be, hopefully, reasoning and logic as to why something is taught in the first place and why it's delivered in the manner it is.

For traditional arts such as Jujutsu, Karate etc then this will become more apparent.

Again it depends on your experience.

Just because you like it doesn't mean it'll fit your needs, if you get my meaning?

Why do you feel it was so good?

Again though it'll depend on the person viewing the class, their level, experience etc and the training.

What's an unrealistic technique?

Do you do weapons at your school?

If so what's realistic about that training? And why?

You can do high pressured kata practice and bloody awful sparring and vice versa.

Simply because a system uses one type of methodology doesn't automatically make it one thing or another, it's indicative of its roots and a number of other things but doesn't automatically make it credible.

Judo is bloody awesome but if the class trains in a manner where they fall over for each other at the slightest touch that's not good training or good Judo. However some out there might think "wow look at that!".

 

Have you thought about Muay Thai?

 

It is straight to the point, it seemed a good solid martial art with most aspects covered (On my first time down there, there were people there going over throws pretty fast / well as well as some grappling and randori behind them) - The first technique for blocking a punch involved parrying it, kneeing them in the groin, and hocking their leg before finishing them off. This was within 10 minutes of being there, I was pretty impressed and could see that it would work. It includes everything I could want, it's a good mixture of hard and soft techniques and is taught in a way I like it (A lot of techniques are from a punch) which is what I feel the most common attack.

I don't feel like I am missing out on anything not knowing the style, I have still learnt an awful lot already from Judo type throws to Aikido locks and BJJ ground work. The only reason I am there is for self defence, and I feel that what is taught will provide me with that.

This is just about a suitable art to cross train in anyhow, I have considered Muay Thai but there aren't many places that take my fancy.

 

Is this where you train?

http://www.ljja.co.uk/index.html

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTNtUxgaSKc&feature=youtube_gdata_player"]LJJA - YouTube[/ame]


As for Mauy Thai ask in the relevant forum, the likes of MasterBetty could probably point you in the right direction.


You could also look at doing some work with the BCA, doing some seminars etc, to get a more self defence focus?

Or get to some sessions/workshops with MAP's JWT, again if self defence is a concern.

Bulletman, Redman training etc

There's a fair bit you could look at for rounding off your self defence requirements.

 

As you mentioned BJJ in your op I'd say it couldn't hurt to take a few lessons in BJJ or Judo to compliment what you are doing.

All the old school jujutsu guys who first bought jujutsu to the UK used to be judoka too. A solid grappling base is an indispensible foundation for jujutsu IMO.

There is a massive difference from training in some BJJ or Judo type techniques and actually training in those systems. I have a background in gendai budo and once was training at a place I thought was pretty sweet (loads of randori and groundwork, loads of padwork and hard workouts) after crosstraining in a little judo and BJJ (which I quickly defected to) I realised the disparity was huge and that we were basically crappling by comparason. Go to a good competitive BJJ gym and see if you notice a difference. I'm not trying to rain on your parade and a bit of judo or jitz would be great for your practice anyway but I thought some of that stuff in the video on your school's website looked highly unrealistic to be honest.

 

Edited by Mod at OP's request