Interesting, I discovered shortly after starting Jujitsu that the organisation I'm learning with (World Ju Jitsu Federation) is basically some bloke called Bob from Liverpool. I thought about it though and decided - you know, who cares - some of the techniques I don't like much but a lot of them I find very effective. Do you really want to learn some ancient battlefield art or would you rather learn a modern interpretation. You're always going to be getting something filtered through your Sensei and their particular preferences anyway. In addition the second closest Ju Jitsu club was about another 15 miles drive so I didn't have much choice anyway. I also like the club because, for example, tonight there were only four of us there so we get a lot of individual tuition. I respect my Sensei, so whether Bob in Liverpool knows his stuff or not means nothing to me. I guess what I'm saying is: at the end of the day, if you find a club you like and a Sensei you respect and you're learning something useful, that's good enough. Isn't it?
And if your teacher is lying through his front teeth just to get bodies in the club or make themselves more impressive? Sorry but I'd want a bit more integrity from someone who I'm going to let chuck me around. I'm a die hard traditionalist but that doesn't mean I don't see value in other things but those I train with have to be upfront about what they do. For example I'd train with Smurf, if he'd have me , any day of the week because he's open about what he does.
Differences in methods of attack, methods of study, depth of material. Classical schools often have sleeve and lapel grabs, hammer hand strikes and such whereas western schools try to incorporate relevant HAOV. Koryu strangely enough seems to be a little more relaxed than in the instances we see of hybrid systems where they try and "out Japanese" the Japanese, also the teaching methodology isn't as directive after a certain level. That's simply my limited experience.
Great Q. I'll throw in my $0.02. My background is in a gendai style... Hakko Ryu base (claimed, I'd leave it to an real expert to say whether there's any trace of hakko ryu in there - after all I've "only" been training for 7 years) that blends in some karate style strikes, Judo, Aikido, even Arnis and knife/gun stuff. I was an English linguistics major, so to answer the question, I'll compare martial arts to languages. A modern language is dynamic therefore it constantly evolves. That means it adapts to its time e.g. new terms, imports new words borrowed from foreign languages, sheds off unnecessary elements...etc. Modern languages adapt to the world around them, become more efficient and streamline themselves through a variety of ways. The day a language stops evolving and its rules and lexicon become fixed in time is when it's no longer used. It then becomes a dead language like Latin. The people who complain about changes like night being occasionally spelled "nite" are the same people who would have complained about favour being spelled "favor" or geol "jail". Those people think they're "defending" the language and its heritage when they're actually holding it back and preventing its natural evolution. Same thing with JJ and martial arts in my opinion. Modern JJ adapts to the world around it. The context it was designed in is no longer valid. It must sheds off what no longer applies or works, only keep what does and borrow from other arts if they have more efficient/effective techniques for a particular situation. In short, a modern art adapts and strives toward maximal efficiency IMO.
https://scontent-a-lhr.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/1546282_10152212783523274_1680311058_n.jpg Us being very modern and enjoying our jujitsu Smurf
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...152212812853274_1687626923_n.jpg&size=960,640 There is no pain ......
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...152212801298274_1467837369_n.jpg&size=640,960 sometimes there is revenge ...
I can't take kotes anymore. My left wrist has been broken since I was 19 and my right wrist left was destroyed by a student with zero control a few years back. And he lasted a month...if that.