|
ABOUT THE AMERICAN BUSHIDOKAN
In the late 1960's Jim Harrison founded the first Bushidokan
school in Kansas City, Kansas. Harrison had studied judo and
was top in his league. During this time he had also studied Okinawan
Shorin-Ryu Karate and was top at this style as well.
Bushidokan is a combination of Judo, Okinawan Karate and JuJitsu,
but it emphasizes a karate which resembles Shotokan. Bushidokan
trains students in effective street self defense. Physical conditioning
is very important and includes leg stretching and abdominal conditioning.
Tournament fighting is also a large of part of Bushidokan training.
Beginning students learn seven basic stances, seven basic strikes
(six linear and one circular), seven basic blocks (one of which
is circular) and seven basic kicks. They also learn self defense
techniques that are not included in the "basic" seven.
These techniques include a number of throws, a few soft (redirecting)
blocks, and several wrist and hand locks. Two basic self defense
strategies, a direct counter and an indirect counter, are taught
for each type of attack. Students also learn different sparring
techniques which they can use either in no contact or full contact
sparring.
Bushidokan has only two "official" katas, but students
are encouraged to learn other Shotokan katas as well.
Bushidokan is an external Martial Art with only mild references
to the internal arts. At the end of the Taiso which begins each
class, Mizu No Kokoro ("mind like water"), is performed.
|
