Being of a mid-point age wrt your question Gwyn, during my teens I wanted to practice Kung Fu and did follow freestyle Kung Fu for a couple of years in Benllech, whilst doing a year of Wado Ryu with an emergent club in Holyhead (mid-late 80's). All of this was definitely influenced by the Bruce Lee genre.
Simple, effective self-defence and fighting fitness were my primary objectives in the services and in my late 20's (late 90's).
However, so far the technique and power of what we train in at Seki really pushes the buttons, just wish I was more all-round fit and supple now.
Combining our syllubi with the short exposure to kata-derived bunkai of Mr. H Cook, I am comfortable that our style and training is effective if needed, given muscle memory and instinctive reaction to attacks (scenarios of which I mainly concentrate on the kickbag at the mo).
Back to your Q:
Culture pressures demand that we try to avert trouble and rationalise a situation first, even positive body language (posture and hands/feet in 'ready' positions) and distancing (spacial awareness and presenting small target) when feeling threatened can increase your chances either way - 'drilled in' Seki savvi, I guess.
Influences are that we as a nation are generally unfit, do not get out enough and are not interactive with others - Seki training releases inhibitions (we can only train through getting within another's 'space'), promotes respectful behaviour and forces us out on cold evenings to train - can't be bad.
Other influences such as action movies do have a lot of loose MA in them, if we are not too rigid with technique = result and could be more mindful of opening+appropriate technique executed reasonably well to a vital point = result, then Shotokan has a continued future. I am not going to regurgitate the topic of McDojos at this time.
I also note the comments:
'
"Now, everybody and his brother "used to do" karate, kung fu, killer kick burping" - coz that is an easy conversation opener, just like everybody 'had trials for Man U'. 90% of these people never graded more than once, or competed.
"Whether it's more effective depends on what training you do, but let's face it, they look meaner !" - really? real nasty b4$tards (MB, Eryl, Moley, etc ('spect MB)) scare the s4!t out of opponents coz they look so devastatingly CONTROLLED about their business. Do we want to be mean/superficial? Talk is one thing - Isn't it the eventual result that counts?
I was looking for an MA with strength in depth, a range of quality techniques passed on by people who irrespective of age, build or gender could be absolutely devastating for those few seconds when facing an opponent. You call it IPPON.
My goal was to identify that those devastating techniques were not the product of a gifted Jean-Claud VD athlete, but of regular and disciplined TRAINING.
I would choose and continue to recommend Seki.
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