All Wado Karate Forum

I'm new to Wado. I've converted from shotokan/goju and like the club i've joined. it's more family friendly and they train hard and have an association head who has trained since the 70's. I have karate katas by shingo ohgami and a couple of obligatory dvds by the association. I always find that it helps me if i can read up as well as train. What would you recommend book wise to add to my education? I'm 41 and a bit long in the tooth so find dogma a bit hard to swallow :)

Hi Normanski

I've always liked Shingo Ohgami's other book 'Introduction to karate' very good. Suzuki's 'Karate-Do' has always been something of a bible

shep

Normanski wrote:I'm new to Wado. I've converted from shotokan/goju and like the club i've joined. it's more family friendly and they train hard and have an association head who has trained since the 70's. I have karate katas by shingo ohgami and a couple of obligatory dvds by the association. I always find that it helps me if i can read up as well as train. What would you recommend book wise to add to my education? I'm 41 and a bit long in the tooth so find dogma a bit hard to swallow :)

Hi Damon,
This is a difficult one, but quite revealing in a way.

There is an amazing absence of books on anything related to Wado. For me this is quite reassuring as it underlines the truths which indicate that Wado, as a complex beast, is so damned difficult to pin down.

Not in any flaky mystical wafty way; Wado is too darned practical for that; but instead it kind of underlines the fact that a journey into Wado is a journey into a convoluted soup of intricacy and rich content that you’ll never get to the bottom of it. This is why I’m always coming back for more.

Tim

Normanski wrote:...and a couple of obligatory dvds by the association.

Hi Normanski,

Can I ask, what are the DVD's and what association produced them?

Gary

Shingo Ohgami's books are highly recommended and have probably never been bettered when it comes to setting out the theory.

A more recent publication which I would certainly recommend is this one by Roberto Danubio:

http://www.wado-ryu-book.com/wadoryu-karatebook.php

If you are a book worm, then collecting other Wado books isn't going to set you back very much as there aren't very many in print.

I think AJ sells some of the out of print books on his website.

Ben

Edit: Also the JKF Shitei kata books are good reference to have.

Hi Normanski,

I recommend going with dogma until you find the explanations. If the dogma corrects your technique, something also happens inside that takes you forward to the next levels. Then in the future you can receive the explanations with a higher ratio.

Doing what you are told to really makes everything easier. But also try to find out "why" at the same time.


(Sorry for the possible topic drift. I think there are topics concerning shu ha ri etc. If not, then we can also continue in a new topic if necessary.)

claas wrote:Hi Normanski,

I recommend going with dogma until you find the explanations. If the dogma corrects your technique, something also happens inside that takes you forward to the next levels. Then in the future you can receive the explanations with a higher ratio.

Agreed.

(Sorry for the possible topic drift. I think there are topics concerning shu ha ri etc. If not, then we can also continue in a new topic if necessary.)

There's one at least that I know of - mainly because I posted it.

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=262

Gary

Hi Gary, the local association is Doug James' Chojinkai. It seems to be the biggest in the North East and the people I've met seem pleasant and have a professional attitude to teaching. Didn't mean to sound arrogant about dogma, it's just I've always been taught to question everyhting before :)

Wado Ryu Karate by Hironori Otsuka comes to mind.

Normanski wrote:Hi Gary, the local association is Doug James' Chojinkai. It seems to be the biggest in the North East and the people I've met seem pleasant and have a professional attitude to teaching. Didn't mean to sound arrogant about dogma, it's just I've always been taught to question everyhting before :)

Hi Normanski,

Sorry for the late reply - my work flings me around the world these days!!

I had in mind Doug James or possibly Chris Thompson when you mentioned that your group had produced their own DVD's.

Have you asked your instructor what he/she might recommend (outside of the group stuff)?

Gary