Shorin Ryu Karate and Tae Kwon Do

¶ … Shorin Ryu Karate and Tae Kwon Do Shorin-ryu karate and tae kwon do have much in common with each other, and much in common with several other Asian martial arts practices. They all -- karate, tae kwon do, judo, jujitsu and aikido -- emphasize two things. Those two things are that: It is better to solve problems without fighting, by seeking peace. A practitioner of martial arts must develop not only his or her body, but mind and spirit as well.

Robert Scaglione, one of the foremost masters of shorin-ryu karate in the United States, says that, "Karate was indigenous to the RyuKyu culture, pervaded by weapons bans throughout the centuries...." This forced the people of the RyuKyu culture, the Okinawans, to develop a system of self-defense using what they had to defend themselves from the invaders, who were mainly the Japanese. What they had were their hands.

"Te" means "hand." The word karate, means "the art of the open hand, " Scaglione, advised in an article on the Shorin-Ryu Karate U.S.A. Web site. The Koreans, too, were invaded by the Japanese over many centuries, and they also needed to develop a system of self-defense that did not depend on banned weapons. What they developed was similar to karate, in that it used only the combatant's own body to successfully fight enemies.

Their system, now known as tae kwon do, translates as "the way of smashing with the foot and destroying with the hand," according to Grand Master James S. Benko, Ph.D., writing on the International Tae Kwon Do Association Web site. Korean martial arts had been practiced by unaffiliated schools in the United States until the 1950s, when six major schools got together and unified what they taught, choosing the name tae kwon do. The name alone gives some insight into the difference in styles.

Where the Okinawan karate is quiet and the movements fluid, tae kwon do is more vigorous, with greater explosive energy used for the self-defensive movements. Jimmie Nixdorf and Phil Lusignan, writing in Black Belt magazine and the magazine's Web site, note that the approaches to training and execution of shorin-ryu karate and tae kwon do are "as different as their nations of origin." Tae kwon do indeed uses many kicks, the most familiar of which, to observers, is probably the spinning crescent kick.

The purpose of such exciting kicks, the Black Belt authors say, is not so much for self-defense per se. Instead, the flamboyant techniques are developed on the theory that any practitioner of the art who can do those well in competition or for demonstration can most certainly execute the less showy versions to vanquish a real opponent. Shorin-ryu practitioners, they say, generally employ more hand techniques, and the kicks they do use are aimed lower than tae kwon do kicks.

Instead of aiming for the upper torso or head, shorin-ryu kicks are aimed at the groin, legs and lower abdomen. Basic punches and kicks are also used in combination with joint locks and throwing techniques, and pressure-point attacks are also part of the shorin-ryu roster of tactics. These two authors refrain from saying which of the two martial arts is better. Both have strengths and weaknesses, they point out. If one were perfect, or even superior to the other, they add, everyone would.