Traditional Jujutsu & Karate in Mesa, Arizona

Soke Hausel applies jujutsu restraint to Kyoshi Stoneking (photo courtesy of Sensei Luis Juvier).

Karate and jujutsu continues to be an important part of my life as I continue along the martial arts path. On Okinawa, karate, or tode, originally incorporated throws, kicks, punches, chokes, pressure point strikes, intense body hardening, and tools as weapons and today, many of the traditional Okinawan styles of karate incorporate all of these other aspects of self-defense. Thus it is not unusual to see Okinawan karate practitioners follow up with a powerful block on a pressure point with a devastating strike to another pressure point and finish with a throw and restraint or choke combination.

At the Seiyo no Shorin-Ryu Hombu dojo, we teach jujutsu as an add on to karate. We block, followed by a series of punches and/or kicks, prior to throwing any attacker - similar to Juko-Ryu jujutsu. The Juko Ryu arts are, what I believe to be the best combat arts in the world. Thus, combining Juko-Ryu jujutsu with Juko-Ryu Kijutsu, produces many formable martial artists.

Sometime after I was certified as sokeshodai of Seiyo No Shorin-Ryu Karate Kobudo Kai (TM), I decided to incorporate much of my past karate and jujutsu training into my martial art. Shorin-Ryu Karate already included many techniques common in koryu jujutsu nage waza (combat throws) as well as waza developed against samurai and kobudo weapons. So instead of continuing to offer separate jujutsu certifications to my students at the University of Wyoming, I decided to incorporate all of my martial arts education into Seiyo Shorin-Ryu.

Lacy uses taiotoshi (leg drop) nage
waza to Shihan Adam

Seiyo Shorin-Ryu students, whether at the Arizona Hombu dojo (martial arts school) on Baseline Road on the border of Mesa with Chandler and Gilbert, or in Utah, Wyoming, Maryland, Southeast Asia, etc, focus on karate and kobudo, but they also are encourage to train in our samurai arts as well as learn many self-defense applications (bunkai) in our 70+ kata that include the traditional jujutsu throws, restraints and chokes. Now all of our students learn jujutsu along with karate, kobudo and the samurai arts which better prepares all of them for self-defense and provides a more rounded martial arts education.

Ude garuma (armbar) (photo courtesy of Sensei Luis
Javier)

But it still remains the philosophy of our art to learn a one-punch or one-kick knockout strike used prior to any kind of nage waza. In Arizona, people sweat and are slippery and it is easy to lose your grip on a slippery person, so any kind of restraint or throw works much better with an added strike. And as always, we teach our students to defend rather than be aggressive.

Sensei Linton applies te kubu waza (wrist lock technique) during self-defense training at the Arizona Hombu.

Training at the Seiyo no Shorin-Ryu Hombu in Mesa, Arizona. 

Hojojutsu (restraining samurai arts) at the Utah Gassuku

Restraint applied to attacker following throw