On this page, I'd like to address the term "Style". In the martial arts market today, there is an absolute plethora of choices when it comes to syles of martial arts you can choose from. For newcommers to martial arts, this can be somewhat confusing and frustrating. What you must understand though are two very important things about styles. Firstly, they are extremely subjective and open to interpretation. Secondly, they didn't always exist. Styles are a relatively modern phenomonon in the martial arts

Generally speaking, martial arts instructors are of one of two school so thought. They either stick to a single style for their entire martial arts career and are very dedicated to it, or they try a multitude of different arts to gain different perspectives. Both approaches have pros and cons. What's interesting is that the more that one cross-trains (a common term used to describe training in multiple styles of martial arts), the more one tends to realise that there's a massive crossover between styles and the lines between ones style and another tend to blur.

At Denshinkan, we believe every style of martial arts has something to offer and we are open minded about all systems available. We also permit and promote our students to cross train if they wish to do so.

We believe that all martial arts seek to achieve the same goal and they do so through one, or a comination of, four combative facets or ranges. The goal for most is to understand the human body, then develop functional sponteneaty in an effort to best impede motor performance, although various schools will use different terms to describe a similar outcome. The ways in which this can be achieve are 1) Stand-Up Striking, 2)The Clinch / Stand-Up Grappling, 3)Groundwork and 4)Weaponry. You can read much more about this here

When talking about systems, these are sometimes seperated in different ways. Sometimes a style might be a type of art (eg. Escrima/Aikido/Taekwondo) or sometimes it might be styles within a system (eg. in Karate Shotokan/Goju Ryu/Kyokoshin). Each of these styles then either focuses on one of the four combative ranges or addresses several of them in a cohesive system. In addition, there are many schools that combine multiple arts in an effort to address the various combative ranges

In old Okinawa, prior to the formation of modern Karate, there were no "styles", there was simply martial arts. A student was limited only by their imagination, innovation, research and teachers knowledge. In fact, it was common for a teacher to recommend their students visit another teacher in order to improve their range of skills. Koryu Uchinadi Kenpo Jutsu is a representation of this tradition and methodology and addresses all 4 combative ranges. It does not descriminate on "style" but rather focuses on the end goal - Functional Sponteneaty.