SRKDI represents a collection of dojos and practitioners of Okinawan karate from around the world, and we relish the opportunity to share ideas and training practices so as to better our dojos, students, and ourselves. We believe that karate training should respect the traditional ways, but it should also never become a stagnant pond. To that end, we strive to reflect upon our training and to share training, practice, teaching, and management insights with each other. That is what it means to be in association with other karateka.

Our dojos emphasize kihon, kata, bunkai, drills, kumite, and kobudo. And through careful study of the practical application of kata, bunkai, and kumite drills, we understand true traditional karate to be an art that involves not only punches, kicks, and various strikes, but also throws, sweeps, take downs, joint locks, and grappling. We study karate techniques from key contexts: practical self-defense (or self-protection), martial arts, and sport. When analyzing a move to see if “it would work,” we begin by asking if it would work in what context. What would work in a self-defense context may not work in a sport context. What you do against another trained opponent in a sporting event may not be appropriate or even relevant in a self-protection context. Sometimes these contexts are mutually exclusive, and other times they enhance and inform each other. Put simply, we seek to understand traditional karate more deeply through contextual analysis.

We also understand that tradition is strengthened and remains relevant when it evolves rationally and reasonably with each practitioner as we make the training, martial principles, and techniques our own, and when we understand karate from the context of our own lived experiences. SRKDI seeks to study, understand, and preserve traditional Okinawan karate and to keep it vibrant and strong so that the next generation will revere, embrace, preserve, and develop it moving forward.

CORE SRKDI PHILOSOPHY​