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[LeungRyu]

Hello everyone.

I suppose it would be proper to introduce myself as I would in a dojo.

I'm out of San Antonio TX, USA. My experience spans about 30 years of martial arts, from standard Karate-do (which I believe was a JKA based shotokan style), to TKD, Wing Chun, Muay Thai, Kung Jung Mu Sul, Shaolin Gung Gu, BJJ, and Judo.

I didn't get any rank in the karate that I practiced, as it was taught to me by a friend of the family at the time. I have degrees of the first rank in TKD, and am a Sifu of Shaolin gung fu. Wing Chun and Muay Thai have no ranks, and as such I would simply say that I have a higher understanding there with about 20 years of practice in both. I coach Muay Thai at a local gym here and also teach Muay Thai and Wing Chun privately. KJMS I attained a brown belt (I wore my black there and only had to learn their joint locking techniques). I merely have a fundamental knowledge of BJJ and a moderate knowledge of Judo. So that's my training and activity in a nutshell.

While I had to learn many kata for the karate, TKD, Kung Fu (god they had so many!) and KJMS....today, I no longer practice kata of any kind. I train to condition myself, work the basics techniques (kihon), shadow box, work sparring drills, and kumite. That's it. I've found that once I went through the kata's of the varying arts and gained an understanding on how the system moved and worked that into my sparring, that I no longer needed the forms to to use the respective styles fighting techniques, as it was at that point internalized.

But...today I'm older. My priorities are changing from being only fighting to wanting to pass on my knowledge, while at the same time master an art as far as I can take it with the remainder of my life. I would like that to be a karate system, and because of my full contact tendencies, I fell in love with what I've seen in KK. In studying the Kyokushin kihon, kata, bunkai, and Kumite from a distance--the fundamental techniques I have down...but obviously the essence of it (the kata and bunkai and general knowledge) I am missing.

So my coming here is to learn as much as I possibly can about Kyokushin karate...in any manner possible, until I can find and further study in an actual KK dojo. I want to learn all the terminology, understanding of the culture, and hope that in coming here I can at least glean that much in my pursuit of furthering my japanese karate studies.

As there are no KK dojo's near me that I know of....I was able to find a Goju Ryu dojo, and a JKA Karate (shotokan most likely) studio as well. Would these be comparable to KK to the point where it would be just as good?