To our members:
A few dojos over the years have tried to copy our public image. Some are doing it right now.
They use a facsimile of our name. They base their website on ours. They figure that since we have been around for a while and have a strong, dedicated group, they should be like us. Maybe they think people will think they are us. Or that people value Mountain Karate because of our name, search engine keywords, or brand. Not likely. Those are not the reason people value what we do.
Mimicry may move naïve people. But it will not persuade people who look closely.
Imitators cannot replicate what we do. They do not offer what we offer. They cannot.
Our approach is different, our goals are different, and our results prove it.
We have investigated the applications and meaning of each move, training to optimize body mechanics and energy transmission, making each move effective, and our training real. We have made our style a dynamic, living thing, not a rigid, static, museum piece. We draw on decades of dojo experience with thousands of students, a global network of practitioners and investigators with diverse perspectives, knowledge and experience, and with professional experience in combatives and combative training. We put our training to work.
The knowledge that we use was not transmitted within the big Okinawan Shorin Ryu karate organizations. They had no access to it, given the limits of their style-centric knowledge base.
Some dojos, charging thousands of dollars for black belt ranks, are not teaching skill mastery. They are selling approval, club membership and status.
(To learn more about this, and about the unique approach we take at Mountain Karate, check out the article Lost Bunkai and the Karate Revolution.)
To our members, families and friends at Mountain Karate:
You have experienced the real thing. Some of you trained in other martial arts, even in karate that has a similar name, and claims a similar lineage, but which, as you have said, was a shallow version of what you are learning at Mountain Karate.
Commercial dojos can approximate our name. They can copy from our website. They can boast. They can hustle. They can be sincere, strong people. But they cannot offer what we offer.
The fact is, they could learn it – from us. They are welcome and invited. They are free to collaborate with us and the network of dedicated investigators around the world who are breathing new life into Shorin ryu karate. They are free to take the fresh insights, depth and power back to their own dojos. They can contribute to making karate great again.
But more importantly, they can make this karate their own, and to lift the lives of everyone they know, teach and influence, for a lifetime. They may choose not to accept this offer. But you have.
It shows – in the way you train, the way you live, and in who you are.
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Post copyright © 2025 Jeffrey Brooks, MountainKarateNC.com, Yamabayashi Ryu, Mountain Karate Dojo, in the mountains of western NC.
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read True Karate Dō by Jeffrey Brooks
“One of the best books I’ve read in years, inviting and compelling.
Jeff Brooks moves effortlessly from martial arts to Buddhism to consciousness studies, self-transformation, and related fields in this wide-ranging and Illuminating study that has much to offer both novice explorers and veteran practitioners. A splendid achievement.”
— Philip Zaleski, Editor, The Best Spiritual Writing series