we differ only on small points , and its basically chicken or egg stuff .
you seem to focus on the generic to explain the variation where as I`d focus on the variation to explain the generic .
but interesting posts
the music analogy is apt , but the karate styles would be perhaps closer to musical style than scales harmonics etc , all styles posess them , but the mastery of them is what makes one potentially a great musician , and not someone who just plays Uechi
FWIW, I didn't start in Uechi. Folks sometimes forget that. Not only that, but George wasn't my first Uechi instructor. He was my third.
My first martial arts instructor was an intense, crazy Japanese. It took me decades to understand and appreciate that experience. He was way over the top at times, but his style of teaching had a remarkable effect on me.
He studied from many of the greats (Funakoshi, Yamaguchi Gogen, etc.). He was from the samurai class. He was an eclectic, and taught whatever kata made sense at the time. (He had a LOT to draw from...) And he was well respected in Japan. (I started with him when he was a sandan. He is now a hanshi.)
Uechi took a long time to "stick" with me. But the personality, hyperintelligence, and talent of Rad Smith were hard to walk away from. David Finkelstein was another Harvard genius that I had the pleasure of working with. Then came George who spent more time letting me evolve than he did telling me what to be. And he enhanced that experience by bringing all different stylists to his camps.
Sanchin was finally the thing that helped me pull all my pieces together, Marcus. I didn't start with it. But when I began to "get" it, it became more and more useful to me as a structure for all that I had been exposed to.
And that made it possible to branch out into Goju, aikido, kobudo, FMA, grappling, etc., etc.
