I love tradition and believe that it’s an essential tool for progression. I am passionate about the traditional fighting arts but prefer functionality to empty ritual. I think Basho summed up tradition nicely when he wrote, “Seek not to [blindly] follow in the footsteps of the men of old but rather continue to seek out what they sought.” This timeless concept says so much about keeping tradition alive, rather than blindly adhering to, “exactly how the master did it 75 years ago!” Paraphrasing the wisdom of Jean Janses, “Tradition doesn’t mean preserving someone’s ashes in a box but rather keeping its flame alight.” Paraphrasing the wisdom of Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) … “We can know more than the pioneers if we start with a knowledge of what they already knew; this is the value of preserving tradition.” In the words of George Bernard Shaw, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
Thinking outside the box, and fusing classical tradition with contemporary insight, the IRKRS is a Japanese/Okinawa-influenced group which has been leading the way in historical comprehension and technical application for more than twenty years. We have successfully built bridges uniting like-minded learners all over the world for the past decade through eliminating ambiguity, and imparting the true origins and evolution of Karate while specialising in the functional application practices of ancestral and traditional-based Kata. Most importantly, our pathway services also include mentoring both student and instructor alike, irrespective of style, for the expressed purpose of self-empowerment. A link to the past is your bridge to the future and the IRKRS is the perfect pathway to take you there. – Patrick McCarthy
