You got to talk to me about Shotokan I don't know much about that but yes you are right and never judge a book by its cover. It was the same in the military. The guy you never expect ends up becoming a Navy Seal, Delta or a sniper. BTW you need 20/20 vision, that is why I couldn't become a sniper(really wanted to) but you see the skinny kid becomes a seal and the roided out juider doesn't even pass boot camp so doens't mater your physique it's how MENTALLY TOUGH YOU ARE that matters
I'm just a bit biased to Bruce Lee. It it cool you come from a Shotakan karate background at least I am talking to someone from a martial arts background. I don't know what Shotakan karate emphasizes in? I can talk to you a bit about Kempo. BTW like I said it was a LONG time ago when I took Karate, I think Bill Clinton just became the President of the United States haha.
BTW talk to me bro how long have you been taking Shotakan karate. I know what you are talking about where I train at Sityodtong(a top 10 mauy thay academy) there is this old Thai man who is probably under 5'2 and 145 pounds soaking wet and wearing boots. Dude's bones are as hard as rock(in MT you take punishment and then you keep breaking your bones and they eventually become hard as a rock) and he could EASILY knock out a professional football player who is 6'6 300. So talk to me bro what is the difference between Shotokan and say Kempo, what I took. Kempo was more combat Karate when I say a long time ago, Diego Maradona was still playing for Argentina when I took Karate. I made it up to Orange belt, then took TKD(Takwando) then for like 15 years I stopped EVERYTHING, until about 3 years ago when I started again, first with Jiu Jitsu and Judo now I added MT and boxing.
Growing up as a kid BOXING, not American football was my favorite sport. American football came up later plus I was a kin in the 80's so I got to grow up with the great legends like Sugar Ray, Roberto Duran and Mike Tyson and I watched all of Mohammed Ali's tapes. BTW I actually picked up trash talking, intimidation and how to get in your opponents heads though Duran, Tyson and of course the master Mohammed ALi. Maybe Karate is a gentleman's game about honor and all of that so is jiu jitsu but Mauy Thay and boxing you need to get in your opponents heads. If you can make your opponent think they lost before the fight, you won before the first punch. I would say Mohammed Ali was the GREATEST OF ALL TIME at getting into your head. The only guy he couldn't psych out was Joe Frazier. In the first fight lol Ali, "Joe Frazier, they told me you was washed up(I know wrong grammar this is Ali not me)." Frazier, "They told you wrong pretty boy."
Shotokan is a mainstream style of karate from Japan .
Like yourself I got interest in martial arts after watching Bruce Lee movies in the 70s ! I started in karate when I was about 16 years old in England ,did it for about 4-5 months ,then I stopped as I was heavily into football (soccer to you !) ....it was not until I was about 24 that my cousin who knew sensei Moshfegh encouraged me to join his school ,so I did and trained in his school for about a year in Tehran opposite Park Saee , I left Iran and in England I came across another great school of shotokan and trained with this master from 1985 to 2003 constantly ,after that time my sensei left the area and my training became somewhat irregular since my main instructor left and I felt less motivated to train with others and I stopped training altogether last year , you never know one day if I find another good school and a teacher I may start again .
I never had the desire to teach and must say never had an ego about it ,many of my football friends that I played with for years never knew I trained in karate ,but sometimes looked at me with round eyes and kind of amazement when occasionally unconsciously I did some karate techniques in football !
by that I don't mean I got into fights but using karate techniques unconsciously to play football ! once I accidentally hit an oppsing player with head kick to his temple knocking him out cold ! what happened was in a sunday park game I was playing as outfield player ,a high ball came towards me ,I tried to control the ball bringing it down to my feet but my touch was not good and the ball went over my head and automatically i turned around and tried to hit the ball which was at head hight ,not knowing the opposing player just headed the ball before my foot got there and my foot hit his temple instead of the ball and he dropped like a sack of potatoes ! of course I was very apologetic , if we were in karate competition that would have earned me an Ippon (full point ) or a knockout point !
I once or twice scored a goal with a back kick (ushiro geri) also almost scored with a jumping round house kick that hit the cross bar so hard it was rattling for a while ... not least my goalkeeping improved tremendously as a result of karate training ,since my speed and agility and body coordination improved so much .
Shotokan the way I learned is about self defence and the concept is economy of motion and one hit one kill concept ,meaning ending the conflict quickly , it means developing your technique in such a way that you could possibly end the fight with one or two techniques ,of course it is not always possible to do that but this is the mindset .
shotokan emphasises a lot on building strong foundation , then to learn to move fast and deliver a strong technique . I don't know about kempo or any other martial arts much so can't make a comparison .
what I like about shotokan is it's grace and dynamic movements and the fact that it caters for any age or size ,the emphasis on one hit one kill is certainly a good concept for those who are not as fit and able in physical appearance as others .
it is not about going 10 rounds with someone who is physically stronger and fitter or younger , it is about to hit and not to get hit concept ,that is the ultimate aim ,to avoid getting hit by moving out of the way of attack and being able to counter with a strong technique .
Easily said than done of course ,but this is what they work towards achieving in shotokan .