Systems and Scenarios

We use the terms "martial system" or "karate style" when we speak of the entire system of practice yet do we fully understand what it means to refer to our style as a style or system. 

A system is a set of interconnected components that work together for a common cause that results in some effect that none of the components could achieve alone. It is a compilation of persons, procedures, and supporting techniques/tactics/strategies, organized into groups that play different scenario's (Scenarios are good for exploring how system do and ought to work). This would apply to any and all systems including a martial system.

Isshinryu is a system. It is a system within another system. The other system is generally accepted by the Okinawan karate culture as Shorin-ryu even tho there is a smidgeon of goju-ryu as a parent system involved as well. 

Scenario's are useful at the fundamental or basic levels to transfer basic knowledge to the fledgling student. It then becomes incumbent upon those individuals to take this to the next level in order to learn the entire system. An entire system can be labeled into three categories such as "shu-ha-ri" to achieve the overall goals and strategies that make the system work. 

It is the complete and holistic application of principles, strategies and tactics that make the system work. The interconnected components are often mistakenly thought of as the techniques used to combat techniques applied in a scenario. The interconnected components that make a system whole go way beyond the mere physical applications. There must be a culture and belief system and as many more esoteric components that are learned and applied leading through other components before the physical. It spans the mind through social standards and into environmental considerations that allow for other more esoteric components that allow for avoidance and deescalation. Then if all else fails the physical component is activated yet it must be activated with components that speak to the legal, moral and medical (both physical and psychological) components that also drive how you utilize the physical, i.e. the strategies and tactics that keep you within those other components. Then the components that come after the physical also govern what limits the physical have on the entire system.

In a nutshell it takes a good deal of training and practice to encompass the entire system that is martial arts. It is normally only a small component of the entire system that is introduced to most practitioners and this is a stunted incomplete system.

Hoshiki or systems are important in their entirety and leaving out any of the components for the sake of instant gratifications is in the end - stunted and dangerous.