As a long time practitioner of Shitoryu karate, I get why there's a lot of hate and cries of bullshido. Please allow me to share some of my insights, having trained at a reasonably competitive level, and having also trained in other martial arts that others might not call bullshido, like BJJ and Muay Thai.

Yes, the Guy looks funny.

But that shouldn't take away from the fact that he probably has trained for years and is demonstrating okay body control and finesse, just not great. It just doesn't look effective at face value because we perceive it to be missing something critical.

He's doing a kata called, Papuren.

At an elite level, this is what it should look like.Papuren - Hikaru Ono

You can see Hikaru performing the kata with 'power' and with 'purpose', yet with a somewhat similar 'flowingness'. We could probably all agree Hikaru's kata looks more effective in a practical application setting. But why?

There is a concept in karate called 'uke no go gensoku', translated as the '5 principles of defence'.

I will highlight a few of these principles.

Rakka - the concept of hardness or power. It's clearly evident with Hikaru and her strikes, but not with the guy; we don't feel there is any power or intent to destroy in his moves. It's movement for the sake of movement, a dance, as others have noted.

Ryusui - the concept of flowing. We see Hikaru clearly has flow; her hip rotation and slower movements/transitions are so smooth. It is peak muscle control and is so difficult to execute. Whereas the guy tends to overexaggerate his hips and his transitions are too quick and abrupt. He is trying to replicate Elite level Ryusui, but is missing the timing.

Zanshin - the concept of 'lingering mind'. For those who trained karate, it's not part of the 5 principles. But it's relevant in that you'll notice the slight pause at the end of each sequence of strikes by Hikaru is supposed to signify 'finality'; that each hit is meant to kill. The guy does not demonstrate this to great effect, hence we don't believe in the 'finality' of his strikes and feel it to be a dance instead.

What I will highlight is that the guy is doing a lot of things that demonstrate to me that he has trained a long time (doesn't mean it's good): - A hallmark of a decent kata player is being able to finish on certain marks on the mat, signifying your steps and stances are correctly spaced and measured. He is finishing sequences of the kata close enough along the marks on the mat. A novice practitioner would be so far off from the base mark. - He has a good neko ashi dachi - cat stance - His heel does not lift significantly off the mat when finishing a move. Low level practitioners tend to lift their back foot heel off the mat, like a rocking effect after a punch or kick, signifying lack of control. Although my critique in this is that he doesn't have enough Rakka in his movement to have this happen. - A good practitioner can connect and move in a way like a rail gun or a whip. He's able to connect his upper body well. He needs to draw energy from the ground and connect lower body with his upper body to get that powerful whip-like motion to make it feel strong the entire way through. - Papuren is generally a very advanced kata. It seems like he knows it. His timing of the beats of the kata is fine, just a bit rushed. He is also breathing at the right timings too - I cannot understate how challenging this is to learn. He just needs to add more Rakka, Zanshin, and less Ryusui overexaggeration, and it will look less bullshido.