About this work
My name is Adam Carter. I began training in karate in the 1970s and have been teaching since the 1980s.
That training has spanned multiple teachers, approaches, and environments. I teach through Shuri Dojo, and this site reflects what has held up under sustained practice rather than what simply sounds persuasive.
I’m not interested in presenting karate as a style, a product, or a performance. My focus has always been on how training holds up when context changes - when stress, unpredictability, and consequence are introduced.
I’ve spent years questioning what is taught, how it is taught, and what claims are made on behalf of students who may trust those claims when it matters most.
That questioning hasn’t come from theory alone. It’s come from long-term practice, teaching responsibility, and direct experience of how quickly certainty can collapse under pressure.
Much of this thinking has been tested, questioned, and refined in the environment of Shuri Dojo. The dojo is not the subject of this site - it is simply where many of these ideas had to withstand reality, because real people were relying on the answers.
New writing appears on my Substack at Applied Methods. That space reflects ideas as they are forming.
This site exists for ideas that have settled - ideas that benefit from being revisited, refined, and placed in context rather than pushed forward by novelty.