About Us

Fort Collins Martial Arts Training, Combative Jiu Jitsu And Karate For The Entire Family

Why Karate And Jiu Jitsu?

Why Karate And Jiujitsu, Why Not Just Choose One?

Some people do choose just one. I love both, and when you look into both, you see similarities and the same techniques in both arts, which makes perfect sense based on the history and location of the creation of these martial arts. Whether you study both or just one of the subsystems of Total Ryu, you will become a skillful and powerful martial artist.

Martial Arts Training
Martial Arts Training

Karate Instruction At Total Ryu

Karate instruction today is commonly done in a very superficial manner, you learn the basics blocks, punches, strikes and kicks. Then you learn how to apply them in a sparing environment. You may learn kata or forms, but you won’t learn what they mean beyond the obvious. This is not the way it is meant to be taught. Yes we do all the above, but while we are doing that you are learning what things really mean, and how to apply them in the traditional and very effective way. We also teach how to understand movement and why you need it. The kata which is the backbone of karate learning is a series of moves that means something, actually each move has many different applications. These moves in the kata or form have striking or karate applications and they also have jiujitsu or throwing applications. In fact when you really look close and study the movements you see, joint locks, throws, strikes, kicks, blocks, sweeps, chokes, and so much more including multiple attackers. So just learning how to kick, punch, block (what most people understand as karate) is very elementary.

Jiujitsu instruction at Total Ryu

Jiujitsu or jujitsu is an awesome martial art. It is so awesome that there are many many copies and modern derivatives of the art. Jujitsu was the main hand to hand system of the Samurai. Along with other martial systems the samurai used jujitsu to disable armed and unarmed opponents in a very powerful, fast and effective manner. Total Ryu maintains these systems in its traditional jujitsu course. Along with jujitsu, we have the subset martial arts systems of Aiki Jitsu, newaza (ground or the popular Brazilian jujitsu) and others. The throwing techniques closely resemble Judo. However, judo is a sport and jujitsu is combat, so there are many different variations that we do at Total Ryu that are not allowed or even thought of in Judo. The Total Ryu Jujitsu system is comprehensive and as complete as you can find. Throws, strikes, locks, chokes, ground, submissions, weapons, escapes and understanding how to defend against different fighting systems are just some of the ideals and techniques that are present in the Total Ryu Jujitsu system.

Meet The Owners

Charles Orchard has been involved in Fort Collins Martial Arts for over 32 years, with most of those years as an instructor and dojo owner. His experience is vast and far-reaching. Besides Jiujitsu, he is an expert in traditional Karate, weapons systems, and modern combatives. With continuous study of his own systems combined with research and study of other common styles of martial arts, his knowledge of martial arts, fighting systems, and training methodologies is unmatched. Besides his dojo teaching experience, he brings 25 years of risk assessment, health and safety and corporate training experience to the table. During his early years in his teens and twenties, he was a top competitive athlete on the state and inter-mountain regional level. Because of his athletic career and fitness hobbies, he developed a keen understanding of athletic training principles and methodology. With this huge library of information he is able to serve, teach, guide instruct and train his students to achieve what they thought was impossible.

Charles Orchard | Instructor | Dojo Owner

Martial Arts Training

Jill Orchard | Instructor | Owner

Jill Orchard, Charles’ better half has almost 25 years in the martial arts with specific training in traditional karate and jujitsu. She is a very experienced instructor of young children. Her experience comes from not only her dojo career but from her professional life and church service. With Jill’s vast amount of experience with young children, there is no one more qualified and capable of teaching this awesome age group. Jill is a dedicated wife and mother who also loves to help children, women and young girls find their power, and strength. One of her passions is teaching young girls to be assertive and prepare for the harsh realities of the adult world.

Charles and Jill are motivated to help improve the life’s of all those come to them, whether it is in the traditional classes or through their self-defense programs. Empowering individuals to overcome violence and problems in their life’s is truly their passion.

Now that you have read the bio, let me elaborate on my martial arts history some. I was very fortunate to be able to learn martial arts as a teen in the very early 1980’s. The system that my brother helped get me involved with was very unique. Not only did we have traditional karate, not the sport kind, but we also had traditional jiujitsu and traditional weapons systems (kenjitsu, Iajitsu, sai, tonfa, bo etc). These were all under one roof so to speak. This is quite unique and very rare. One of the very interesting things about my training is that we were doing newaza, or ground fighting or brazilian jujitsu before anyone had even heard about it. This type of fighting was common in competitive judo, but not for self defense. We had incorporated it as part of our regular training, with the philosophy of you don’t want to fight on the ground but if you should find yourself there, do what is needed and get up.

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