Shin Nagare Karate is a westernized Karate style that grew out of Shotokan in the early 1980s. The style developed as traditional Karate practitioners watched the success of techniques taught by western boxers and kickboxers such as Joe Lewis and Bill "Superfoot" Wallace, although those kickboxers themselves never practiced or taught Shin Nagare.

Most Shin Nagare schools teach a mixture of "fighting" techniques based off of modern kickboxing and "traditional" techniques and kata (forms) that are directly evolved from Shotokan kata such as the Heian series. Additionally, many (but not all) Shin Nagare schools incorporate elements from Judo and Jujitso into their curriculum, making Shin Nagare at its best a very well rounded martial art that includes all ranges of unarmed fighting.

Shin Nagare is considered a "hard/soft" martial art style, employing both hard and soft techniques. Many techniques, especially blocking techniques, are taught in both hard and soft versions, with the intention that advanced students will learn to choose the appropriate version for the circumstances. Additionally, hard and soft techniques are very often mixed during normal sparring sessions, typically using soft style techniques to setup an opponent for a hard style technique.

The spirit of Shin Nagare is one of openness to new techniques and styles from any source, so long as they prove effective. As such, there is a wide variety in teaching and practice from school to school within the style, and even between practictioners within the same school. Students are taught a foundation of techniques in all of the fighting ranges, but advanced students are expected to emphasize the areas that work best for them, given their own body styles and abilities.

Individual Shin Nagare schools and instructors are traditionally given a very wide degree of freedom to develop their own program in their own way. Additionally, they are also encouraged to continually update those programs with knowledge from as many new sources as they can find, and to adapt their program to fit the needs of their students. This philosophy helps keep the style growing, dynamic, and interesting as the conditions of the world change around us.