Information

Initially, the sessions are mostly intended for adults.

Teenagers (13+) will also be welcome if they would like to accompany a parent – and remember that we do offer a family discount!

In the future, we would like to open a more children-focused class, but we are not able to offer this yet.

What to bring

For your first session, please come wearing comfortable, loose-fitting clothing, and bring a bottle of water (along with any medication/inhalers you might need to take).

If you have done karate previously and have your own gi, please do wear it. If you have a belt that you earned previously at another club, and you feel confident that you can represent that skill level, please come wearing that belt; otherwise, please come with a white belt until you feel ready either to re-assume that grade or to attend a grading in our system.

Please also read the “cleanliness and hygiene” section below, and leave your jewellery at home.

A typical session

A typical session will begin with a warm-up, some basic striking and movement skills, some padwork and paired drills, and then the main focus of the lesson: either learning kata, or taking the movements and sequences from the kata and learning to apply them in a more realistic context. We try to finish with some sparring games.

You will be challenged and will almost certainly find yourself breaking a sweat, but do not worry – we won’t push you beyond what you can handle, and we can modify our exercises around age, injuries, disabilities, or suchlike. We want everyone to feel able to participate in whatever way that YOU can.

Booking your attendance

Please book your attendance through our website, and let us know when you expect to visit.

Please also note that you do need to book in and pay for your first session; there is no free trial session.

Please make sure your fingernails and toenails are well-trimmed and filed smooth before you attend. Not only do you want to avoid scratching other people, you don’t want to draw blood from your own palm when you make a fist, and you really don’t want a too-long nail torn out of your finger or toe. So please make sure they are short and smooth and unlikely to cause harm to anyone.

Please make sure you are at least reasonably clean and without too much body odour before coming to the session. Perfectly clean would be lovely, but that can be difficult if you come straight from work; but we are going to be in very close proximity to each other, and we might just be putting people into our armpits, so please do what you need to do in terms of hygiene so that this is not too unpleasant for your training partners.

Please make sure you can remove your jewellery and any piercings – you cannot train with rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings, or anything else like this. Covering them with tape is very much a last resort, but the safer way to participate is by ensuring that there is nothing on you (or in you) that can be ripped off (or ripped out) by accident.

Watches (especially smart watches to record your exercise or your medical state) are slightly more of a grey area when worn for medical reasons. Nonetheless, if there is any chance that they will be broken or ripped off your arm, or that they will cause damage to another person, you must remove them before participating in the exercise. Watches worn for aesthetics or simply so that you know the time are not permitted due to the risk of damage or injury while wearing them.

Glasses may be worn. We would rather you can see what you are doing and control how you are landing techniques on people, rather than enforcing short-sightedness or any other visual problem. Contact lenses would generally be a better option, but glasses are permitted. For wrestling, however, you will need to take them off, because they will almost certainly get damaged if you keep them on for wrestling activities.

You do not need to be fit already before coming to the club. You can come along immediately, and let the club be part of your journey towards better fitness.

If you have health concerns that may make it more difficult to participate in certain activities, then please do still feel welcome – you don’t have to do every single thing! Sit out for any exercises or activities that you can’t do, or talk to the instructor to see if you can modify any of the exercises to be something that you can do.

Karate is traditionally practised with bare feet. This has several advantages, because it lets the feet exercise in an unconstrained fashion, which can help with developing the musculature of the feet, ankles, and even the lower leg.

However, since we do train on a sprung wooden floor, you might prefer to wear thin-soled martial arts shoes or boxing boots, and this is perfectly acceptable. In fact, this can have some other benefits, such as protecting your toes and toenails (and protecting other people from your toenails!), and also means that you will have cleaner feet at the end of the session.

We would prefer that you do not wear thick-soled shoes or outdoor footwear – these might make it difficult to perform some of the movements, the grip might make it difficult to turn your foot on the floor while kicking, and the rough material might be more likely to cause injury to your training partners.

The following list of katas for each grade will suggest the techniques that you should be working on.

• Red (7th kyu): Taikyoku
• Orange (6th kyu): Heian Shodan, Heian Nidan
• Yellow (5th kyu): Sanchin, Heian Sandan
• Green (4th kyu): Heian Yodan, Heian Godan
• Blue (3rd kyu): Tekki Shodan, Tekki Nidan
• Purple (2nd kyu): Tensho, Gekisai Dai / Yantsu
• Brown (1st kyu): Bassai Dai, Hangetsu
• Black (1st dan): Kanku Dai, Meikyo
• Black (2nd dan): Jutte, Jion, Jein
• Black (3rd dan): Empi, Gankaku, Nejushiho

It can be interesting and worthwhile to learn a kata that is further along the list, or even that is not mentioned here. You should not feel confined to the katas for your next belt – the list is to create a structure to make sure that there is something new and useful to learn at every stage!

Our grading system follows this sequence of belts:

• White (beginner)
• Red (7th kyu)
• Orange (6th kyu)
• Yellow (5th kyu)
• Green (4th kyu)
• Blue (3rd kyu)
• Purple (2nd kyu)
• Brown (1st kyu)
• Black (1st dan, 2nd dan, 3rd dan, etc)

Your white belt is what you wear when you purchase your first gi (uniform), while you acclimatise to how things are done in this club, and while you arrange your annual membership.

Your red belt should be achievable within a month a of joining – it signifies that you have learned some of the basics and that you know how things work in the club!

The other belts signify both an increase in your knowledge and a continuing improvement of how well you can do everything that you have learned so far. Someone with a blue belt, for example, will know more than someone with a green belt, and will also look sharper and more confident with any given technique or exercise.

A black belt in this club means that we think you have learned a variety of skills and have gained a considerable amount of knowledge and experience. We expect that you can help coach fellow club members and lead at least part of a session. Most importantly, this is an acknowledgement that we think you are quite capable of directing your own continuing practice and understanding what you need to do in order to improve further. Gaining this sort of skill does take time, but it does not need to be seen as unlikely or unattainable!

Gradings will be held regularly throughout the year, although testing for red belt can be done at any time in any regular session, whenever you are ready.

The time requirements indicated in the syllabus are merely guidelines.

Someone who has progressed well, has the required knowledge, and can demonstrate with a sufficiently high skill level, can be allowed to “skip” a grade or test earlier than otherwise indicated.

Similarly, someone who is not ready yet will not be invited to grade, even if the time indicated has passed since their previous grading.

• Red (7th kyu) – can test ~1 month after joining
• Orange (6th kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Yellow (5th kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Green (4th kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Blue (3rd kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Purple (2nd kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Brown (1st kyu) – can test ~3 months after previous grading
• Black (1st dan) – can test ~5 months after previous grading
• Black (2nd dan) – can test ~1 year after previous grading
• Black (3rd dan) – can test ~2 years after previous grading

Sparring and padwork will be tested for all grades.

Falling and wrestling will also be tested once we have access to mats.

Kata will be tested for all grades, and these serve as the basis for the techniques, stances, etc that you should know at each stage. We will test your ability to apply sequences from kata in all gradings.

Physicality and fitness and conditioning will have some place in the gradings, but will not be a core focus of the test. Everyone’s body is different, and someone with the karate knowledge and karate skills should not be prevented from reaching a grade because of an injury that makes push-ups impossible, for example.

What do these terms mean and how do we practise them in this club?

Kihon

Kihon are the “basics”, the practice of the fundamental building blocks of the system.

This doesn’t have to involve standing in lines throwing punches in thin air – it can involve striking pads or simple two-person drills designed to teach basic skills.

These are also usually useful things to be able to do at home for additional practice or simply for exercise!

Kata

Kata are sequences, patterns, or forms. They were one of the main ways that karate was passed through the generations and taught, and they were an important part of how people studied and thought about karate.

They can still be useful today for the purpose of exercise, physical training, mental health, breathing, and suchlike. But importantly, they can still function as memory aids and to help spark new ideas about how one might put the building blocks together to help develop new skills or responses.

In this club, we use kata for a variety of purposes, and appreciate its role in communicating karate through the ages.

Kumite

Kumite is a term that covers sparring and sparring-related exercises and drills. There can be some overlap between kihon and simple kumite exercises, and a healthy and constructive study of kata will involve exercises that could also be considered kumite.

In this club, we play a variety of free-sparring games, and we also recognise the importance of wrestling skills.

Summary

Technical drills (or kihon) are important for everyone. No high-level karateka gets their ability to do what they can do without technical drills and putting them into context.

Kata are excellent for physical and mental health, and they help us think about how we might put our techniques and concepts together in a variety of possible situations.

Kumite is important, because if we don’t make our skills functional against an uncooperative training partner, then they won’t be functional against anyone else in a difficult situation.

Different people may feel greater affinity for one or other part of our practice, and that’s perfectly normal. We aim for a healthy balance of all parts of training in such a way that each part supports the others.

During the session, we usually take photographs or short videos of people working through the exercises.

These will normally be uploaded to our social media within the next few weeks. We may also use the photos on our website or for advertising.

By participating in the session, you give your permission for this media to be recorded and uploaded. If you object to having your photo taken during the session, or the image going online afterwards, please make sure to let the photographer know – we will do our best to accommodate your wishes.

This policy is in line with the AHA Digital Media Policy.

In this club we do a variety of sparring exercises and games, under a variety of rules and with a variety of intensities.

Sometimes it will be “light contact” sparring where everything is a potential target. Sometimes it will be “medium contact” or even “full contact”, with modifications to the rules and permitted target areas to allow the level of contact to become stronger while still keeping it all sufficiently safe.

Sometimes it will involve wrestling and sometimes it won’t. Sometimes it may look more like boxing or taekwondo if we want to prioritise specific skills for a while.

Participants will never be forced to do sparring at a higher intensity or level of contact than you are comfortable with, and you can always ask your partner to dial it down if you are not enjoying it or getting anything useful from it.

The main priority with our sparring is that it is safe: that we do it safely, with due regard for the safety of our training partners, and also that we make good choices for ourselves. Thereafter, with this firmly established, we can use all sorts of sparring games and exercises to support our training and development as martial artists.

The club uniform is a standard karate gi. The jacket should be white, and the bottoms can be either white or black, as you prefer. You are welcome to wear a European cut or a Japanese cut (long sleeves or short sleeves, respectively). However, please keep the gi plain (at most with a simple embroidery on the chest), without patches or big logos or other distractions.

Under the gi jacket, you can wear whatever t-shirt you want, as long as it is tasteful. Club t-shirts are available to purchase if you would like one, but they are not a required part of the uniform.

For training in the hall, you are welcome to train barefoot or wearing thin-soled martial arts shoes. Outdoor shoes and standard trainers are not suitable for what we do. If you want to train barefoot, then please bring some kind of slipper or footwear in case you need to visit the bathroom during the session – don’t go barefoot and then bring that dirt back into the hall!

Purchasing a gi

You will be expected to purchase a gi and begin wearing this after 3 sessions, when you arrange your annual membership.

You can source a gi yourself (please choose an all-white gi, or a gi with white top and black bottoms), or you can buy one through the club, availing yourself of our trade discount with a large supplier.

Purchasing other equipment

You might want to purchase other items of equipment. Our preferred suppliers are Blitz and Playwell, and you are welcome to purchase equipment from them by yourself, or you can go through us for a small discount.

Items that you might want to consider include:

• a bag to carry your gi and other equipment
• elastic hand pads
• elastic shin or shin-and-instep padding
• groin guard (mostly for men, but can also be good for women!)
• chest guard (for women)
• thin-soled indoor martial arts footwear