The Tokyo 2020 Olympics, has finally started, a year late. For us karateka, this will be an extra special one, as Karate is in the Olympics for the first time. The qualifiers for both Kata and Kumite start on Thursday 5th August 2021. We will be in for a Karate spectacle, as the best Karateka
On Sunday the 18th July 2021, Zen-Shin held a First Aid Course open for all our students. The course was well attended by lots of different students of differing ages and grades. The main purpose of the First Aid Course is for the students who are going for their black belt. One of the criteria
The Black Belt Leadership Course started in January 2020, and was attended by Zen-Shin’s most promising students. Kyoshi John Richards & Sensei Jumoke Richards identified students that stood out in class because of their ability and attitude. The idea was to work with them over the year to learn about leading others.The course covered different
Training in Karate is a long journey that takes many years. Achieving black belt is the central goal for many students (one I wouldn’t recommend), and the gradings are the rites of passage from one grade to another. Our younger students find it enjoyable to aim for a new colour belt every few months. This
On Saturday 3rd July 2021 we held our third Kata workshop at Zen-Shin Martial Arts Academy on Soho Hill. In the class we finished off learning the last section to our kata, Gojushiho Sho. We spent the remaining time trying to put everything together, and remembering the whole kata. When working on a kata with
Zen-Shin held our second Kata workshop since opening up after lockdown. The turnout was great, and there was a lot of energy an enthusiasm towards learning and improvement. We continued on from what we had learnt in our previous workshop. We now know about half of the kata, but w still haven’t managed to make
Last week Saturday 12th June we held our first Kumite workshop of 2021. We had a good turnout of Zen-Shin students eager to practice their scoring techniques. In this workshop we practiced using drills designed to make our gyaku zuki more effective. This means not only are we trying to increase speed, accuracy and timing
This weekend we will hold our first kumite workshop for Zen-Shin members on Saturday from 3:00-4:30pm. Our workshop will focus on kumite from a competition perspective. This means it is about scoring points, rather than doing the most damage to your opponent. Sport kumite, although completely different to the self-defence we practice through bunkai, and
Saturday was the first Kata workshop we held at Zen-Shin in 2021. This comes at a great time for us, as lockdown restrictions are easing, and adults are now back in the dojo. We went through Gojushiho Sho during our workshop, a high level Shotokan kata. Sensei Jumoke was inspired after watching the EKF championship
Our Zen-shin Karate dojo is very special to us, a space where we share respect as soon as we enter. Karate-do begins and ends with respect which transcends
