Sheffield Karate Competition 17th May 2026 On Saturday 17th May, students from Zen-Shin Martial Arts Academy travelled to Sheffield to compete in the EKF Children and Kyu Grade Karate Competition. The event brought together karateka from clubs across the country, giving students the opportunity to test themselves in both kata and kumite in a competitive
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
Members Only Gallery On Sunday 11th July 2021 Zen-Shin held our grading for all our low grade students. There were four separate gradings on the day, starting with our ‘Little Ninjas’ and Junior White Belts in the morning. Since opening up Zen-Shin after the National Lockdown, we have had many new young Karate Kids join
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
Zen is a school of Buddhism that emphasises the importance of meditation and intuition. ‘Zen-Shin’ refers to the ‘Zen mind’; to be more specific, a meditative and calm mind. After our first Kata workshop, I have consistently been practicing Gojushiho Sho. I am still trying to master the movements. With practice comes understanding, and by
