Teignmouth Shotokan Karate Club -

information

VENUE AND TRAINING TIMES

The club trains on Monday and Thursday evenings at the Arts Centre, Teignmouth Community College, Exeter road, Teignmouth, Devon. Monday junior classes 7pm - 8pm and senior class 8pm - 9pm, Thursday junior classes 6.30pm - 7.30pm and senior classes 7.30pm - 9pm. At the Arts Centre we can use either the gymnasium (left) or the dance studio (below) there are changing and shower facilities within the centre and there is also ample free car parking space within the college grounds. (click here for map)

During school holidays we are unable to train in the Arts Centre and relocate to the West lawn Gym (pictured above right), this still located within the college grounds and is only a short walk from the Arts Centre or by car via the Exeter street entrance to the community college.

LESSON FEES

The cost of training is £3.50 for the junior class and £4.00 for the senior class. There is no club membership fee, but students are required to pay a £30.00 a year licence fee to the Toyakwai Karate Association (this includes insurance and is a legal requirement).

ABOUT SHOTOKAN

The founder of modern day karate, Gichin Funakoshi, was born in 1868 in the capital of Shuri on one of the Ryukyu islands off the coast of Japan. Funakoshi studied under various noted masters of his time in the skills of Okinawa-te. Later, the name was changed to Karate-do, meaning "empty-handed way". It was Gichin Funakoshi who introduced karate to Japan when he was invited to give an official demonstration in Tokyo. Eventually, he set up his own training hall, which became known as "The Shotokan" - meaning "the training hall of Shoto" (Shoto was the pen name Funakoshi used to sign his poems). It is for this reason that the style he taught became known as "Shotokan". Funakoshi taught a number of students who eventually went on to teach all over the world. To this day, Shotokan is the most widely practised style of karate in the world.

"When you look at life think in terms of karate.
But remember that karate is not only karate -- it is life."

Gichin Funakoshi.

Important - please read

With so many styles and clubs around how can one be sure how to make the correct selection?

Well not so long ago if there was a black belt teaching a martial arts class it was fair to say they would be worth training with and had earned the right to wear the belt.

Now a days however the storey has changed, too hear someone is a black belt “BIG DEAL” because with very little effort and in a short space of time anyone can get one in certain styles.

Today’s martial arts sadly lacks any honesty, people like to say they do a martial art but take the easy option and train in some watered down version of a traditional style or worse some thing an individual has made up to line there own pockets, these must not be classed as fighting arts," you can't learn to swim without getting wet" and the same applies in martial arts.

So what should you be looking for before joining a club? Start with the Instructor, the person you are handing your money to.

Self given grades and previous titles do not make for a good instructor, do your instructors train regularly themselves?

Don’t be fooled, a flashy outfit and briefcase do not mean the instructor is any good.

Martial arts is like pushing a car up hill as soon as you stop pushing it will roll backwards, So even if some one has been involved in a fighting art for twenty plus years once the training stops the grades and titles they cling on to mean nothing.

For those who do train be honest about what you’re doing, does it really work? Put what you’re being taught under a bit of pressure, go and train with other clubs, other students and different styles and see how yours compares.

If you are buying a car then you would test drive a few before making a decision on the one that suits you best, sadly when picking the right club to train at this theory is not put into practice, and students fail to look around.

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