< Tora Karate Academy - New & Information

Shotokan Tiger

Grading

Well done to those who took their 1st and 2nd Dan gradings this month. It was a hard grading with a few bruises but everyone who passed deserved their grade and should be proud of themselves and their peers.

Facebook

We have a club Facebook page that is open to everyone. Click on the link to visit the page - Tora Karate Facebook Page.

Combat Magazine article

Sensei Robert recently did an interview for Combat Magazine, called "Pieces of a puzzle". The interview covers some of our club history and some very interesting thoughts and insights from Sensei Robert on his approach to training and karate. Link to the interview here. Published by M.A. Publications Limited.

Dojo

Our training sessions are at St. Mary's University in Twickenham. Details on the class times are on the classes page on the web site. All students can train at the dojo and no external club or gym membership is required to train.

Sparring and Personal Protective Equipment

At Tora Kodo Karate Kai we have a syllabus which allows for the gradual progression of ability. Within this syllabus a student is taught, step by step, sparring, (kumite). These steps start with sanbon or gohon kumite (3 or 5 step sparring) and will end up at jiyu kumite, freestyle sparring.

Grades of 3rd kyu (brown belt) and above are allowed to engage in freestyle sparring (jiyu kumite) which is the next progression in our syllabus from semi free style (jiyu ippon kumite).

Students can also now take part in freestyle sparring earlier on in their training, with light contact and using personal protective equipment (PPE). This equipment must be of the same type (and red or blue colour). To participate in this light contact sparring the following equipment is compulsory.

Everyone is actively encourage to purchase protective equipment - and to bring them to all training sessions - so they can take part in sparring. If you do not have protective gear you will not be able to take part in sparring.

Please let any of the instructors know if you need details on the equipment costs or help with ordering.

Affiliations

Tora Kodo Karate Kai is affiliated to the British Karate Association (BKA), we are now also affiliated through them to the English Karate Federation (EKF) and the World Karate Federation (WKF) which is a great honour for us. As part of the BKA affiliation, our instructors take part in the EKF coaching qualification programme.

Badges

It is a requirement that students display our Tora Karate Kai badge unless exempted by the chief instructor(s).

We ask this so that we know who you are in the dojo, on courses etc. It also identifies what club you belong to. To coincide with Sensei Robert attaining the grade of Godan we have now produced a new badge which was made in America for us. It is 100% embroidered and displays the Tora No Maki as well as our Kanji (which was commissioned by Sensei Robert from a Japanese calligrapher during 2005). We will expect every student to wear this badge, which will replace the old one.

We will offer these badges to existing students at £5.00.

Belts

Belts should be correctly tied before entering the dojo. If students need to correct the belts whilst training, they should turn around facing away from the instructors to do so. There are a number of different accepted ways of tying a karate belt. One of the most common and widely used methods is shown below for reference. If any students require instructions on how to tie the belts correctly, they should ask any of the instructors or senior grades.

  1. Take the belt in your hand and place it around your waist, in the back. Make sure that the belt rests just above your hip bones.
  2. Hold each end of the belt in each hand, in a way that both the ends are in front of you.
  3. Ensure that the belt is not twisted in the back.
  4. Take the end of the belt that you are holding in your left hand and make it a bit longer than the one in the right hand.
  5. Taking the navel as the center point, wrap the longer end over the shorter one.
  6. Make the longer end of the belt go all the way around your waist, till the time it is in front of you again.
  7. Be sure that the longer piece comes over the short piece. The longer piece should be on your right and the shorter one should be on your left.
  8. Slip the longer end of the belt under both wraps of the belt from the bottom.
  9. Now, bring it out of the top and fold the end in such a way that it faces downward.
  10. Grab the shorter end of the belt and move it underneath the longer end, from left to right.
  11. Bringing up the shorter end of the belt, take it over the top of the longer one.
  12. Then, take it through the loop and form a knot.
  13. Pull the ends and tighten the belt.
  14. By now, both the ends would be of equal length and you would also have a tight knot at the front.

Fees

Tora Kodo Karate Kai operates on a not for profit basis and the class fees that are paid cover items such as hall hire, insurance, training courses, equipment, etc.

We want to actively encourage all students to attend all of the weekly training sessions. This weekly commitment will make a big difference to your Karate (including your technique, your understanding of Karate and of course your fitness levels) and will obviously mean that you grade more quickly and hopefully attain your black belt! In addition as students attain higher grades they must have completed a set number of training sessions before they can take their next grade.

Fees have to paid in advance by monthly directly debit. Price details are available for new students - just ask.

E-mail

We can be contacted via e-mail at info@torakarate.co.uk. To keep all members up to date on news and events we send out regular updates by e-mail. To help us do this please ensure that we have you correct e-mail address on record.