The idea of joining our club to start-out in JKA Shotokan Karate may seem a bit daunting to most aspiring martial artists. After all, everybody else in the class is likely to have more experience than you - the black belts always look just a bit frightening - but it is actually a lot easier than you may think: it just requires you to turn up for our next beginners classes and join in; a tracksuit and T-shirt will do. You will be given a 20 lesson introduction into the basic Shotokan techniques, probably by one of those rather scary black belts. After your introduction to the basic techniques you'll be able to take your first grading and join the other white belts in their quest to become a skilled martial artist.
We have put together a short introduction into karate, the Japanese terminology that is regularly used in JKA Karate, as well as some guidelines as to what we find important in our club and what you can expect when you join our club: