Karate in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Worcester and Newport

In the beginning karate was not meant as a fighting sport, but as a means of self defence. Taught in Okinawa, training involved making the body strong, focused and prepared against an attack. In the 1920's an Okinawan school teacher, Gichin Funakoshi, introduced an organised method of karate in Japan, which became instantly popular.

The sport can be broken down into four parts, physical conditioning, self defence, mental conditioning and also a sport. Karate became very popular in the 80's with the release of the film Karate Kid. Schools were bombarded with children, after parents seen how the instructor taught in the film. Before this time it was mostly an adult male dominated sport, now there are as many ladies participating in karate as men.

Here at Karate World the traditional style of Karate we teach is Wado Ryu, Master Thompson is a 5th Dan Black Belt in this style. In Karate World schools the traditional style is done by only about 10% of the student body. The reason for this is traditional Karate is technical and takes a long time to master. There are some brilliant moves in Karate, such as the reverse punch (gyakuzuki). In Karate this punch is thrown with great intensity, and also an understanding of the body mechanics is very important. Maarlisk is the main style taught in karate world, as this is simpler to learn, more street wise, a much better workout, and people can get immediate results. Also, a key component of Maarlisk is Personal Development, even though you are being taught a modern day martial art, with ancient roots. You are being taught by an instructor that is totally aware that the student must be committed in training, if they want learn anything.