Karate

I suppose I wasn't a likely karate candidate when I first went along to a class just after turning 17. Being the shy sort, I refused to go on my own, but managed to convince a friend to come along. Worse than that, I was too shy to even go in the hall without a supportive hand dragging me behind them, so my dad came with us to do the talking. My friend and I quietly slunk in at my dad's heels about 10 minutes before the class started like sheepish puppies. It wasn't long before my dad had cleared it with the instructors that we could sit and watch and had dashed off and abandoned us on some green benches ...

To mention Martial Arts brings up images of Bruce Lee, Van Damme and all the others that get paid a fortune for throwing a few good looking techniques. Whilst these stars are undoubtably very talented and I wouldn't want to be on the wrong side of them down a dark alley, the every day reality of Karate is somewhat different. The style that I study is a form of karate that has evolved from the traditional Wado ryu that it started out as. There are very different styles of club available within the 'Wado' category, the really good thing about this is it means that there really is something for ...