Barnstaple Shotokan Karate Club

Unfortunately there is no training on Good Friday.

It’s an old photo but look how we’ve all changed some more than others.

Well done to all of my students who travelled to Tiverton on Saturday 21st march to train and grade with Sensei Frank Brennan 8th Dan in the first Grading of 2026.
As always an excellent informative lesson with Sensei finishing with all students participating in the grading passing with flying colours.
Well done to you all and thanks to Tiverton Shotokan for hosting.

On March the 14th 3 of our students entered the KUGB Southern Karate Championships held at Reading Callum Severn Edward Evans and Lee Evans great performances by all students but on this occasion only Lee came away with the trophy’s Lee came 1st in both kata and kumite in adult 6th-1st kyu division. Not only that Lee was awarded with the Tony Francis Memorial Trophy for the most outstanding senior performance.
Well done and very much deserved.

FREE Regional Kata and Kumite Course with Sensei John Bruce and Sensei Greg Hegarty 🥋

The KUGB South West FREE Regional Kata and Kumite Course takes place on Saturday 21st February and is available to book via the KUGB App 📱

This course is open to ALL KUGB Members 7th Kyu and Above.
Although this is a regional course, students from other regions are also welcome to attend.

📍Uffculme Sports Centre, Uffculme School, Uffculme, near Cullompton. Devon EX15 3AG
⏰ 12pm - 1.30pm Kata 1.30pm - 3pm Kumite
🥋 Sensei John Bruce (6th Dan) and Sensei Greg Hegarty (6th Dan)
💷 FREE

Dates for next years gradings
March 21st.
June 13th.
September 12th.
December 12th.
Please put these dates in your diary.

This Saturday saw us at Tiverton training and grading in the last grading of this year. Sensei Frank Brennan gave us an excellent lesson as always.Great attitude was shown by all those that trained and graded well done to all that passed.
Our last lesson of the year will be Tuesday 16th held at Croyde village hall starting at 7pm till 8:30 this will be a joint event with UKD karate club I’m looking forward to seeing you all there Oss.

Well done to all my students that took part in the UKD Southwest Open we had a great day competing against the other clubs and I believe there was over 160 competitors.
11 students from Barnstaple Shotokan took part and I’m proud to say that all were amazing and represented the club very well.

Thanks to UKD for inviting us back and putting on this great event.

All that represented the club won trophies and it was great seeing you all on the podium.

Well done to all my students who participated in the South West Karate Championships.
Just a small team this time but excellent performances from all that participated.

Sam Davies in his first ever competition received the bronze medal in kata.

Edward Evans also received bronze in adult male kumite.

And especially well done to Callum Severn who won a medal in all his events.
Bronze in kumite.
Silver in kata.
Gold in ippon kumite.

This Tuesday there will be no training at the leisure centre as we are taking the class to Kingsacre primary school Braunton EX331BN we will be training alongside Union Karate Do where l will be teaching.
I look forward to seeing you all there training starting at 7pm and finishing at 8:30.
Training will be back at the Tarka leisure centre as normal for Friday.

Happy new year to all my students hope you all have a good rest and a wonderful Christmas holiday but now it’s time to get back into training and burn off some of those calories training starts back on Tuesday 7th looking forward to seeing you all again.

No rest for Barnstaple shotokan as this week is the last week of training to prepare for the UKD South west all style karate tournament hosted by our good friends Union Karate Do.
Looking forward to seeing you all next week at training.