Shotokan Karate

Shotokan Karate South Africa is a highly-disciplined organization that adheres to the traditional way of karate. Many of its senior instructors have received intensive training in Japan and are respected high-graded international instructors in their own right.

Our instructors are accomplished, high-ranking black belts who take their teaching seriously, especially towards children, combining a comprehensive education in well-established, orthodox karate practice and philosophy with modern sports-orientated competition karate. Traditional karate is about effective self-defense under all conditions.

 When we refer to traditional karate, we mean more than just kicks, punches, and blocks. Shotokan’s founder Gichin Funakoshi emphasized that a fight can end up on the ground, for which you need skills other than kicking, punching, and blocking. Karate is an all-encompassing fighting system that includes throwing techniques, strangleholds, and joint locks, all of which are found in kata applications.

So our program goes much further than other karate approaches. It includes the study of various martial arts, particularly ju-jitsu and judo, both of which teach the use of leverage and correct technique to throw or take an opponent down to the ground or to immobilize or subdue an opponent by executing a grappling maneuver, joint lock or stranglehold. In terms of self-defense, these martial arts assist smaller, weaker people to successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger attacker.

We believe in the benefits of competition, or sport karate. Sport karate helps teach self-discipline, socialization skills, concentration, strict attention, and respect, so lacking in today’s society. These benefits collectively help to improve one’s general behaviour, conduct, and academic performance. We also believe our method of traditional karate is fundamental to acquiring the necessary skills for effective self-defense in both adults and children. Regardless of age, students develop physical fitness, muscle coordination and control, perseverance, and mental health.