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More upcoming seminars!
Some more dates for your diary! Sunday 23rd and 30th November sees serving Police Constable and Imperial Senior Instructor Adrian Williams running a two part course on Self Defence at Bristol Dojo. Session times are 10.00-1.00pm on both days and the cost is £10 per session or £15 for both. We already have neary 40 people booked in and will have to limit the total numbers so book soon!
Also back by popular demand is Pedro Bessa with another Brazillian Jui Jitsu Open course on Sunday 16th November 12-2.30pm. The course will relate BJJ to our style of Karate and will cover throws, locks, stranges and groundwork. Cost £20 per person.
Another great date for 2009 is Iain Abernethy who will be returning to Bristol Dojo on January 25th for another great open seminar.

Another new beginners session!
We are pleased to announce that following the great success of our new Tuesday beginners only session we are adding a Friday session as from 7th November. On this session only Adults and Children over 7 years will be able to train together in the same session thus reinforcing our commitment to providing family orientated training. This new format will enable new starters and white belt's to get in depth training from our most senior instructors. This will give students the best possible start and when they pass their yellow belt they will join the main class on Monday's. Thursday's sessions remain unchanged for the time being and will enable beginners to mix and learn from the more experienced students. Click here for full session details and times.

Upcoming seminars
Some dates for your diary! Sunday 21st September sees Iain Abernethy return to Imperial for another seminar on Applied Karate. The course will cover realistic interpretation of techniques contained within our syllabus Kata. Open to all grades 16 years and over 11.00-3.00pm cost £25
Another date to note is Sunday October 19th. Vale Karate are hosting a Wayne Otto course at Barry YMCA in South Wales. There are two sessions, under 14's 2.00-3.30 and over 14's 4.00-5.30pm. Cost £10. We will be attending with our kumite squad.

New Kata Squad session
We have now added a competition Kata session on Saturday after the Kumite session. This will concentrate on those students who wish to enter Kata competitions and represent Imperial. Entry onto the Kata squad is by invitation only. This new session completes our full offering across all areas of Karate training. Click here for full session details and times.

New beginners session
We are pleased to announce that as from 23rd September beginners will have their own session on Tuesday evenings. This new format will enable new starters and white belt's to get in depth training from one of our senior instructors. This will give students the best possible start and when they pass their yellow belt they will join the main class on Monday's. Thursday's sessions remain unchanged for the time being and will enable beginners to mix and learn from the more experienced students. Click here for full session details and times.

Our new Dojo is now open!
We are very proud to announce that our new Dojo is now officially open! After months running around and working all hours the new home of Imperial Karate Club is now ready for us to move in. The new venue is called Bristol Dojo and it is the largest and most prestigious Karate Dojo in the South West. It boasts off street parking, 2000 sq ft matted area with 4 full size national level Tatami's, a 1000 sq ft laminated floor area for warm up and Kata practice with mirrored walls, six full size wall mounted kick bags, a cardio area with treadmills, exercise bikes, cross trainers and multi-gyms, an elevated cafe & bar overlooking the training area and soon to be added full changing and shower facilities. This is without a doubt the best facilities I have ever seen for a martial arts Dojo and is a fitting venue for Imperial Karate Club. Look out for guest instructors starting from September and other related Martial Arts groups and fitness sessions at Bristol Dojo.

In typical Imperial style we celebrated the opening of Bristol Dojo with a party which saw around 200 Imperial members party into the small hours. A big thank you to our sponsors and everyone who helped make the dream of Bristol Dojo turn into reality. The new website is under construction and can be found here. Full location details on our location page here.

Another great North Devon spring course
Saturday 5th April and yet again we all set off to Woolacombe for our annual North Devon course. Due to new ownership we could not have the caravans for the Friday night so we started the sessions at 2pm and let the course members join in as they arrived. This year was as popular as ever with 40 club members training and around 100 of us in total with most staying for the whole week. The first session had to be indoors due to a rainstorm but as most had not arrived as yet this was great as we spent the time looking at what is thought of as the "basic" Kata Pinan Nidan. Throws, chokes, locks and attack angles were looked at in detail which was a real eye opener for the beginners! Session 2 and the sun came out so off to the cliff top field overlooking Woolacombe Bay. We split into groups and focused on Kihon and Bunkai of grade Kata. The senior grades concentrated on Seichan application and performance. The evening in the club house was the usual fun and laughs and then back to Jim's van until late.

Day 2 and we started training in sunshine but it turned to snow as the session ended! This was a good opportunity to test the senior grades so we made them stay on and we ran through Chinto Kata as the snow fell! The final session saw the sun come out again and a time to reflect on the course content in small groups before close. This year more people stayed for the following week than ever before and as the weather was great we did horse riding, hill walking, and cycling with the odd barbeque thrown in for good measure. Thank you to Pete and Adrian who did a great job helping me run the course. This was to be the last North Devon course for us and we will be looking at an alternative venue and format for the future.

New format Sessions
We are pleased to announce that we have adopted a brand new format for our Imperial Karate Club training sessions at Bristol Dojo. We need to provide high level training in Traditional Karate, Sport Karate, Traditional Kata, Competition Kata and fitness. As such we have completely changed the way our lessons are structured and are putting on dedicated sessions in our huge new Dojo so that students can choose the type of session and training they wish. Initial feedback is that they are a superb success and everyone now has the chance to train in a session to suit their needs. Full details can be found on our location page here.

Great result at the WKK Welsh Championships 3 Gold, 4 Silver & 4 Bronze
We were invited to the Welsh Karate Kai championships in Port Talbot on Sunday 16th March and at very short notice we decided to attend. This meant that we were very unprepared but decided that it would be a good "run out" anyway. We put together a squad of 20 competitors and what a great performance they put in! First out was Tom Gammon in Kata who powered his way through to Gold followed by Gareth O'Brien who managed to beat off many senior kata performances with Pinan Sandan and won Silver. Next was Gemma Hanham who is improving very well and won Silver. On to the fighters and Ellie Tovey on her first competition beat all in front of her to win Gold even winning by 8-0 in the final! Our under 8's put in a brave effort on their first time out and Josh Burnell won a well deserved Bronze. Kate Bryant put in her best effort yet also winning Bronze followed by her brother Daniel Bryant who also won Silver. Gareth O'Brien saw himself in a tough category of Under 10's boys and fought very well and got Bronze place.On to the Under 10 Girls and we put in three of our strongest junior fighters and they ploughed their way through the opposition until they were 3 out of the 4 quarter finalists. Lydia Phillips beat her opponent 8-0 to secure her place in the final and Carys O'Brien faced her club mate Holly Phillips in the semi-finals. Carys eventually won through and then put on a superb performance along with Lydia in the final which was very close but saw Carys winning Gold. Don't forget to watch the Calendar page for upcoming competitions.

South West Open 2008 dates announced
We are pleased to announce the confirmed dates for the 2008 south West Open championships. The events are on Sunday 8th June and Sunday 9th November and will again be held in Hutton Moor Leisure Centre in Weston-super-Mare. Details on the South West Open page here.

Superb performance at the AMA International in Nottingham
We sent a small but talented squad to Nottingham for the AMA International tournament. This is a huge event spread over two days and has entries from all over the world including Russia, Sweden, Germany and Iran.
After a very tough event we managed to win 2 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze all from a squad of 7! Liam Harvey was back on form and won all of his fights to secure Gold in the under 16 boys and then led the under 16 boys team to another Gold against Iran A. Carys O'Brien won her first major International event medal by getting Silver in the under 10's girls. Mary Hanham also won another Silver in the senior female Kata along with her daughter Jodie who continues her superb form by moving up an age and weight category and won Silver against some very big opposition in the Under 12 girls. Jaz Fry back on form won Bronze in her very hard Under 16 girls and Kye Callaghan won Bronze in an international category of over 50 competitors in the under 12 boys.

Huge Christmas Grading and 5 new Imperial Black Belts!
Another very busy day with over 50 Imperial students eligible and ready to attempt their next grading. Saturday 22nd December saw some of Imperials best Karate-Ka attempt their next grading including 5 senior students attempting Black Belt! On the Grading Panel was Dave Cockram 3rd Dan, Simon O'Brien 5th Dan, Pete Jefferies 4th Dan, Adrian Williams 5th Dan and Melaine Phillips 2nd Dan. The day started off at 10am with a quick re-cap and a run through of the format for the 14 students taking their first grade.

First out were our new adult beginners, 11 in total and showing all the signs of nerves until they were called up and then they put on a what can only be described as a superb performance and set the standard for the day. They were soon followed by our junior beginners, junior kyu grades, senior kyu grades, brown belts and then the BIG ONE!

Katie Lane, Jim Glover, Jordan Benjamin, Jason Beddington and Jack Morris had all trained hard over the past year building up to the grading and the extra sessions put on at weekends put the finishing touches on their technique and stamina. It was all down to them now! Basics are at the heart of Traditional Karate so the Black Belt grading started off with 20 minutes of flat out line work, every technique in the syllabus plus a few extra were called for. The next stage was Kata and again every Kata was called out and every one performed with the focus and spirit expected. From basic to advanced, all were called for multiple times! The the K's of Karate, Kihon (basics), Kata and Kumite (fighting) were the foundation of the grading so Kumite was to be the next stage. Sparring after 1 hour of grading is exhausting but no respite was asked for or given. One on one changed to two on one sparring and after another 15 minutes we gave them a rest before calling them all up again to review more Kata.

This was more a test of stamina and character than technique as all looked about to drop but none gave up! Our longest Kata Kushanku finished the grading to a round of applause from the rest of the club and spectators as the 100 minute grading finished.

Congratulations go to all that passed and especially to the BIG 5 Katie, Jordan, Jason, Jim and Jack who not only passed their Black Belts with flying colours but showed what it takes to be an Imperial Senior Grade.

More Success in Wales
More great results from two competitions in Wales! We sent a squad to the Welsh Bushi Kai and Welsh Karate Association championships both in Port Talbot on the 7th and 14th October and came away with some great results. Robyn Perry won Gold in a huge Kata category and Tim Stevens won Gold in the men's Kumite. Jaz fry won Gold in the Girls Kumite and Gemma Hanham tookher first Gold in the under 16's Kata. Mary Hanham took bronze in theLadies Kata and Simon O'Brien took Silver in the Men's Kata. Gareth O'Brien took bronze in the junior Kata and Jodie Hanham took bronze in the girls Kumite.

Well Done Squad and now we are ready for our own tournament, the South West Open on October 28th!

Congratulations to Imperial members Steve Ackland and Liam Harvey who both won Gold at the first English Championships of Englands new official governing body in Essex on September 30th. Both were representing the AMA national squad and put in a superb performance to win their categories convincingly with Liam winning 8-0 in the final.

3rd South West Open confirmed for October 28th 2007!
Following the tremendous success of our first two tournaments and following numerous requests I can officially announce that the South West Open will now become a bi-annual event. The next championships will be on Sunday 28th October 2007 at Hutton Moore Leisure Centre in Weston-super-Mare as before. The Martial Arts press have described it as "one of the best open tournaments in the UK" and Martial Arts Illustrated ran a 6 page feature in their September edition with full results. A summery version can be found by clicking below

This event will be another landmark for Karate as we are giving away £10,000 worth of training gear donated by our sponsors Kachi-Do! All winners in addition to their trophies will win top of the range competition Gi's, and all team events will win £60 vouchers for their club. Every club entered will also get a £100 voucher to be spent with Kachi-Do and every competitor will get a £15 gift pack with gum shields, drinks bottles, kit bag, energy bars and more! Also the high performance drinks manufacturer SIS have donated 8 barrels of sports drinks for the competitors to keep them going FREE OF CHARGE! Also every paying spectator will get a free raffle ticket to win a games console.
Click here for the South West Open page.

Imperial secure new sponsorship deal from Kachi-Do
We are proud to announce that Imperial Karate Club is now officially sponsored by Kachi-Do Ltd. This follows ourcontinued success in competitions and is a major step forward for the club. Kachi-Do are the leading suppliers of Arawaza, Tokaido, Opro and Champ in the UK. Mark & Shirley Lord kicked off the sponsorship by supplying 16sets of top quality tracksuits for the entire Imperial Elite Squad. All Instructors have also been sponsored with a complete kit including the highly regarded Arawaza range of tournament Gi's. Please view the website link below for the full range of Kachi-Do products.

Click logo for Kachi-Do website

Simon & Mel win Gold in Sweden. Abi wins Bronze.

Imperial Chief Instructor Simon O'Brien and club Instructor Mel Phillips were joined by Abi Friend as the 3 Imperial members selected to represent AMA England squad at the Budo Nord Open World Cup in Sweden in July. Mel successfully defended her Gold medal from last year by again winning the Ladies -60Kg Kumite following several really hard rounds. At the very same time Simon was on the next area in the Male Veteran Kata event and eventually took Gold with Anan Kata by all 3 flags. Abi drew the eventual winner in the first round of the Cadet Ladies +60Kg and then came storming back in the repecharge to take a well desrved Bronze. This was the toughest year yet in Sweden as this WKF recognised event gathers momentum.

Simon pictured with England AMA Squad Manager Peter Allen

Imperial 3rd in WKU medal table with 17 medals won including Black Belt Team GOLD!

2 Gold                                        6 Silver                                        8 Bronze

We did it again! Another superb performance saw Imperial Karate Club come 3rd in the medal table out of 25 on Sunday May 6th at Hutton Moor Leisure Centre. This success is even more outstanding when you realise that we are only one club and we were only passed in the Medal table by two associations consisting of multiple clubs! As a stand alone club we were the most successful club in the whole of the South West area again!

This was the biggest WKU event to date and over 400 entries were received many of whom were national level competitors which made it very tough to get a single medal, yet alone 17! Unlike many other clubs who specialise in a narrow area of competition training we took medals in both junior and senior events and equally in both Kumite and Kata. This has always been our aim and on the day it proved that we can make this balance work.

Some of the Imperial Squad who attended the WKU Event. Nice Cups!!!

We had a smaller squad by Imperial standards of 25 competitors but we had trained hard for this and were ready. This was a nervous day for our new Elite Kata squad as we entered 2 teams along with the individuals and were doing Shotokan Kata for the first time against Shotokan clubs! First off with Kumite and another well deserved Gold for Mark Phillips followed by Silver from Kory Chapman, Carys O'Brien, Charlotte White, Kerri Perry, Jasmine Fry and Liam Harvey. Bronze medals were won by Mary Hanham, Mel Phillips, Holly Phillips, Lydia Phillips, Charlotte Woodman, Kye Callaghan, Gareth O'Brien and Mason Fogg. The highlight of the day was the Black Belt Team kata out for the first time and won their way to the final against Vale, one the most successful associations in Wales! After a superb performance of Seienchin they secured all 3 red flags to make them the unanimous winners!

Black Belt Kata Team GOLD! Coel Pullin, Mel Phillips and Liam Harvey

click here for more photo's courtesy of the WKU

New Elite Kata Squad started

Due to the continued success of the squad in the Kata section of competitions we have decided to put together an Elite Kata Squad to further progress their talent. An elite training program has been put together by Imperial Chief Instrctor Sensei Simon O'Brien 5th Dan which will see the selected squad study Kata's outside of our Wado Ryu syllabus for the purpose of performing in the competition environment. The squad will also form into two Kata Teams again for competition entry. A new page has been created for the Kata Squad click here or follow the link from the Elite Squad page.

The first main outing will be the WKU event on May 6th where our teams will be in action for the first time! Watch this space!

Saturday morning Elite Kata Squad Training

Imperial Sensei Adrian Williams passes English Referee's Exam

We are pleased to announce that our very own Sensei Adrian Williams 5th Dan has recently passed his English Referee's exam and is now a qualified Judge under the scrutiny of  Terry Pottage who is the most senior referee in the U.K. You will now see Adrian at Most national level events and he has also been invited to Sweden for the Budo Nord World Open Championships this summer. Well Done Adrian!

Sensei Adrian Williams - England Karate Judge

Imperial Senior girls get selected for Sweden

We are very proud to announce that 2 of our Senior Imperial girls have been selected for the Budo Nord Open World Championships in Sweden this Summer. Abi Friend now back in action along with last years Gold medalist Mel Phillips will again be travelling to Malmo in Sweden for this prestigious annual event. Also going this year will be Sensei Adrian Williams 5th Dan who recently qualified as English Referee. This will be his first international tournament. Senior AMA Coach Sensei Pete Jefferies and AMA Head Coach Sensei Simon O'Brien will also be in the AMA party of 30 attending.

2 Competitions & 24 Medal's for Imperial members in one weekend!

5 Gold                                        10 Silver                                        9 Bronze

What a hectic weekend! First the AMA Southern Open in Reading on Saturday 31st March and then over to Port Talbot for the Welsh Bushi Kai on the Sunday! We split the squad in order to attend both events but some of the hard core of Imperial decided to do the both!

AMA Reading - A squad of  25 Imperial members performed with the usual flair and tenacity that is now the "norm" following all our performance work on Saturday mornings! Jodie Hanham pushing for a National Squad place won Gold in the Junior Girls along with Mel Phillips who won Gold in the Ladies Team. Just missing out on Gold but securing a well deserved Silver were Kate Bryant, Kerry Perry, Jasmine Fry, Liam Harvey, Ross Dunsford and Mel Phillips. Bronze medals went to Gareth O'Brien, Mark Phillips, Dale Woodman. We also secured Gold in the Ladies Team, Silver in the Junior Boys Team and Silver in the Junior Girls Team. Well Done all of the squad who attended, medal or not you made us proud!

Welsh Bushi-Kai - Tired but with a few reinforcements we took 20 members and 3 teams to Wales for the event organized by our good friends at Welsh Bushi-Kai. First off with the Junior teams and Gold for our under 10's consisting of Kye Callaghan, Jodie Hanham and Gareth O'Brien and Bronze for our Junior Boys of Liam, Dale and Jordan. Gold also went to Mark Phillips (again!) following 2 silvers from Robson Fry and Kerri Perry. Bronze medals went to Bianca Allison, Kye Callaghan, Carys O'Brien, Mel Phillips and Liam Harvey.

Some of the Imperial Medallists. Well Done Squad!

English Medal's for Imperial members

Yet again Imperial members take to the medal rostrum at the English National Championships! Steve Ackland and Mel Phillips were selected to represent the AMA at the most prestigious event in the Senior English calander. We are very pleased to announce that Steve won Bronze in the Cadet +70Kg and Mel won Silver on the Ladies -60Kg and Gold in the female Masters event. Well done both of you, we are very proud!

Bruised but happy! National medals for Steve and Mel

We top WKU medal table again with 27 medals won!

8 Gold                                        8 Silver                                        11 Bronze

We did it again! Well done to all Imperial squad who took part in the WKU Kyu grade competition in Weston-Super-Mare on Sunday. We sent a smaller than usual squad of 26 Imperial competitors to our old friends WKU to take part in their annual Xmas Kyu grade competition. Many of our squad were missing but we were still a force to be reckoned with.

Highlights were our Junior Kata squad winning all four places of Gold, Silver and joint Bronze. They have been training hard and it showed. Liam Harvey has been training intensely for his Dan grade and again it showed with a well deserved Gold in the senior grade Kata. Our Imperial A and B Team beating all others to face eachother in the finals. Jaz Fry, Holly Phillips, Mark Phillips, Jordan Benjamin and Gareth O'Brien fought outstandingly and rightly deserved their Gold medals!

Imperial  Kyu Grade Squad at WKU event

Gold - Holly Phillips, Jordan Benjamin, Gareth O'Brien, Liam Harvey, Dale Woodman, Jaz Fry, Mark Phillips and Imperial A Team.

Silver - Charlotte Woodman, Kerri Perry, Charlotte White, Jodie Hanham, Dan Bryant, Kory Chapman, Imperial B and Imperial C Teams.

Bronze - Liam Harvey, Dale Woodman, Robbie Fry, Tom Nash, Lydia Phillips, Elliott Pullin, Kory Chapman, Charlotte Woodman, Tom Gammon, Katie Lane, Mark Phillips Click here for full results                click here for photo's

Imperial Gold Medals

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