Bath Shotokan Karate Club

At the black and brown belt grading yesteday in Bath, the club is delighted to announce that two of our members achieved their Shodan grades under Sensei Frank Brennan and Sensei Garry Harford. This is the result of many years hard training, overcoming setbacks and in particular, a strong dedication in the months leading up to the grading. Well done to both!

David Acheson 1st Dan
Daniel Walklin 1st Dan

We also had a guest member from Exeter club grading yesterday, Ruan Welsman, who was successful for her Nidan grading. Congratulations Ruan!

It was a great week for the Bath club with gradings. On Thursday night Bath Karate Club held its July Kyu grading, on a very warm night Sensei Welsh put all the students through their paces preparing them for grading which followed. Congratulations to the below students who passed their gradings and a big thank you to Sensei Rob Welsh for making the trip to Bath to take the training and grading.

Jude Kemp 8th Kyu
Hugo Cook 7th Kyu
Luca Parry 7th Kyu
Wolf Whalley 7th Kyu
Jake Williams 4th Kyu
Holly Coles 2nd Kyu
Emma Thompson 1st Kyu
Harry Sanders 1st Kyu
Amy Beattie 1st Kyu

Bath Karate welcomed Sensei Vicky Phillips 6th Dan to the club on Thursday night

The evening’s session was well-balanced, progressing through kihon, kumite, and kata. Sensei Phillips opened with focused drills on correct stances, body movement, speed, timing, and kime – fundamentals that she reinforced throughout the evening.

The kumite and pair work was built around three attacks: mae geri followed by gyaku zuki, ushiro geri, and oi zuki. Vicky emphasised leaving the block to the last moment, then delivering counters with proper stances and correct distance always making contact. Students moved on to work in groups of four, defending against each attack in sequence at speed, with the final counter involving takedowns onto our unforgiving floor (but, hey – we don’t need mats!). The technical demands were high, requiring precise stance work and distance control – directly linking to the kihon principles drilled earlier.

The session concluded with kata practice focusing on Jion and Sochin, where the fundamental principles of stance, alignment, and body movement from kihon were evident in every technique. To finish, Sensei Phillips kindly gave a demonstration of Sochin, just to show us how it can be performed at the highest level.

A great attendance from the Bath club at the kata squad training session in Repton on 12th April with Sensei Frank Brennan. Nealy four hours of training with excellent kumite drills and five katas studied in detail

Congratulations to the Bath club's newest black belt, Ethan Park, who passed his 1st Dan under Sensei Brennan on the last day of the recent Torbay course.

Last Thursday night Bath Karate Club held its March Kyu grading. Congratulations to the below students who passed their gradings and a big thank you to Sensei Rob Welsh for making the trip to Bath to take the training and grading.

Hugo Cook 8th Kyu
Luca Parry 8th Kyu
Sam Matoviski 8th Kyu
Clare Birch 8th Kyu
Wolf Whalley 8th Kyu
Chole Burden 5th Kyu
Emma Thompson 2nd Kyu
Harry Sanders 2nd Kyu
Amy Beattie 2nd Kyu

The Bath club recently had the honour of hosting Sensei John Bruce for an excellent training session working on basics and understanding how they develop power and technique.

At our training session last Thursday, we awarded the 2025 Club Members of the Year trophies. Congratulations to Emma Thompson for competitor of the year and Peter Ashby for overall student of the year.

Training has started again for 2026. We are back in our normal dojo on the usual days and times.

This is going to be a busy year for the club and its members. The events page has been updated on our website and includes the club kyu gradings (March, July, November), regional course in Exeter (February), other competitions and the national courses, gradings and championships. The full KUGB calendar has more events and details, so please refer to that too. (Please also note that you can subscribe to the KUGB calendar so you don’t miss out on anything – there’s a link at the bottom of the KUGB Events page.)

Here are some of our karateka sporting their new club jackets.