Following last years highly successful event, we are pleased to announce that we will once again be holding a Womens only course at the LKA Hombu on Sunday 28th April.

Alexandra Simon and Ashley Scott will once again be hosting the afternoon and teaching both Kata and Kumite in their own fantastic style.

To do one session is £10 and both is £15.  Please see the booking form below and return asap to secure your place.  Both Instructors are giving their time for free and all proceeds go to the JKS England Squad fund.

Womens Course

On Saturday 13th April, we will be holding 2 events to help raise funds for the JKS England Squad.  Firstly, during the afternoon at the LKA Hombu in Farsley, we will have a self defence and comedy afternoon.  Matt Price 5th Dan will take a 2 hours self defence course followed by Simon Bligh 4th Dan, who is a professional comedian and will do a gig. 

In the evening, we will be holding a party at Bramham Village Hall, near Wetherby.  There will be a bar, games, music and we will film our own JKS Harlem Shake.

The cost for the self defence/comedy afternoon is £10.  The evning alone is £6.50.  To do both is £12.

Please see the booking form and return asap to secure your place.

Fundraising day

Many congratulations to the following LKA competitors who have been selected to compete for JKS England at the JKS World Championships in Tokyo, Japan in July. Ashley Scott, Melissa Finlay, Joe Hart, Sam Goulden, Stephen Brown, James Brown, Hayden Steele, Tom Mitchell and Emelye O’Brien.

Well done to all, keep up the training as this will be a big challenge!  The latest bulletin in shown below.

2013 World Champs Bulletin

Well done to all those from the LKA that were selected onto the JKS England National Squad in January 2013.  In total we had 28 competitors selected, an excellent effort. 

They were:

Kids Squad: Adam Banks, Ronan Cain, Adam Daniel, Oliver Deane, Katelyn Entwistle, David Lister, Kate Lister, Laura Mackintosh, Sam Mitchell, Tom Mitchell, Emelye O’Brien, Connor Payne, Daniel Tremble and Nathan Wilson.

Adults Squad: James Brown, Stephen Brown, Joe Bulmer, Holly Dickinson, Jed Dickinson, Mell Finlay, Josie Fishkin, Sam Goulden, Joe Hart, Daryn Hobden, Callam Payne, Ashley Scott, Hayden Steele and Polly Swindail.

Dates for your diary for 2013:

LKA Dates 2013
(please be aware dates may change due to circumstances beyond our control)

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Following the announcement by the IOC to hold a European games in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2015 this makes very interesting reading. Karate looks very likely to be included in the programme of competing sports in Baku and this must strengthen it’s potential inclusion in the 2020 Olympic Games. There is no better time for LKA competitors to show their commitment and push for places on firstly the LKA Team, then the JKS Team and ultimately the EKF Team and gain a place on the Olympic stage!

http://www.insidethegames.biz/olympics/summer-olympics/304-2020-bidding-sports/1012029-exclusive-karate-close-in-on-spot-at-2015-european-games-programme

Following the  success of the course with Kitagawa Sensei this week, the LKA is proud to announce that we will be hosting the famous Sensei Richard Amos 7th Dan next month.

This course has now SOLD OUT so please don’t send a payment as we can’t accept any further bookings and will have to return it to you.

The LKA enjoyed 3 hours of instruction from Kitagawa Sensei 6th Dan on Monday 12th November at the Farsley Hombu Dojo.  From 6.00pm-7.30-pm there was an all grades course with 20 students training.  Following that, there was a Dan Grades course from 7.45pm-9.15pm in which there were 34 Black Belts training including guests from Crystal Peaks, York Karate Club and Haxby Karate Club. 

Sensei’s energetic and charismatic teaching style was most enjoyable and we had a thoroughly good evening spent with him.

Nine LKA competitors travelled to Turin in northern Italy to take part in the 2012 JKS European Championships as part of the JKS England team.  Additionally Sensei’s Heald and Price were there coaching the Squad and there was also a sizeable group of supporters who made the journey to cheer everyone on.

It was an excellent experience and we came away with some very creditable results.  Leading the way was our most seasoned competitor, Ashley Scott, who won the Female Kumite title in style.  In the final, she beat JKS England team-mate Alexandra Simon from Seibukan in Nottingham.  Ashley took the title scoring two Ippons in the final match.  One with an Ushiro Mawashi Geri and the other a Mawashi Geri, both to the head of her oppenent.  Melissa Finlay rounded off a thoroughly good event for the girls by taking third place in the same category.  The same 3 girls also took joing third place in the Female Team Kumite event, losing to Ukraine in the semi-final.

Perhaps the most pleasing victory came in the Male Kumite 16-18 Years event.  James Brown’s relentless pressure and fast hands were good enough to see off all his opponents.  There were some giant young men in this event and James showed tremendous steely courage to keep plugging away and beating each one that he came up against.  Ironically the two smallest men in the category reached the final and James dominated his opponent throughout.   At the end of the match he was swamped by his delighted team-mates!

Our final victory came in the Junior Team Kumite where James teamed up with Jordon Probst and Joe Finlay to take the title very convincingly, dominating their opponents in each round.  Callam Payne was reserve for the team in this event.

So, in the end the medal tally for LKA competitors was 6 Gold medals and 3 Bronze.  All at the LKA would also like to congratulate Alexandra Simon and David Smale for their medals in Kumite and Kata respectively.

It was an impressive competition in an excellent location and all is set now for competitors to strive to earn their places on the Team for next years JKS World Championships which are to be held in Tokyo in either July or August.  This will be an event no to be missed as it will be merged with the All-Japan Championships.  What more motivation could a competitor need.

Our competitors at this event were: Ashley Scott, Jordon Probst, Melissa Finlay, Joe Finlay, Sam Goulden, Joe Hart, James Brown, Callam Payne and Emelye O’Brien.

The LKA played host to a fantastic evening of Shotokan Karate on Tuesday 11th September with a new twist in that it was a special Womens Only session with instruction given by Alexandra Simon and Ashley Scott, both 3rd Dans and both JKS England International competitors.

There were almost 40 women and girls in attendance with the course split into two one and a half hour sessions.  Alex took the first half which was based around Kata, starting with some strengthening exercises and moving onto Heian Nidan and Jion.

Ash’s session was on Kumite and involved many different drills designed to improve footwork, relaxation, sweeps and reflexes.

Both instructors showed themselves to be experts in their fields and were confident and easy in their style of teaching.  The course was a terrific success and based on what we saw and the reaction it got, it may be something we could host again at some point.

I’m sure we would all like to wish both Alex and Ash (and all the other JKS England Squad) the very best of luck when they go to Turin next week for the JKS Europeans.