Wards Karate-Do & Self Defence

"We as a group aim to foster and promote true martial arts, especially Karate, to develop Karate to be a functional part of a students life. Provide sensible and realistic self defence training and practise the traditional and true meaning of Karate-Do." So what does this mean in normal words...?

We are a Karate group that aims to split down the middle, half of the time is spent teaching valuable and sometimes life saving self defence techniques, whilst the other half is spent learning and practising a historical eastern art from Okinawa, looking back and finding the true meaning of the techniques and full understanding, something which is often lost in modern/western martial arts.

Our primary goal is simple, to develop our own personal understanding of Karate and the secrets (said very loosely) that it contains, to gain knowledge, understanding, and capture any health/life benifits it offers. Only second and only other goal is to promote the true form of the art, ensuring people get good quality training, not a modern rip off that is so often the case in many clubs.

The history and development of Wards Karate-Do starts in the summer of 2006, when Sensei Simon moved to the area from Wisbech and decided he wanted to start teaching Karate after he had been teaching a couple of people on a 1-2-1 basis for the last few months. After looking at venues and looking for an association he finally decided to go it alone, hire a venue and get some equipment. One kick bag and a booking at Crimplesham Village Hall, that was the starting point. After a good round of fliers a few people started to come and the class was born.

Soon the class became big enough to run for 2 hours and soon it became big enough to need a bigger venue. We moved to West Dereham Village Hall and continued to grow the classes adding an additional hour and then in May 2007 added Sunday morning kid's classes. Once the classes started to grow we moved to a more suitable venue that although smallish would provide the foundations for a good home club. We choose Wimbotsham Village Hall. It had access to services and parking, was central and available the times we wanted and more.

Soon after moving into Wimbotsham Village Hall we increased the classes to roughly what we have today. We unfortunately left behind the Cardio Kickboxing class to become a full Karate club. Now though we have the use of Fincham Memorial Hall, along side Wimbotsham Village Hall, where we have a slot for the Cardio Kickboxing stuff along side the Karate stuff, along with a Family Karate class before hand. We now operate 4 days a week at 3 different venues. This from 2 people for an hour a week in Crimplesham Village Hall.

Since we started the number of people in the club has increased and we are now proudly one of the fastest growing clubs in the area. We not only cater for those wanting regular classes, but also private lessons and do outside training to various youth groups, organisations and companies. We conduct workshops and hands on sessions all over West Norfolk on behalf of the Kings Lynn and West Norfolk Borough Council through their lets get active and sports road show events.

We still keep our core values of quality training and small class sizes. We have been recognised and supported in the past by the Amateur Martial Association, English Karate Organisation and the British National Martial Arts Association, with funding from Norfolk County Council.

January 2010 saw the start of many big changes, the two most important changes for the group since its creation happened Winter/Spring this year. We have added a dedicated class specifically designed to teach those with learning problems/special needs and have helped to setup the West Norfolk Karate Association of which all our students are now members.

Sensei Simon Ward (4th DAN) has been studying martial arts, specifically Karate from the age of 8, here follows a brief outline as to how and why he started Karate and the advances taken to this present day.

When upset and stressed as a young child I would often have aggressive and destructive tendencies, things like taking out frustration on my bedroom door and hitting the walls with a baseball bat (but I was well behaved at school - honest). I persuaded my mum to send me to a 6 week Karate taster course at the local Shotokan Karate club in Wisbech. Whether it was my persuasion technique or my mums hopes of it calming me down, or at least giving me (as she hoped) an energy outlet, I started lessons and in short was hooked. As the 6 week course ended it was crunch time, I was positive, charged and wanting to learn. I still had the aggression and the destructive little monster inside of me, but even he wanted to learn. Next came the suit, I couldn't wait for that; it was too small which was very disappointing, but that first week, I squeezed into it any way. I had the clothes; I had the licence and a regular class to attend. That was me sorted for the next couple of years.

Then one day my instructors said that they would not be teaching at that club anymore. There were other instructors, but to be honest I preferred my own. So I moved from the SKA club of which I was so familiar and moved to their new EKO club. It was strange at first, a different day, the atmosphere seemed different, but other than that it was ok. The syllabus slightly changed, if anything it was made more interesting but at the same time slightly harder.

As time went on I progressed through the belts, and in my eyes had become a sponge for information. If there was an extra class I was there, new equipment I had it (much to my mum’s shock at some of the prices of things), I was then allowed to help out a lot more with the teaching side of things. Helping out in class, taking warm ups, demonstrating and supervising.

As time moved on I started to get a bit dismayed, I was half way through my brown belts and things were starting to go slowly. It was the same old practise practise as usual. I dreaded bag work sessions, and Kata sessions used to send me to sleep. It had become boring, it had become hard work. As I looked around me I noticed that of all those I had first started with, very few remained. I was ready to give in and some nights would get ready, not put my belt on and prepare myself to go down stairs and tell my mum I was not going anymore. But for some reason I didn't, probably because she would go ballistic at the time and cost for me to just quit. So I soldiered on and eventually took that next step. Over time my mood changed again, that was more when I got my 1st KYU, the next step was black belt. That spurred me on a bit and for the next 6 months, I was firing on all cylinders.

Moving forward after I had been awarded my 1st Dan (Sat 13th Nov 1999), my instructor then asked me one day, "so what now", I had my black belt, I was a lot older than when I started, and for a moment in time I didn't know, I had reached my goal and had no further goals to aim for. Although strange at first this was a pleasant feeling. I was an open book, blank and fresh. I could stay and learn more, knowing that I had achieved the impressive level of 1st DAN, or I could go and not feel any guilt or loss, knowing that I had achieved my goal and not given up. Needles to say I stayed, although now I started to help out even more in class. I liked that it gave me time to think and ponder; I was a blank canvas and an open book, what could I do, or become, where could it take me.

Then it occurred to me, don’t just do Karate, become Karate, over my time from beginner to black belt I had seen some really inspiring martial artists and techniques. That was my mission, to revisit the things that kept me inspired and see what else I can learn from them. I was able to be flexible, I was sometimes helping to teach and sometimes training and I took some time out for exams and things and then started to look at other systems, styles and techniques. Although access too many other classes wasn't possible, I had access to the internet and a fairly good library of books on various topics. I began to read and experiment, taking all what I already knew as a base and working from that, tweaking and changing, finding my own personal style of Karate that was not only effective, true to tradition, but also suited my body and my shape, my thoughts and methods. It even got to the point where I thought about Karate every day, lived and breathed it, thought everything and everywhere was my training ground and teacher.

Time has to move on and like everything my ideal changed and I grew up, but what still remained was the Karate, only that there was something holding me back, I had more to learn but no way of learning it. It was then I decided to start teaching, but not as a helper, in my own club, my own style, my own methods. It was the most brilliant and scariest thought ever. I had day dreams of churning out hundreds of brilliant black belts, fixing the mistakes I used to make, but thoughts to match of what if this goes wrong and what if I forget, what if what if what if. But one day, I just done it. Got some equipment, a new suit and printed some fliers booked the local village hall and that was that. I have never looked back.

Still to this day now I still find everything can somehow relate to an aspect of Karate or vice versa. I have over time seen and experienced many wonderful and sometimes painful things that Karate and other martial arts can do. This still today continues to inspire me to continue teaching, training and learning. I don’t see my Karate as a hobby as many do; I see it as a way of life.

So to finish this short story, there remains one thing still to explain, that destructive and aggressive little boy. Well as time moved on, so did I, I had become strong, confident and powerful. All what troubled me to want to start Karate, now seemed irrelevant! I put it all into my Karate, Karate took it away. It taught me how to fight so that I don’t have to, I realised I was only fighting with myself, if I won I lost.

People I would like to thank;

Sensei Debbie Longmuir (my first ever Sensei)
Sensei Tim Longmuir (for the excellent Ippon and Jiyu Ippon techniques)
Sensei Sharon Bolden (who made me work very hard)
Sensei Andy Bolden (for making me practice technique)
Sensei Tony Bareford & Alex (for introducing me to Okinawan Karate)
Sensei Terry Wingrove (who inspired me to look deeper into Karate Jutsu)
Sensei Dave Sharkey (for those little hints and tips, plus for my DAN grade awards)
Sensei ?????????? (who offer countless advice and guidance on the multitude of internet pages)
My Mum (for giving me the chance to learn something that no classroom could offer me)
Debbie (my other half who puts up with Karate, Karate and even more Karate)