JERSEY’S latest martial arts school has opened its doors.
Sensais Ray Dubras, Jose Travanca and Rui Tremoceiro will be running Jersey Shotokan Karate out of the dojo at Strive Health Club three times a week for all Islanders aged six and up.
The aim of the club is to train its members for a more competitive form of karate, with the view to entering tournaments, rather than traditional self-defence exercises.
Shotokan was developed by Gichin Funakoshi in Okinawa, Japan around 100 years ago, adopting the Dan ranking system and uniform already adopted in judo.
‘There are a lot of karate clubs but not a lot that focus on the sports side,’ said Dubras, a fifth Dan instructor.
‘We saw this as a potential market where people want to get involved in the competitive side, especially kids between the ages of 12 and 16.’
The martial arts school runs a two-hour session for adults, a one-hour session for under-12s on Tuesdays and Thursdays and a one-and-a-half-hour session for 12 to 16 year-olds straight after.
‘The dojo at Strive is nice and large and we’ve got plenty of capacity,’ added Dubras.
‘We have got five instructors, who are qualified with DBS checks and medical first aid, on hand to help people and to give them the best experience and be safe when doing so.
‘The ultimate aim is to get kids being more active, but also add a bit of competition work, where we can go away and compete with our association in inter-club or international tournaments.
‘The style of competition we use is what we call “touch karate’’,’ he continued. ‘It’s very controlled, where you are just touching your opponent rather than hitting them hard. It’s very much more tuned to agility and speed, engaging with your opponents using fists and feet to attack a target area rather than knock them out.’
Jersey Shotokan Karate, as a club, has been running for over 15 years and has support from the Jersey Sport sustainable sports programme to move to Strive and use the state of the art facility.
For more information, contact Ray Dubras on 07797 814274.
