Shotokan Karate FAQ – Answers to Your Most Common Questions

There is no stipulated time frame between gradings as many of our members have trained before, some members seem to fast track through the first 3 or 4 gradings.  Our offline Dojo has examinations every three months, but really its all down to the individual, as people progress at different speeds. 

The monthly fee you start paying will always stay as it is when you first become a member, but this may increase in the future for new members joining.

There is no grading/testing fee from 10th Kyu to 1st Kyu for our Monthly Members and Inner Circle members. Karateka taking a Black belt test will incur an extra fee as it is held live over Zoom and very time consuming. 

We do ask our members to get their own karate uniform (gi) and belts, we are also looking at the cost of printed certificates, (please see question 5 regarding certificates). 

We have four live zoom classes each week. They are all included in the Inner Circle package

The times below show UK time ~

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Class Times Below Are In UK Time Zone

Wednesday ~ 1300 hrs - 1400 hrs

Thursday ~ 1700 hrs - 1800 hrs

Saturday ~ 1700 hrs - 1800 hrs

Sunday ~ 1700 hrs - 1800 hrs

The APP is called 'Shotokan Bites' and can be downloaded from the google and Apple stores. There is a free section, with the bronze area included for Monthly and Inner Circle Members. For more information https://www.shotokankarateonline.com/shotokan-bites-app/

Testing is included up to and including 1st Kyu for Monthly and Inner Circle Members. Lifetime members can access the testing for an additional fee.

Each belt/ranks examination is explained inside the respective belt/rank course.

Test videos are uploaded to Youtube and marked as unlisted, there is a full explanation of how to do this inside each belt/rank course.

Black Belt examinations have fees as they are much more involved and very time consuming.

Successful karateka receive a digital downloadable certificate, but our beautiful printed certificates are now ready and our members can pay to have one of these EIKA certificates mailed directly to them. These will be purely optional.

We would prefer our karateka to wear Gi for testing, but this is optional and up to each member.

Our new association (EIKA) patches are now ready, the image shows grey color edging, but it's actually white.  https://gifts.shotokankarateonline.com/product/eika-enso-international-karate-association-patches/  

All fitness levels are suitable because you train at home and only do what you feel you can handle, you are in total control, the fitter you get, the more you can put into your karate practice.

You do not need much space at all, even with the kata, we have a technique where you can practice the whole kata in a five foot square space

We have members that have injuries and they work around those injuries, we have some members that do not kick and thats fine, they focus more on upper body work.

We do like our members to video their exams in a karate uniform (gi), but this is not compulsory. We have a Dojo patch (see question 7) Other equipment is purely optional, as in a punch bag, makiwara (striking board), recommended books, etc.

This is a very good question and one of the hardest things about training at home. One of the most important concepts of karate is Ikken Hissatsu or to finish with one blow. We try and instill this concept in our members by explaining that when blocking and attacking techniques are practiced at speed, they should be executed as if your life depends on it, when you hit the makiwara a full speed, you should not just try to hit it, but break it,destroy it! (obviously after you have executed hundreds of techniques lightly.

We are planning training camps so karateka who are unable to practice partner work and Karateka who want to test for the kumite sections can do so. These EIKA training camps will be enjoyable and fun.

It can accomplished quite quickly, but is entirely down to the individual and also the results can sometimes be very confusing and not make sense at all, let me explain.....If someone is practicing once per week and someone else is practicing three times per week, you would expect the person practicing three times per week to way more advanced after six months, but it depends completely on the attitude of the karateka whilst training, if someone is totally focused and applying the concept of Ikken Hissatsu with all their fast moves and train once per week, they will be way stronger and progress much faster than someone training three times per week, but simply going through the movements with no intent, so it's all down to the attitude of the karateka, that is what determines the time taken to reach black belt.

We use the Shodan-Ho system for our black belt testing. This means that successful karateka can test fully online, but a full black belt rank will only be issued once the karateka has demonstarted kumite also, which is where the training camps come in.

Here at EIKA we do not believe fighting is the be all and end all of karate, but kumite is an essential part of karatedo, because of this we use the Shodan-Ho system, where the successful karateka then over time have to demostrate their kumite to the examiners.