Ichiban Karate Leeds

🥋 Ichiban Karate Fundraiser 🥋

Our very own Chris (Charlie’s dad) is taking on a huge personal challenge—running the Leeds Half Marathon on 9th May! 🏃‍♂️

This will be Chris’s first time running this distance in one go, and he’s doing it to raise funds for our Ichiban Karate competition squad. These competitions give our young karateka incredible opportunities to grow in confidence, skill, and experience—but travel and accommodation costs can be a barrier.

We’d love to support Chris in making this journey a little easier for them.

Every donation, big or small, will go towards helping our squad travel to competitions across the UK and continue doing what they love.

Please support if you can and share to spread the word 🙏
https://gofund.me/34d5755a0

Let’s get behind Chris and show the strength of the Ichiban spirit!

Donate to Supporting Ichiban karate competition squad, organized by Chris Hudson Hi, I'm Chris, and I will be running the Leeds half marathon on 09 May, to ra… Chris Hudson needs your support for Supporting Ichiban karate competition squad

🥋 WUKF British Open 2026 – Day 2 Update 🥋

A fantastic second day for the team, competing with determination and spirit against some very strong, large associations in the 13+ kumite and kobudo divisions 💪

For what is essentially a single dojo entry, Dokan Karate Association finishing 10th out of 36 teams/associations is an outstanding achievement 👏

Results Highlights:
🥈 Harriet – 2nd (Girls 13yrs Ippon)

🥈 Aleeza – 2nd (Mixed 11yrs & Under Short Weapons Kobudo)

🥉 Lewis – 3rd (36+ Long Weapons Kobudo)
🥇 Lewis – 1st (36+ Short Weapons Kobudo)

🥉 Male Team (Ariz, Adel & Elijah) – 3rd (16–17 Team Sanbon)

🥇 Female Team (Kylie, Susanne & Clarissa) – 1st (36+ Rotational Sanbon)

🥉 Kylie – 3rd (36–40 Female Sanbon)

🥉 Girls Team (Isla, Mia & Pati) – 3rd (14–15 Sanbon Team Kumite)

🥈 Jack – 2nd (16–35 Long Weapons Kobudo)

A huge thank you to all the parents for their continued support—getting competitors to training, supporting at competitions, and playing such a crucial role behind the scenes for both athletes and coaches 🙏

Proud of every single competitor—great performances, great attitude, and a brilliant team spirit across the whole weekend 👏🔥

🥋 WUKF British Open 2026 – K2 Crawley 🥋

What a great first day for Dokan Karate Association!
Relative to the larger associations, a small but mighty squad of 27 competitors took to the tatami, with 7 athletes competing in their very first national competition—an amazing achievement in an event with over 2000 entries 👏

Day 1 saw all kata events completed along with kumite for ages 12 and under, and the team delivered outstanding performances throughout.

A huge congratulations to Milena, Ethan, Mia, Isla, Charlie H, Sasha and Nika on competing in their very first British Open—an experience to be proud of!
Special mention to Ethan and Milena for bringing home medals in very competitive categories 🏅

It was also fantastic to have Layjha, one of our very first students and now studying at UCL, with us—supporting, coaching, and inspiring the team 🙌

Results Highlights:
🥇 Ariz – 1st (16–17 Other Styles)
🥈 Ariz – 2nd (18–20 Other Styles)

🥇 Josh – 1st (Boys 10 Kata, 3rd Kyu+)

🥉 Reda – 3rd (16–17 Other Styles)

🥉 Dokan Foster (Josh & Charley F) – 3rd (11–12 Pairs)

🥈 Ethan – 2nd (12 Years Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
🥉 Ethan & Lawrence – 3rd (11 Years Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
5️⃣ Ethan – 5th (11–12 Boys 4th Kyu Below)

🥇 Boys Nihon Rotation (Josh, Frank, Jacob & Alfie KKO) – Gold (9–10 Years)

🥇 Aleeza – Gold (13 Years Girls Kata)

🥇 Charley F – Gold (11 Years Girls Kata, 3rd Kyu Above)

🥉 Milena – 3rd (Girls 7–8 Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
5️⃣ Milena – 5th (Girls 7–8 Kata 4th Kyu Below)

🥈 Charley – 2nd (Girls 11 Nihon 3rd Kyu+)

🥉 Kylie – 3rd (Kata 36–45)
🥉 Kylie – 3rd (Female Kata 21–35 Other Styles)

🥈 Emily – 2nd (Kata 16–17 Other Styles)
🥉 Emily – 3rd (Female Kata 18–30 Other Styles)

🥉 Jack – 3rd (Male Kata 21–35 Sh*to Ryu)

An amazing team effort, fantastic spirit, and so much to be proud of. On to Day 2! 💪🔥

.dokankarate

🥋 WUKF British Open 2026 – K2 Crawley 🥋

What a great first day for Dokan Karate Association!
Relative to the larger associations, a small but mighty squad of 27 competitors took to the tatami, with 7 athletes competing in their very first national competition—an amazing achievement in an event with over 2000 entries 👏

Day 1 saw all kata events completed along with kumite for ages 12 and under, and the team delivered outstanding performances throughout.

A huge congratulations to Milena, Ethan, Mia, Isla, Charlie H, Sasha and Nika on competing in their very first British Open—an experience to be proud of!
Special mention to Ethan and Milena for bringing home medals in very competitive categories 🏅

It was also fantastic to have Layjha, one of our very first students and now studying at UCL, with us—supporting, coaching, and inspiring the team 🙌

Results Highlights:
🥇 Ariz – 1st (16–17 Other Styles)
🥈 Ariz – 2nd (18–20 Other Styles)

🥇 Josh – 1st (Boys 10 Kata, 3rd Kyu+)

🥉 Reda – 3rd (16–17 Other Styles)

🥉 Dokan Foster (Josh & Charley F) – 3rd (11–12 Pairs)

🥈 Ethan – 2nd (12 Years Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
🥉 Ethan & Lawrence – 3rd (11 Years Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
5️⃣ Ethan – 5th (11–12 Boys 4th Kyu Below)

🥇 Boys Nihon Rotation (Josh, Frank, Jacob & Alfie KKO) – Gold (9–10 Years)

🥇 Aleeza – Gold (13 Years Girls Kata)

🥇 Charley F – Gold (11 Years Girls Kata, 3rd Kyu Above)

🥉 Milena – 3rd (Girls 7–8 Nihon 4th Kyu Below)
5️⃣ Milena – 5th (Girls 7–8 Kata 4th Kyu Below)

🥈 Charley – 2nd (Girls 11 Nihon 3rd Kyu+)

🥉 Kylie – 3rd (Kata 36–45)
🥉 Kylie – 3rd (Female Kata 21–35 Other Styles)

🥈 Emily – 2nd (Kata 16–17 Other Styles)
🥉 Emily – 3rd (Female Kata 18–30 Other Styles)

🥉 Jack – 3rd (Male Kata 21–35 Sh*to Ryu)

An amazing team effort, fantastic spirit, and so much to be proud of. On to Day 2! 💪🔥

Good luck to our team competing this weekend in Crawley at the British Open! Especially to those competing at this big event for the first time!

🇬🇧 Official WUKF British Open Championships

ℹ️ The draws and running order: https://report.uventex.com/ ;id=336267;applicationMode=SPORTSHUB;sportsHubUrl=https%3A______uventex.com___events___event___336267

Happy International Women’s Day to all our students, parents and coaches!

Yesterday 41 karateka took on their grading from white belts to purple belts attempting brown.

Grading isn’t just about belts. It’s about growth, resilience and pushing past your limits. Belts need to be earned and are never given away at Ichiban.

Whether you passed or need to come back stronger next time, we are proud of every one of you for having the bravery to try.

Keep training. Keep improving. Keep showing up. 🥋✨

Huge well done to the 15 competitors that took part at the UAK Karate Championships in Lichfield on 15 Feb. Our second comp of the year as we ease into 2026, with the big focus of the year being the WUKF Europeans in Sheffield in Oct.

We were very pleased with performances across the board, especially from our newest competitors, Isla, Mia,Charlie, Milena and Ethan all taking home medals and showing excellent improvement !

Thank you to Matt and team for a lovely day and a well run competition

With only 15 competitors we finished 3rd on the table an excellent result against much larger entries ahead of us.

*Results*

Pairs Kata
- Isla & Charlie 🥉
- Isla & Charlie 🥈
- Susanne & Clarissa 🥈

Kata

Frank 🥇
Clarissa 🥉
Ariz 🥇 🥈
Lawrence 🥇
Ethan 🥈🥉
Aleeza 🥇 🥇
Harriet 🥉 🥉

Kumite
Mia 🥉
Susanne 🥉 🥈
Lawrence 🥈
Frank 🥇
Clarissa 🥇
Ariz 🥉
Aleeza 🥉
Isla 🥉

Team Kumite
8 and under Girls (Milena and Dokan) 🥈
10-12 girls (Mia, Harriet, Aleeza) 🥈
10-12 boys (Frank, Lawrence, Ethan) 🥈
Dokan ladies (Susanne, Emma, Clarissa) 🥉

🥋 Congratulations Ian! 🥋

Huge well done to Ian on achieving his black belt in Aikido this weekend at the British Aikido Association Dan grading! 👏

Ian isn’t just an aikidoka — he’s also one of our dedicated karateka, having started karate after training in both aikido and judo. Earlier this month, Ian represented Ichiban Karate at his first international competition in Sweden as part of the Dokan England squad 🇸🇪🔥

A talented young martial artist with an incredible attitude and work ethic — we’re so proud to have you as part of the team!

🥷 One of the unique things about Ichiban is the opportunity to cross-train in multiple Japanese martial arts — from karate to aikido and more. We believe it builds stronger, more well-rounded martial artists, and Ian is proof of that!