Stevenage Karate Club JKA

In this clip from Sensei Aaron’s lesson, our students are working on provoking an attack, avoiding it, and then applying an effective counter. 🥋

This was a fantastic exercise that kept everyone fully engaged while developing timing, distancing, awareness, and confidence. The students had great fun testing their reactions and learning how to stay calm under pressure while applying their karate skills.

Well done to everyone who took part and gave 100% effort! 👏

Interested in joining us? New members are always welcome at Stevenage Karate Club.

A huge thank you to Sensei Aaron Storey from Stratford Karate Club for delivering two fantastic lessons for our students this week! 👊🥋

The sessions focused on kumite and included some brilliant drills that our students really enjoyed and learned so much from.

We’ve received so much positive feedback already, and seeing the smiles on our students’ faces throughout the lessons was incredibly encouraging.

Thank you again, Sensei Aaron, for sharing your knowledge, energy, and passion with our club — we hope to welcome you back again soon! 🙏

Great focus and determination in class this week at Stevenage Karate Club! 👊⚽

Students worked on an excellent eye-hand coordination exercise — dropping the ball and catching or punching with the opposite hand. Some students really excelled at this challenge, showing fantastic reactions and control, while others are learning the value of perseverance and practice.

Karate is not just about technique; it’s about developing coordination, concentration, resilience, and confidence. Every student progresses at their own pace, and it’s great to see everyone pushing themselves and improving each lesson.

Keep up the hard work everyone — OSS! 🥋

doing karate

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building defence
well-being

This week in training we focused on developing a sharper, more purposeful hikite (pulling hand) to improve the overall feeling and effectiveness of our punching.

By actively snapping the hikite back, we found it enhances hip rotation, balance, and full-body connection—making each technique feel more powerful and controlled rather than just arm-driven.

Building on that same principle, we then explored how this action directly applies to close-range techniques, particularly the empi (elbow strike). Using the hikite to drive rotation, the body naturally “whips” into the elbow, creating a much stronger and more realistic application.

The key takeaway: the hikite isn’t just a chamber—it’s an active part of the technique that can control, generate power, and link movements together.

See the clips below:
1️⃣ Hikite mechanics in action

See comments for clip 2-
2️⃣ Applying the same feeling to an empi strike