Karate celebrates its Silver Jubilee (From Penarth Times)

Karate celebrates its Silver Jubilee

A LOCAL Martial Arts Club, celebrates its 25th year in existence in the coming months.

The Penarth based South Glamorgan Karate-do Shotokai (KDS), based at Stanwell School was formed back in 1973 by local man Alan Jones. At the time Alan was training at a club in Cardiff, which disbanded as a result of the instructor retiring.

With nowhere else to go, Alan decided to make a go of it himself.

The first venue was at the Marina on Penarth Pier, and Alan recalls having to hit any protruding nails back into the floorboards at the start of each training session in order to avoid the obvious painful repercussions of stepping on one.

Even with such obstacles as these and the fact that his experience at the time was limited, the club thrived.

The increased popularity of the Martial Arts, as a result of Hollywood releasing such films as Bruce Lee's 'Enter the Dragon', meant numbers in the club swelled.

But, like all the fads, this popularity faded over time, and with it went the 'wannabe' black belts.

Many Martial Arts clubs sprang up at this stage, and disappeared just as quickly, when there was no longer any profit to be made.

However, Penarth Shotokai was obviously not one of them, due to the fact that its instructors were around before the rush of popularity and therefore serious about their training.

Also then, as now, the club was non-profit making and as a result wasn't in it just to 'make a bob' like many others!

From these humble beginnings and the strength of character of its members, the club has continued on through good times and bad.

In the eighties Penarth Shotokai were the first club to apply for a venue at the then, still under construction, Penarth Leisure Centre.

This remained the home of the club for over a decade.

Today, South Glamorgan Karate-do Shotokai has contentedly settled back at one of its previous venues from the late seventies, Stanwell School.

This new building with sprung wooden floor and central heating makes for every congenial place to train, a far cry from the Marina of yesteryear!

The Penarth club figures highly in the national and international goings on of the Karate-do Shotokai (KDS) Organisation.

Its members regularly travel to courses across the country and overseas.

The present day instructor - Jonathan de' Claire 3rd Dan, a teacher at Headlands School in Penarth, began training with Alan Jones back in 1978, when it was situated in the old school gym at Stanwell School.

Jonathan has travelled to many of the overseas branches of the organisation including, USA, France, Portugal and Japan in order to assist the Principle - Master Mitsusuke Harada in his teachings.

In fact all of the club's members are seen as a strong basis for the organisation as a whole, due to their regular attendance on coaching courses throughout the country and overseas.