How To Join Us – Your First Lesson

We want to WELCOME you to our club if you are thinking of joining us and we hope that you do.

We are not a club for bullies and macho men (or women), if you just want to fight, pose and strut around, go somewhere else.

We base our ethic on Respect, Honour, Discipline, Hard Work and Practice.

We ONLY take people who are aged 10 years old and upwards. This is because the lessons are two hours long and require a high concentration level, and stamina, for that length of time. Having said that, we might consider taking children who are just under 10 or if they are training in Karate at the moment, or have just left their current club and have taken and passed a belt grading. It is always worth giving Sensei Bill Hooper a call and asking.

Please note that Bill and Sue Hooper, the owners of the Buntingford Karate Club and Keith Edwards, our Assistant Instructor, have all been Police checked and cleared for teaching children. They also hold current First Aid Certificates.

What we want you to do before you join our club is to call us and arrange to come and visit us on one of our club nights (Tuesday or Thursday 7.30pm to 9.30pm) and sit and watch a WHOLE lesson. The only exception to this is when we run a new beginners course or advertise with through-the-door fliers – if this is the case then you can simply turn up in suitable clothing (ie, track suit trousers and a t shirt) and sign up for the beginners course.  Beginners courses are only £40 for a 5 week preparatory course.

People often have preconceived ideas as to what happens in a Karate club and you may find that what you thought we do and how we do it is totally wrong – we are not training Ninja Assassins here! On the other hand some people have trained at Karate before and they often get an Eye Opener when they join the Buntingford Karate Club because we are not purist Karate. We use ideas and moves from a variety of Martial Arts disciplines including, Judo, Aikido, Kung Fu and Ju-Jitsu, At the end of the session that you watch (and please watch ALL of it) you will know what we do and have some idea of how we do it. You can then make up your mind as to whether or not you want to join us. If you decide to visit us please call Sensei Bill FIRST on 01763 273 123 to ask permission to attend as this is only good manners.

If you are aged below 18 years of age we will need you to attend the viewing lesson with your parent or guardian.

After you have visited and (hopefully) asked to join we will put you with a black belt (probably Sensei Sue) who will take you through the basics in the 5 week beginners course. At the end of this it is “make your mind up time” when you will let us know if you want to carry on and become a fully fledged member training in with everyone else.

If you sit through a lesson and decide that you want to join Sensei Bill will explain how we run and how the fees work. He will explain to you as much as you need to know and feel free to ask your own questions.

For further information, and to get a “feel” about what we hope is a friendly club, please check through the rest of this website and in particular the “About Us” tag and membership rules.

Thank you.