Welcome to the virtual dojo!
My name is Linda Marchant and I’m the head instructor. I’m a 7th dan in IOGKF Goju Ryu and my dojo is affiliated to EGKA. I’ve been training in martial arts for 46 years.
I have a traditional dojo in Wimbledon, but because of the coronavirus outbreak, I’m only offering virtual training at the moment – but I’m still following the traditional format, with opening and closing formalities.
To get started, download Google Hangouts Meet from your app store and email me at gojulinda@live.co.uk. I’ll send you a meeting invite you can use to join a training session. If you’ve never done karate before, please let me know about your training history and general fitness level. Is there anything that I need to know about, like injuries, so I can adapt things for you?
Please take care when you train. If you’re new to training, take it slowly and feel free to take a break if it gets a bit much! You can ask questions during the session, or email afterwards. Make sure you never train with a fever.
Make sure you join the class five minutes before the start time.
| Tuesday | Peewees | 17:00-17:30 |
| Juniors aged 6+ – all grades | 18:00-18:30 | |
| Adults/cadets – all grades | 10:00-12:00 | |
| 19:00-20:00 | ||
| Wednesday | Juniors aged 6+ | 18:00-18:30 |
| Adults and cadet brown and blackbelts | 19:00-20:00 | |
| Thursday | Peewees | 17:00-17:30 |
| Juniors aged 6+ – all grades | 18:00-18:30 | |
| Adults/cadets – all grades | 10:00-12:00 | |
| 19:00-20:00 | ||
| Saturday | Juniors aged 6+ | 10:00-10:45 |
| Adults and cadet brown and blackbelts | 11:00-12:15 | |
| Everyone | 12:15-12:45 Q&A with virtual cup of tea |
If you already pay me by standing order you’ve already paid for unlimited sessions.
If you pay for each training session at the moment, you’ll pay:
Tooting Karate Club is a friendly place to learn traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate. Under the guidance of Sensei Linda Marchant, a 7th Dan Black Belt, you will learn a wide range of techniques from kicking and blocking, to traditional forms (or Kata), supplementary strengthening exercises, sparring, self defence and pad work.
As a traditional style of Karate, our emphasis is on teaching fighting skills that are of practical use in self defence situations as well as building healthy minds and bodies. You can improve your fitness and confidence levels drastically through the practice of Goju Ryu Karate and there are many opportunities to train with masters as well as enjoy social and competitive events. When you join us, you are joining a vibrant club within a much bigger organisation that can give you direct access to some of the highest graded and most respected karate masters in the world. Tooting Karate is part of the English Goju Ryu Karate do Association (EGKA) headed by Sensei Ernie Molyneux, 8th dan and IOGKF, headed by World Chief Instructor Tetsuji Nakamura Sensei, 7th dan and Shihan Morio Higaonna, 10th dan.
We have permanent premises in Wimbledon and there are formal classes throughout the week with additional training throughout the rest of the week. The dojo has a wooden floor and is fully equipped with all of the equipment that a traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu Dojo should have. It is walking distance from Wimbledon Town Centre or Haydons Road train station and there are numerous buses that pass right by the Dojo. Whilst we have a lot of students from local areas like Wimbledon, Kingston, Morden, Mitcham, Streatham, Balham and Clapham we attract students from all over London as well as Surrey. You are warmly invited to take a look through our website to get a better understanding about our style of karate. If you’d like to take that interest into practice, do drop us an email or make an introductory phone call and you will be most welcome to come and join in.