Happy New Year to all our members and friends. We have so much to look forward to this year with the extra fortnightly class in Dirleton Kirk hall which will concentrate on different aspects of our training throughout the year. We have courses and gradings and competitions coming up in the first quarter of 2026. More details will follow.
The JKA Scotland Championships 2025 took place on Saturday 15th April.
What a day for JKA Bass Rock with more than half of the club participating either as competitors, referees or staff, with wider family coming along as cheerleaders.
We are so proud of our medal winners, who brought home an array of
Bronze, Silver and Golds! 26 trophies to be exact including Junior Outstanding Competitor 2025. But we are also delighted that our team
consisted of everyone from white belt beginners, starting their karate
journey, to Black belts testing their metal against their peers.
There was competition, Kime, and camaraderie on display. Everyone found
something to celebrate and something to inspire or learn from and
everyone who took part is a champion in our eyes.
Now time to get back to the Dojo and start honing those skills for next
time!
We asked our students, how they felt about karate and our club… here’s what they said.
We are delighted that all our students who either Kyu graded during the JKA Scotland Gasshuku or with Sensei John Deans, from the JKA Scotland Technical Committee in our own dojo at the beginning of November, were successful in their endeavours.
All the students either trained with our visiting instructors in October or with Sensei Deans this month. All the hard work has paid off. If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Our Students loved showing off their new over gi jackets. We train as a club and we represent our club out with the dojo, respect for all.
We are delighted that Sensei John Deans 5th Dan JKA will be visiting our dojo on Monday, 12th December 2022. He will be looking after our normal 7.15pm class and we hope that you will make every effort to attend. Visiting JKA Scotland licensed members from other JKA Scotland clubs are more than welcome to come along. Please just get in touch .
Sensei John Deans 5th Dan JKA
JKA Scotland Coach
JKA Scotland Technical Committee
JKA Scotland National Committee
Don’t miss this class it will be awesome
On the 19th February, all the clubs in JKA Scotland East Region converged on our JKA Bass Rock dojo for the first Regional grading since before the Covid lockdown.
What a fantastic day was had by all! The buzz in the dojo was electric as we were treated to a superb learning course by Sensei Ohta. Well done to all who made it along. some travelling further than others but all keen to get to training.
A huge well done to those JKA Bass Rock students who passed their grading that day. Hard work sees the rewards.
JKA Bass rock opened its doors to the people of Gullane and surrounding areas on 7th June 2021. We had a fantastic response from old faces and new and from there, our club has continued to go from strength to strength.
We quickly realised that our students were keen to attend classes more than once a week so opened at our second location, Dirleton Kirk Hall at the start of August 2021.
At the end of August, our students were treated to a course led by Sensei John Deans5th Dan JKA, part of the JKA Scotland Technical Committee, followed by a very successful grading for the students. The students left the dojo that day buzzing about how they were going to improve their training and how pleased they had been to be so successful.
On the 9th of October, JKA Scotland held its first national course and Dan grading since pre lockdown. It was heartening to see so many of our brown and black belts taking part. Special mention has to go to Mike Mitchell who was awarded the status of Shodan after a very successful Dan Grading. An achievement in itself, but when you bring into the equation Mike’s age, a very youthful 74 years, and the oldest student to achieve the level of Shodan within JKA Scotland, it really was a very special occasion. Local and national news caught hold of the story and Mike received so many congratulations from students around the globe. The BBC news story about him received almost 60,000 hits, Instagrammers beware!
We had our much deserved Christmas break, a little earlier than usual as the pantomime was due to appear at the Village Hall.
January 2022, started with a few covid restrictions, but the students were eager to get back into the dojo. From there, we have had a few national events, kata courses, qualification courses and squad training. These have been well supported by our students, both young and old.
2022 will offer JKA Bass Rock students many opportunities to increase their karate skills and knowledge with many courses available for the first time since pre-Covid-19 Lockdown. It’s going to be a fun karate year for all.