Our school not only teaches the techniques of karate and kobujutsu, but they are taught the history and philosophy behind the martial arts. Throughout their training they are given the theory and are encouraged to research their topics on the internet, then at 1st kyu and above they are asked to write an essay as part of their examination. Below are those essays of Junior and Senior students, please feel free to open them and read them; you will need Acrobat reader to do this. Remember that they have had to read and research to write these essays and it is their own work and therefore may differ in content.

Some of the titles they have to choose from are:

1. Martial Arts (in general)
2. History of Karate
3. History of Wado Ryu in England
4. History of Shotokan in England
5. Life of a Karate Master

In one of these essays the student has really summed up this study as they state:

"Whilst reading this for the first time (meaning the history of karate), I felt inspired by what they would do to carry on the style and how brave and full of knowledge they were. In my opinion, that’s what makes a good martial artist. You don’t just have to be powerful and hard, there’s much more!"

Essays for first kyu (brown belt) have to be a minimum of 500 words.