About us

 

About Carmarthenshire Karate

Carmarthenshire Karate is a group of voluntary karate clubs run by Shihan Mair Phillips [6th Dan], teaching traditional Wado Ryu style karate. We are part of Welsh Higashi Karate Kai (WHKK), which is an association of clubs across South Wales. This in turn, means that all of our instructors and students are members of the Welsh Karate Governing Body, which is the only recognised governing body for karate in Wales.

Strong foundations…

Keith Mumberson

Our first club was opened in Carmarthen over 40 years ago by Shihan Keith Mumberson and Shihan Barbara Mumberson. Keith (left) is a legend in the karate world and we’re privileged to be able to continue his work. When Keith sadly passed away in 1998, Mair took on responsibility for the club, maintaining its strong reputation, as well as contributing to the association and governing body.

Mair’s horizons were huge and she continued to put a vast amount of time into improving her own skills and that of her students. Before long, Carmarthenshire Karate was growing once again; firstly with the launch of our St.Clears club in 2000, then Laugharne (2007) and most recently in Cefneithin (2011) and Cross Hands (2015). Also in 2015, Mair was asked to take the reins at WHKK’s Narberth dojo, which was another one of Keith and Barbara’s long-standing clubs. It has since become a flourishing part of the expanded Carmarthenshire Karate family.

Ongoing success…

With the help of Sensei Eirian Jones [5th Dan] and Sensei Dan Phillips [5th Dan], Mair was also able to introduce more classes at each club, with groups for children from as young as four years old right through to adult sessions. Membership therefore grew rapidly, which has brought many benefits to the whole group.

Carmarthenshire Karate Instructors

In recent years,

  • we’ve been able to invite senior instructors from various different styles of karate to our dojo to conduct special courses for our members;
  • more and more children have been given the opportunity to learn karate, from a young age, thanks to our growing ranks of senior brown and black belts;
  • students no longer need to travel further afield for grading examinations because we have more than enough students to bring the external assessors to Carmarthenshire;
  • we’ve celebrated Welsh international caps for some of our squad members and brought back international medals and trophies in addition to Welsh and British titles;
  • the refereeing experience and qualifications within the club now reach the highest standards, all the way up to continental and international level; and
  • our non-karate activities, such as team building, family days and community events have also increased, which adds to the richness of our members’ experience and enjoyment.

Karate for all…

Karate has many benefits and is practised by students for different reasons, which we fully understand and embrace in our group. We believe that these benefits and opportunities should be available to everyone, so we fully endorse and follow the Welsh Karate Governing Body’s equality policy, which is summarised in the following statement:

‘The Welsh Karate Governing Body Ltd (WKGB) is fully committed to the principles of equality of opportunity for all, and acknowledges that sports equity is about fairness in sport, equality of access, recognising inequalities and taking steps to resolve them.

WKGB is dedicated to implementing equity in our sport, and changing the culture and structure of sport to ensure that it becomes equally accessible to all members of society whatever their age, gender, ability, disability, nationality, race, ethnicity, parental or marital status, sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs or socio/economic status.

WKGB accepts that we live in a diverse and changing society, and believes in using the power of sport to engage, motivate, improve health and fitness whilst promoting social inclusion.

Karate is about giving people the confidence to realise their potential and to be the best that they can be – WKGB is aware of its responsibility to challenge any discriminatory procedure within the sport and to demonstrate their commitment to the principles and practice of equality as stated in its Equality Policy.’

Where to start…

So if you’re in Carmarthenshire (or nearby) and you’d like to try karate, have a look through the other pages in this section, come along to one of our sessions, take a look at how you can join us, or contact us to find out more.