When I was younger, my brother started attending karate lessons. Being the strange child that I was, I wanted to copy him and join in as well. So, 2 years later, I joined the beginner karate class at Key Martial Arts (known as Freestyle Martial Arts Academy at the time).
I've being doing karate here for 4 years now, and it has been awesome. The instructors are great people, with at least one of them being a tournament champion.
In the style of karate taught here (Kenpo), you do a grading at the end of each term (10 weeks or so) to see if you will qualify for the next degree/belt. There is also a holiday schedule available for the people who want to keep training in the holidays *cough* me *cough*. If you have done (I think) at least 6 lessons in one holiday, you have the opportunity to do an extra grading. I managed to do one of these, so I gained a new level at the end of the holidays.
Even with the extra grading, it has taken me 4 years to get to junior black belt rank, and I can't move up any more until I reach the age of 16, where I'm eligible to earn my senior black belt.
Between my brother and myself, I think we've been to classes at five different locations around Sydney, not counting any of the in-school and external tournaments that we've done. Thanks to an advanced, invite only class, my brother and I were also on the Demonstration Team for one of these tournaments. That was an incredible experience, that was then made better by us competing afterwards, using skills and sparring techniques that had been taught to us by the experienced and professional instructors of Key Martial Arts.
Basically: the school's great, the instructors are really nice and helpful, and it's well worth looking at the website and at least doing a trial class. read more
