Who are we?
Llandudno Karate is a busy and thriving Karate Dojo in Llandudno in North Wales. We currently have over 230 members ranging from 3 years to 60+ years.
Our primary focus is teaching traditional Shito Ryu Karate to children and adults. However, our club and Dojo has some additional strands:
Shito Ryu Karate Wales competition club. We have a highly successful squad who compete at regional, local and international competitions. So far in 2025 we have won 13 Gold medals, 5 Silver and 17 Bronze. Members of our squad will soon be attending the ShitoRyu World Championships held in Croatia. - Cyfle Cymru helps people affected by substance use and/or mental health conditions across Wales, to develop confidence and provide support. Our involvement with this looks like attending support group sessions offering individuals the opportunity to learn karate.
- Oni Judo and Grappling are a well established local club that moved multiple sessions to our facility. They run training for children and adults, looking at both grades and sport.
- K1 / Kickboxing. We compete in regional K1 competitions allowing our senior karate practitioners to do full contact fighting. These classes are enjoyed by our members and local community.
- Move & Burn Fitness is our non martial arts arm, ran by Jack Kelbrick. Move and Burn host PTs, small group sessions, Bootcamps and comp prep classes.
As a club we strive to maintain excellence in everything that we do, but community and enjoying ourselves are equally important.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We moved into our current dojo in 2015. Although it has served us well, we are ready for a renovation and to move into the next era of Llandudno Karate.
Our upgraded facilities will add in a second floor to our dojo giving us twice as much space - making a total 278sq/m. The ground floor will be the Move and Burn Fitness Hub. Currently our gym facilities are limited to a small area at the back of our dojo and an upstairs mezzanine. Through our renovation we will be able to expand our current gym set up making the most of Jack’s expertise.
The upstairs will be the home for all of our Martial Arts. With the additional 104 sq/m of space, our upstairs training area will be large enough to host one busy class or two smaller classes. With a dividing curtain halfway, we will be able to split the room into two and teach multiple classes at once.
In our renovated facilities, we hope to offer more for:
- Para students.
- Women.
- Vulnerable people through Cyfle.
Currently, our para students' training is incorporated within our regular timetabled sessions. With our larger facilities, we hope to offer para specific classes, and we hope to have a full para competition squad.
We'd like to have women's fighting classes encouraging current and new members to feel comfortable and confident engaging in the fighting aspect of martial arts.
Our new facitilites will allow us to offer sessions to Cyfle from our own premises. Currently, we attend community hubs across the North Wales coast with some venues not being fit for purpose for our classes.
How will your money be spent?
We are looking to raise £18,000 in total. This money will allow us to:
- Excavate subfloor to create footings for pillar supports
- Install the first floor:
- Move our current staircase
- Create an upstairs office space for coaches and staff
- Labour costs
- Material costs
- Dividing curtain to split our upstairs space into two
Students Stories
Meet Sam...
I’m Sam and I found Llandudno Karate through Cyfle. I was receiving support through Cyfle following a difficult period resulting in poor mental health. I was struggling to trust people, socialise and take care of myself - the only thing I enjoyed was looking after and walking my dogs.
After many sessions of individual and group therapy, I felt brave enough to try an activity class. I joined a local martial arts school as I had enjoyed this when I was a child. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel as though I fit in and didn’t enjoy them. I was struggling to connect to the others and felt as though I couldn’t be myself. This was a knock to my confidence and set me back a bit. I also injured my knee around then which made it even worse.
A while later, Llandudno Karate were running a course of karate sessions through Cyfle. I gave it a go. Sensei Rich commented that he could tell I had done it before. This was an immediate confidence boost and set a spark alive! After many years of feeling inadequate, the impact that comment had on my sense of self worth was incredible! Soon I started looking forward to the sessions and became invested in my progress.
When the course came to an end I was upset and took a bit of a backwards step. However, Sensei Rich and Kev invited me to become a member of Llandudno Karate and attend sessions at the dojo outside of Cyfle’s work. The sense of pride and gratitude I felt was immense.
After attending classes at Llandudno Karate, I was feeling motivated, refreshed and saw an improvement in my mental and physical health. I was more disciplined and have started seeing improvement across many areas of life, including healthy boundary setting. Coming to train in an environment that doesn’t try to change who you are - only improve yourself through hard work and dedication to yourself - is incredible.
Also, being around other neurodivergent people has changed my entire perspective on life and myself. Training at Llandudno Karate has allowed me to become more peaceful, my focus has improved, and my emotions are better regulated. Llandudno Karate has truly been life changing and I can’t thank Sensei Rich and Kev, and Cyfle enough for the opportunities you’ve given me.
Meet Ioan...
My name is loan Beards, and I began my karate journey at Llandudno Karate in February 2018. When I first started, I was a quiet and shy boy. It took me a bit longer than others to fully grasp what was expected of me, and l often needed the moves to be physically demonstrated for me to understand them. However, from the moment I stepped into the dojo, I was never treated any differently, nor was I made to feel out of place.
In January 2020, I competed in my first para karate competition in Barnsley, where I earned a bronze medal. This achievement sparked a surge of confidence in me, and I began competing at various events across the country. Now, five years later, I have participated in numerous competitions and have won 27 medals to date.
Karate has profoundly impacted my life. It has boosted my confidence, sharpened my focus, and introduced me to incredible friends. Looking back at the shy boy who walked into the dojo in 2018, I can hardly recognise him. Today, I am a black belt and a proud squad member for Shito Ryu Wales, competing in both the para and my own age categories. I've also had the honor of representing the Welsh Governing Body for Wales. None of this would have been possible without the unwavering support of my sensei. Llandudno Karate will always hold a special place in my heart.
Meet the Llandudno Karate Team
Sensei Richard Prendergast
Richard Prendergast has been training in Shito Ryu Karate for 33 years achieving his First Dan Black Belt when he was 15. He is now ranked 5th Dan and is the Chief Instructor of Shito Ryu Karate Wales, recognised by the Welsh Karate Governing Body, World Karate Federation, European Shito Ryu Karate Federation, and the World Sport Shito Ryu Karate Federation. Richard heads up both the traditional Shito Ryu Karate syllabus part of the school, and the competition squad, including Para.
Richard prides himself on his ability to explain complex karate theory in an easy to understand and accessible manner. He knows that not every student learns the same way, so caters his teaching style to the student which allows students of all abilities and backgrounds to progress from beginner through to an advanced Karate Practitioner. He ensures Llandudno Karate has a very high calibre of students, but not at the expense of enjoyment or inclusivity. Richard is Disability Inclusion Trained and has experience teaching children and adults with additional needs.
Jack Kelbrick - Move and Burn Fitness
Jack Kelbrick holds a BSc in Sports Science and Coaching along with Level 3 personal trainer and is an officially accredited Hyrox coach. He is an accredited Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) golf fitness coach, 1 of only 2 in North Wales. In addition to this, he competes in Hyrox attending 2 World Championships and 1 European Championships. He has clients online and takes Hyrox webinars which are delivered around the world in Australia, Dubai, USA and more, which are filmed at our gym. He has experience working with children and adults of all ages with different needs from competition preparation to assisting in rehabilitation after knee and hip replacements.
Cal Jones - Oni Judo and Grappling
Cal holds a Masters degree in advanced coaching practice and is one of only 15 coaches in the UK to hold a BJA level 5 and UKCC level 4 coaching certificate. He is a judo and grappling coach with 21 years experience. In addition to this, he works as a consultant for a number of coaches across the globe from a variety of different sports. He has delivered coaching revalidation events for his national governing body in judo and coaching seminars in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu across the globe, most recently in Sweden. Cal also has experience working with children and adults with disparate additional needs, ranging from Autism, Adhd & dispraxia to loss of limb patients and the medically blind.
How you can help us
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
We're really looking forward to the future of Llandudno Karate and really appreciate all donations and support. Thank you!