Classes
Instruction is oriented to adults and young adults (12+). We consider younger students on an individual basis and are happy to have children train with their parents, but we have no separate kids' classes.
Sessions are 90 minutes long. We practice traditional techniques, do frequent full-contact training on pads, and incorporate body-weight strength-training and stretching.
Given the continued public health threat of COVID, we are maintaining measures to protect our members and our community. We have seven windows which we open as much as the temperature allows and monitor ventilation with a CO2 meter. We run both a mechanical HEPA filter and a UV air purifier. Integral to our tradition is the commitment to take care of each other and the larger community.
However, given that the data available to us show there has been a sustained low in the prevalence of COVID, we are now making masking optional on one of our three in-person instructional days (Tuesday evening). Masking remains mandatory in our other classes. We have members who are immunocompromised or have immediate family who are, so we will do our best to safeguard their well-being.
We believe that listening to science means adapting our policies according to local conditions and the best advice we have.
Lucy, one of our black belt instructors, doing plyometric chest-clap push-ups
New students are welcome anytime! Anyone with a sincere desire to learn Seibukan is invited to try a class for free, regardless of experience or level of fitness. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail or text Doug (contact information is at the bottom of each page) or use the contact form below.
Class Schedule and Fees
In person: Tuesdays and Thursdays 1900-2030 and Saturdays 1000-1130.
Online: Sunday 1100-1200 MT and Wednesday 1900 - 2000 MT.
Fees (in-person)
First class is free; first month is $50, which covers mandatory annual Karate Alberta dues.
After that, $70 per month or $710 per year ($130 discount). If three or more members from the same household are training in-person, the tuition for the family is $180 month. We are privileged to have a special relationship with Strathcona High School and its students and staff can train in our dojo for zero tuition.
From the beginning, our policy has been that anyone of good character with a sincere desire to learn Seibukan karate should be given an opportunity to do so, regardless of their financial circumstances. Our tuition is among the lowest in the city, but if you want to try our karate and can't afford our regular rates, please contact us and we will make arrangements which will allow you to train.
Fees (online)
First class is free. First month is $50 for students 12+ and $45 for students under 12. This covers mandatory annual Karate Alberta dues. Thereafter, tuition is $45 per month for an individual or $60 per month for a family of any size.
Facility and Location
We train in the beautiful dance studio of Strathcona High School, 105 A St NW at 73 Ave NW in Edmonton. The studio has sprung hardwood floors and mirrored walls. There is plenty of free on-site parking, and buses stop nearby on both 106 St and 82 (Whyte) Ave.
Education and karate as the transformation of what you are: a little more about our approach
Few would dispute the possibility of radically transforming your body through good nutrition and exercise. We understand that we can greatly change our physical selves, even if most of us don't. That can start with something as simple as doing push-ups regularly.
The transformation of the body is an alternative trope for learning. When education is conceived as the acquisition of skills and knowledge, it's as if those are objects you can possess. Hence the metaphor of adding to your toolbox. What you've learned is what you have.
What you own is structurally and conceptually different from what you are. You, the subject, use the knowledge, the object you have acquired. As the image of the toolbox implies, this can be very useful.
Yet changing what you are, including but beyond your body, is very different from adding to what you own. The first line of our dojo kun (the oath of the dojo that we recite every class) is, "Jinkaku kansei ni tsutomeru koto 人格完成に努めること": "Seek perfection of character."
It's common to say someone has character, but that's misleading, because character is what someone definitively is. It's what you are.
Unfortunately, for a lot of karateka, the dojo kun means no more than polishing the selves they already adore, so they shine a little more brightly. For others, it's just empty words. And then there are the self-centered, boastful, bigoted, and ignorant.
I think we need to take the dojo kun seriously. For all but the terminally narcissistic, perfection of character is an impossible ideal, and the seriousness of a karateka can be measured in how they recognize the distance between what they are and what they should be.
And how much they're willing humble themselves and sweat to get a little closer.
There is no reason why anyone who practices karate needs to be that serious. A person can benefit a lot from karate as just exercise. But for the more serious, seeking the impossible perfection of character portends fundamental changes in who and what they are changes that they may not even be able to imagine at right now. It's a lot more than adding to your toolbox. Yet I think this is ultimate power of education far beyond good martial arts, but exemplified in them.
The seriousness of karate is the potential to radically transform us.