Our Story...

Cumbria Karate Academy is made up of 4 clubs across west Cumbria: Cockermouth, Workington, Whitehaven and Egremont and teaches traditional Wado-ryu Karate. Our Chief instructor Gordon Harrison is a 6th Dan black belt with over 40 years experience.

We have the most successful competition squad in West Cumbria with many of our students competing at regional, national and international competitions. Last year we have 2 students competing at the Commonwealth karate championships in Birmingham and 5 students have been selected to compete at the Wado-kai European championships in Romania. This year 8 of our students will be competing at the Wado-Kai European championships in France.

We encourage all our students to enter competitions as it's a great way to build confidence, and it shows students what they can achieve when they put in the hard work!

Karate is great exercise for both the mind and body. It improves fitness, strength, co-ordination, flexibility, concentration, confidence, and many other aspects of well being. It's also a great way to make new friends. We pride ourselves on creating a fun, exciting environment for people of all ages, and our classes are structured to encourage students to work with different people, make new friends, and learn from each other.

Meet The Team

Our dedicated team of instructors are highly trained, and each have over 10 years of experience behind them with our head instructor Gordon Harrison having over 40 years experience in competing, teaching, and refereeing competitions.

We have a mix of both male and female instructors across our clubs and they are all police CRB/DBS checked and first aid trained. All of our instructors give up their time to teach voluntarily as they want to provide young people in West Cumbria with an opportunity to learn Karate in a safe, fun and encouraging environment.