Toronto Goju Ryu Karate
80 Winchester Street M4X 1B2 Toronto, ON, Canada

Says it all in the title.

RE-OPENING - SEP 14 Great news! It's official. Our new home, at least until the end of this calendar year, will be the Winchester Street Theatre (80 Winchester St) - Studio B. Classes will re-start on Monday Sep 14th.... Classes will be every Monday and Wednesday nights from 6:30-8pm (with open training time from 8-8:30pm). That's an extra hour of training every week. Can't wait to see everyone's smiling faces (I'll just assume there's a smile behind the mask)! More details to come on building access and Covid procedures. Masks will be mandatory in the building and during training. See you in class soon!

Working some sticky hands and sensitivity drills this week. #feelings #chisao #itsallkarate #torontokarate #gojuryu #tgrk #morethankickingandpunching

Hi all, We're still waiting on the ok to open up again. Keep following us here for updates if you're interested in our dojo.

This may be a one-up challenge to the mannequin challenge the dojo hilariously did (in my absence) a couple of years ago.

IMPORTANT NOTICE RE: CLASSES and Covid-19 Toronto Goju Ryu Karate will be cancelling all classes for the next 3 weeks (tentatively resuming Tuesday April 7). Given the close proximity to each other while training and in an effort to align with schools shutting down and other efforts to minimize virus spread, it makes sense to do so. The goal is to get everyone on-board with social distancing early and hopefully across the board so that we don't have to prolong these more sev...ere precautionary measures. Thank you for your understanding. Please don't hesitate to reach out with questions directly.

A big thank you to my good friend Sensei Mike McCarthy from @natsuokakarate for teaching an amazing session at our dojo the other night. Lucky to have such excellent and talented friends. #torontokarate #tgrk #morethankickingandpunching #martialbuddies

When you may have gone a little too hard on your training buddy. #gooduke #trainhard #morethankickingandpunching #tgrk #karatetoronto

For anyone who hasn't seen it, this was a demo we did at McMaster University a few years back. Amazing job by Brett, Shireen and Sheryl. The more we can do to dispel the myths that karate is only for kids, is just punching and kicking or that it's ineffective as a self defence system, the better.... https://youtu.be/m3_2tmV_6Ps See more

#nuthin2seehere #newtoy #lightlyusedbob #tgrk #torontokarate #morethankickingandpunching

Some fun live-action takedown drills in this week’s classes. #sizedoesntmatter #practicalkarate #whatkaratestancesare4 #torontokarate #torontogojuryu #tgrk #cabbagetowntoronto #cabbagetown

Doctor’s recommend at least 75mins of moderate cardio and working your muscles twice a week. Oh hey! our classes are 90 minutes each 2X a week and include muscle and heart workouts. Coincidence? Yes. But still. Come out and train! Strengthen muscles as well as heart to stay fit and healthy, say top doctors https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-49609597

Practicing some live action take-down drills. Size doesn’t matter.

Another successful training camp this year. Amazing to have sensei Mike McCarthy and my sensei (Philip McColl) each teach a session. Not to mention the usual knife throwing, cold-water kata, BBQ and swim afterwards. Thanks to everyone who came and made this a success.

Working some individualized self-protection scenarios in class last night. #practicalkarate #beprepared #dontletthemcrossyourline #thinkahead #individualizedisaword #torontokarate #torontogojuryu #tgrk

Using traditional forms for self defense. #practicalkarate #seipai #morethankickingandpunching #tgrk #cabbagetown #torontomartialarts #torontokarate

Working some chokes during Friday night fun training (ok, all training is fun). Couples that train together, stay together. ;)

Another photo from the same sequence. This sequence is in a few of our Goju forms/kata. It’s also good fun.

Using traditional forms/kata for practical self defence. Included some pad work to get a feel for actually hitting something using these techniques.

Fun class tonight with break falls and basic ground defence. Well, I had fun.

Karate, if trained and taught properly, is much more than kicking and punching. To be a practical self-defence system, you need to include striking, grappling, throws etc. Luckily, that's all included in our kata/forms. Check out our YouTube channel if you like this video. Better yet, come out to class and have some fun in person.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19Ie4qakdvI

Classes continue on Tuesday Jan 8! Message us if you're interested in trying a couple of free classes. "The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." ... - Lao Tzu See more

It’s important to hit something once in a while. Making sure you’re generating power on each strike is key. We’ve been working practical self defence from the Goju forms using pads lately (at least the sequences with strikes).

Full house last night and some great energy

Some great pics taken by Shireen Nadir-Santana from our seminar this weekend (thank you). It was an honour to share the stage with my Sensei and Sensei Michael Mccarthy. And thank you to everyone who braved the weather to attend.

Running through the basics. A house is only as strong as its foundation.

The annual holiday party! One of many TGRK social events. I swear we do get some training in.

Some pics and videos from the December 2017 grading

ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW DOJO LOCATION! Great news Starting Januray 9th, 2018, we'll be running classes out of The School of Canadian Contemporary Dance Theatre (CCDT) at Parliament and Carlton (509 Parliament St).... The studio picture doesn't do it justice, but the space is a bit bigger than our previous location at the Adelaide Club, has 20' ceilings and the floors are sprung wood. In the summer months, we'll have access to a larger studio at the same location. There are also proper change-rooms. And of course, lots of choices for post-class thirst quenching. Class times will go back to the usual Tuesdays 7-8:30pm and Thursdays 6-7:30pm. Parking: There is plenty of street parking as well as a lot across the street (on Aberdeen). Access by TTC: From College Station: Eastbound on the College Streetcar to Parliament Street, walk a half-block north on Parliament From Castle Frank Station: Southbound on the Parliament bus to Carlton Street, walk a half-block north on Parliament

Check out our new intro video, from our good friends at Nohvel media.

A great visit from my sensei, who generously made the treck from Hamilton to teach a class.

Good fun with the bo staff and knife throwing

Still really impressed with this demo at McMaster University a few years ago by our very own Shireen, Brett, and Sheryl. They put a lot of work into this. The demo was done about 5-6yr ago.

Quick video of a self-defense sequence common across several of our forms (knee/kick and rising elbow strike).

It's hard to believe we just celebrated the 10yr anniversary for the dojo. It was great to see old friends as well as current students. Each of which has contributed in one way or another to the dojo over the last 10yrs. I feel very lucky to have such a great group of folks to travel the path with. It's all of us walking that path together that make a dojo.... Here's to the next 10yrs!

Pics from the dojo's annual holiday party

A few highlights from the day, pre-BBQ and swim.

Time to start updating this page with some more interesting material. Photos from past events to be added shortly.

Can't believe the dojo has been open for 7yrs now. Time flies.