Fall 2026 · Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia
Karate that builds five lifelong capacities — not just better technique.
Movement. Attention. Self-regulation. Character. Contribution. Classes for kids, teens and adults on the Eastern Shore.
September 2026
Mon · Tue · Thu
Tue Sep 15
Kids Karate, ages 7–11Tue & Thu, 6:00–6:50 pm · Masonic Hall
Tue Sep 15
Teen & Adult KarateTue & Thu, 7:00–8:00 pm · Masonic Hall
Mon Sep 21
8-Week Kids Beginners CourseMondays, 6:00–6:50 pm · Marine Drive Academy
Registration is open
Pick the class,
then pick your spot.
Two ways to register this fall. The 8-week beginners course is booked through HRM Recreation. For the regular classes, fill in the registration form further down this page.
What makes it Karate 5.0
- Move well.
- Pay attention.
- Regulate yourself.
- Build character.
- Serve others.
Most martial arts programs talk about discipline and respect. Karate 5.0 goes one step further and teaches self-regulation directly — breathing, staying calm under pressure, recognising tension and releasing it. That is the keystone, and it is what students carry into school, work and home.
Karate 5.0 teaches movement to develop awareness, awareness to develop self-regulation, self-regulation to build character, and character to serve others.
Fall 2026 classes
Three ways to start this September.
Two locations, both in Sheet Harbour. The Monday beginners course runs at Marine Drive Academy; the Tuesday and Thursday classes run at the Masonic Hall. Kids train at 6:00 and teens and adults at 7:00, back to back — so a parent can train on the same night they bring their child.
Register through HRM Recreation
8-Week Kids Beginners Course
- Ages7–11
- StartsMonday, September 21
- WhenMondays, 6:00–6:50 pm — once a week
- WhereMarine Drive Academy
479 Church Point Road - Length8 weeks
- FeeSet by HRM Recreation
Register with the form below
Booked and paid through HRM Recreation, not through us — write to ken@karate5.com and I’ll send you the link. Finish the eight weeks and your child can move straight into the regular kids class.
Register with us
Kids Karate
- Ages7–11
- StartsTuesday, September 15
- WhenTuesdays & Thursdays, 6:00–6:50 pm
- WhereMasonic Hall
42 Sprott Lane - LengthOngoing weekly
- Fee$60/month on a term, or $65 month-to-month
Register with the form below
Open to complete beginners and to kids coming out of the HRM course. Or email ken@karate5.com directly.
Register with us
Teen & Adult Karate
- Ages12 and up
- StartsTuesday, September 15
- WhenTuesdays & Thursdays, 7:00–8:00 pm
- WhereMasonic Hall
42 Sprott Lane - LengthOngoing weekly
- Fee$60/month on a term, or $65 month-to-month
Register with the form below
No experience needed. Plenty of our adults started in their forties, fifties and beyond. Membership covers both nights. Or email ken@karate5.com directly.
What students get out of it
What karate does at each stage of life.
KidsFocus they can use at school
Younger children build balance, coordination and body awareness — and just as importantly, they practise listening, waiting their turn and staying with something hard without giving up.
The regulation work matters most here. A child who can notice frustration building and breathe through it has a skill that shows up in the classroom, on the playground and at the supper table.
TeensConfidence without the bravado
Adolescence brings pressure from every direction — school, friendships, phones, the future. Karate gives teens a place where the standard is clear, the progress is visible and nobody is performing for an audience.
They learn to handle anger and nerves instead of being run by them, get real physical confidence, and join a room of people who are genuinely glad they showed up.
AdultsStrength, calm, and an hour that's yours
Adults come for fitness and stay for the regulation. Mobility, strength and balance that carry into lifting, working and getting older well — plus a practical way to settle a nervous system that spends most of the week switched on.
It is also one hour a week that belongs to you, and not to your job or your family.
How progress works
You progress at your own pace,
against your own starting point.
Nobody is measured against the person beside them. We look at what you could do last month and what you can do now. That is the whole standard.
- You do not need to be fit to begin. Fitness is something training builds, not something it requires.
- Small, tall, fast, slow — every body finds its own version of a technique, and we teach to the body in front of us.
- Quiet or shy kids do fine here. Nobody is put on the spot.
- Belts are earned when the work is ready, not on a fixed schedule.
- Coming back after twenty years off is normal, and so is starting at fifty.
- Injuries and limitations are worked around, not ignored. Tell us and we adapt.
Before you come
What happens in a first class.
What to wear
Comfortable clothes you can move in and bare feet. No uniform needed until you decide to stay.
What to bring
A water bottle. That is it.
How it runs
Warm-up and movement, basics, a breathing or regulation piece, then partner work or kata. Fifty minutes for kids, an hour for teens and adults.
Can I watch?
Parents are welcome to stay for the whole class. Many do for the first few weeks.
Arriving
Come ten minutes early on the first night so we can meet you and get the paperwork done. Check which building you're headed to — Mondays are at Marine Drive Academy, Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Masonic Hall.
Not sure yet?
Email ken@karate5.com and come watch a class first. No obligation.
Your instructor
Ken Marchtaler
Renshi · 5th Dan, Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan
More than four decades in martial arts, teaching and coaching. Ken has coached at the national and international level and served as Martial Arts Commissioner for TAFISA, the international sport-for-all federation connected to the Olympic movement. Coaching for Canada’s national team at the 2007 World Martial Arts Games in Regensburg, Germany, his student Roxy Feraru won fourteen medals — eleven of them gold.
Karate 5.0 is his own program: an evolution of traditional karate that keeps the discipline, technique, kata and values of the Okinawan tradition while reconnecting them to the mind-body practices martial arts grew out of. Drawing on karate, Qigong, yoga, mindfulness, counselling and the study of human self-regulation, his teaching is less about learning to fight than about building awareness, emotional and physical regulation, resilience, confidence, compassion, and the ability to respond well under pressure.
The highest purpose of karate is not defeating an opponent. It is developing the capacity to govern oneself.
Request Information
Form Download
Click on the links below to download the PDF:
Marine Drive Academy
479 Church Point Road
Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia
Mondays, 6:00–6:50 pm
8-week beginners course, ages 7–11
Masonic Hall
42 Sprott Lane
Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia
Tue & Thu, 6:00–6:50 pm — kids 7–11
Tue & Thu, 7:00–8:00 pm — teens & adults
Get in touch
ken@karate5.com
Registration is by email — write anytime and I’ll send a form.
Register with the form above. Questions any time: ken@karate5.com
Tell me which class, the student’s name and age, and I’ll send you a membership form.
© 2026 Ken Marchtaler · Karate 5.0 · Sheet Harbour, Nova Scotia