Kaizen Shotokan Karate Club

Kaizen Shotokan Karate Club is a martial arts school in Springfield, IL, teaching Shotokan karate with an emphasis on self-defense, respect, and character development through disciplined training. The school serves students drawn to the traditional Japanese approach to karate-do, where lessons learned in the dojo are carried into everyday life, and where physical training is paired with the cultivation of a patient, strong mind and spirit. It holds a rating of 4.80.

The school is led by Chief Instructor Steve Harvey, a 6th dan who began practicing Wado-ryu under Tatsuo Suzuki Hanshi at the Sobell Center in Holloway in 1977 before returning to martial arts in 1998 with Shotokan training at the Central Milton Keynes Shotokan Club under Senseis Lawrence Elcock and Brian Owen. He has also studied Judo, Kyokushinkai, Shukokai, and Jiu-Jitsu. He moved to Springfield, Illinois in October 2001 and trained and taught at the Shotokan Karate Club of Pawnee for nine years before founding Kaizen in October 2010. Steve has attended seminars with senior instructors in the UK and US, including Senseis Ronnie Christopher, Malcolm Phipps, Richard Amos, John Mullin, Fred Serricchio, Scott Langley, Sean Roberts, Paul Coleman, Akio Minakami, J.D. Swanson, Wayne Cottle, David Gimberline, and Bill Superfoot Wallace, and continues to host and attend training events. The name Kaizen, a Japanese concept of continuous improvement, reflects the school's wider philosophy of steady personal progress. Getting started is straightforward: newcomers can turn up and watch a lesson before deciding to join. The school is also a founding member of the Independent Shotokan Alliance, formed in 2022 by four dojos across Illinois and Ohio to share training and learning outside the politics of larger organizations.

The school is located in the Red School Mall at 1275 Wabash Avenue, about a quarter of a mile from South MacArthur Boulevard and West Stanford Avenue, and within walking distance of the Lauterbach Man Statue and the Jerome Civic Center.

With a rating of 4.80 and instruction from a 6th dan chief instructor who has trained across multiple karate styles for decades, Kaizen Shotokan Karate Club offers Springfield a rare depth of traditional Shotokan teaching.