Shotokan Karate Leadership School

Shotokan Karate Leadership School offers Kids Karate, Adult Martial Arts, and Shotokan Karate training. The program includes leadership training along with bully awareness, stranger danger, safe-defense skills, and situational awareness training. Programs accommodate children, teenagers, adults, and those with special needs, and are tailored for a wide range of ages, skill levels, and physical abilities.

• Ages: 5–18 years old
• Schedule: Online Special 2 Weeks FREE Plus Uniform
• Price: Online Special 2 Weeks FREE Plus Uniform

Shotokan Karate Leadership School was founded in Santa Rosa, CA in 1981. Marty Callahan founded the school and serves as Chief Master and Sensei Marty Callahan. Marty Callahan is an 8th Degree Black Belt and a graduate of the Japan Karate Association Instructor Training Program.

The school offers a proprietary Shotokan Karate Martial Arts Leadership Program and a proprietary Black Belt Shoka Leader Program. Its leadership training program is modeled after the Hero’s Journey. Shotokan Karate Leadership School focuses on kids’ martial arts developing blocks that create leaders and character development skills. The program includes specialized curriculum elements such as bully awareness, stranger danger, safe-defense skills, situational awareness training, and support for children diagnosed with ADD/ADHD, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and depression. The school provides an exclusive free white paper titled “How Martial Arts Helps Children Thrive In School,” authored by Sensei Marty Callahan, and a free e-book download for first-time VIP visitors. Shotokan Karate Leadership School is described as a powerhouse of Shotokan Karate Martial Arts Leadership throughout the world.

The mission of Shotokan Karate Leadership School is to use the platform of Shotokan Karate to train leaders of the future who will solve the world’s problems and to awaken the extraordinary leader in each student.

Shotokan Karate Leadership School has been awarded the Go2 Karate Distinction Award for Santa Rosa, CA. This Go2 Karate Distinction Award acknowledges the strengthening of their local community and its members through the martial arts training they are providing.

Parents and former students have shared multiple testimonials about their experiences with the school and with Sensei Marty Callahan. Dean Jones thanked Sensei Callahan for training he received 15 years earlier, saying it gave him the foundation for a wonderful life and helped him in innumerable ways. Janice Shipley shared that her son Jared trained at the school about 25 years ago when he was 8 years old, after being bullied at school, and that he later became a physician practicing medicine in Portland, Oregon. Kim Corn described changes others noticed in her child Jordan since starting karate at Shotokan Karate Leadership School, including that he was more talkative and confident. Sherry Paine commented on seeing about 25 kids sitting up straight and listening in class and noted that morals were incorporated into the class. Jim Thompson stated that his son, now a professor at an Ohio university, was strongly influenced by what he learned at Shotokan Karate Leadership School and that the training will carry him through the rest of his life. Arise Campbell said that, compared with other instructors, Sensei Callahan sat down and talked through important topics in a way that felt very comfortable and expressed support for the positive work being done at the school.

Last updated March 28, 2026.