Shodokan Aikido – also known as Sport or Tomiki Aikido – is a system of martial arts training devised by Professor Kenji Tomiki, an eminent student of both Jigoro Kano, the founder of Judo, and Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of traditional Aikido.
Just as Kano had applied sports science to classical jiu-jitsu to systematise modern Judo, Tomiki developed a training system based on the Aikido techniques of Ueshiba. This method of practice – Shodokan Aikido – incorporates both kata and randori (‘free play’) alongside a core of foundational exercises.
Professor Tomiki also established a competitive format in order that Aikido techniques could be tested against an opponent. Like Judo, Aikido techniques include throws, holds and strikes, but Aikido is practiced from distance apart and does not involve grappling (ne-waza).
People who haven’t trained in Aikido before often want to know how effective it is compared with other martial arts. This is a difficult question to answer, but to give you some idea here’s a video of a Tomiki Aikido practitioner, Jamie Nottingham, testing Aikido techniques in an MMA sparring session.
If you would like to know more about Shodokan Aikido, please get in touch.
Shodokan Aikido Cambridge 