Aikido is a traditional Japanese martial art, created by Morihei Ueshiba from a number of different martial arts he had practiced. It emphasises avoiding or diverting any force an aggressor may try to exert on you, then compromising their balance and posture to make it possible to apply a throw or joint lock. Learning how to land safely when thrown is also an essential part of aikido training.
Find out more about Aikido
We are a small friendly group of people with an interest in martial arts, who feel that aikido is the martial art that suits us best. Some of us have considerable experience of other arts, some of us don't. Our chief instructor is Mike Lloyd, a 6th dan with mearly 50 years of experience of aikido.
Enthusiasm.
No seriously, that's it. You don't need to be a particular size, shape, age or gender, and you don't need to have any particular level of fitness. You don't need any special clothing or equiprment to start, but you will probably want to get some if you decide to keep training. And we will need to complete some paperwork for insurance purposes.
We train every Tuesday evening at the YMCA Beacon building in St Helens. We normally start to arrive at 7pm to lay the the mats, ready to begin training at 7:30. We generally finish around 9 so that we can be out of the building by 9:30.