Shudokan Aikido Barnstaple

Aikido is a combat effective martial art derived from the ancient Samurai fighting techniques. Unarmed Samurai developed techniques to protect themselves on the battlefield if they happened to lose their sword. The fighting art of Samurai Aikijustsu was born. Ueshiba Sensei then developed this art further into the modern art we know as Aikido.

Thanks to its Traditional roots, weapons are also a very important part of the training. We use the sword, staff and knife. We also use non -traditional weapons since we must keep abreast with modern times. However, the most important weapon is the Sword. This is because of the Samurai roots and many of our empty handed techniques are in fact derived from samurai sword techniques.