Bradford Tomiki Aikido Club

Awesome day today at the inaugural Bradford Randori Open. 70+ bouts of Randori, a whole lot of Ippons and a lot of fun overall.

Look out for a tonne of content from the day coming soon!

Men’s Individual;

- Micheal Eastwood 🥇
- Bradley Godsman 🥈
- Bradlee Clarkson 🥉

Women’s Individual;

- Mel Holmes 🥇
- Adeline Chanseau-Rigby 🥈
- Robyn Cummins 🥉

Team Event:

- Winners Team G (Finley Potter, Rachel Johnson, Arjun Mistry) 🥇

On the first Thursday of every month we host a Randori session open to all, these sessions focus on Randori theory, exercises, techniques and mentality.
Last night a Mick Pratt (3 time Randori World champion) took the session and gave us an insight on timing and mentality, great things to think about, every lesson we focus on this we get better!

On Saturday we took part in the 2nd British Aikido Association Northern Area Interclub Competition which was held in Bradford at Sedbergh Leisure Centre (our home) we took a total of 31 people to participate and alongside our partnered clubs Huddersfield and Wakefield our total entries were 56 mixed of juniors and seniors, next time our aim is 75 entered in a local competition!🤞🏽

Big shoutout to all the clubs that entered;

- Bradford Tomiki Aikido Club (Sedbergh)
- Bradford Tomiki Aikido Club (Kent’s)
- Dublin Tomiki Aikido Club
- Huddersfield Tomiki Aikido Club
- Wakefield Tomiki Aikido Club
- Ichiban Leeds
- Scotthall Leeds
- Yon Ju Hachi (Harrogate)
- Yon Ju Hachi (Collingham)
- Yon Ju Hachi (Garforth)

The competition was really well ran and our competitors did amazing considering it was most of their first competition! We’re looking forward to the next one!

Thursdays session was aimed to training hard for the BAA Northern Area Competition next weekend, Kata focus followed by Freeplay drills and exercises!

Finished off with our clubs national anthem, I WANT TO MAKE SOME NOOOOISE!🥋

Very successful session this evening, we have recently implemented a new session plan for the first Thursday of every month. These sessions will be an open Randori evening going through theory, rules, exercises and doing Randori to learn and prepare for the next world championships which will be held in Poland next year. This evening we ran through the timing of when to create balance breaks, getting into the mindset of striking with Tanto and working on the distances and closure of distance when facing someone with the Tanto, we then finished off with active Hikitatigeiko and it ended up being a sweaty one.

These sessions are open to anyone who would like to learn Randori and we are extending the invitation to anyone of any club, affiliation and background to attend them, we hope to see more attending next month!👊🏽

Coach Robyn took the lead taking the class this evening as we said goodbye and good luck to Ant as he moves to Hull to start studying to become a doctor. Ant is a shining example of our club, he started with us around 4-5 years ago and his growth has been exceptional, he quickly became one of the team and can boast being a 1st Place International medalist for Open Kata earned in Japan 2023. This isn’t the end as we know where he lives… but seriously T / Wabagee all the best, your weekly presence will be utterly missed. ❤️

Great Senior class last night, recapping the Koryu Dai San and the importance of recognising its a traditional self defence kata. Lovely to see a mat of mixed ages and mixed belt colours!

We practice every Thursday at Sedbergh Leisure Centre from 8-9.30, we’re always looking for people to trial a class and see if what we do is crazy enough for them. No experience needed.

We’re looking to double our junior and adult class over the next year, if you know anyone who falls in categories below let us know as they will qualify to join our class;

- Being Human
- Able to Smile
- Loves Dad Jokes (Gaz our coaches speciality)
- Open to increasing confidence levels like never before
- Open to losing a bit of weight
- Open to training with a club that boasts multiple WORLD champions

If you are any of the above you are welcome at our class!

We promise the hardest thing you will do is stepping on the mats.

Last night we surprised Saira with a grading before she goes away on holiday to Morocco. We’re more than happy to announce that she was successful and grades from 4th Kyu to 3rd Kyu. Saira is an absolute delight to have in our class and has been training with us now for just over a year, she has developed confidence, understanding and always puts 100% in every week. Congratulations Saira, don’t get too comfortable to it as 2nd Kyu (Blue) will be next!

Fantastic session from last night, recapping Randori No Kata in prep for the club grading at the end of this month, finishing off with some dynamic Tanto Kagarigeiko and dodgeball, hardworking as ever. 🥋