Bugeisha aikido ruislip

02/09/2026

🥋 Tuesday Training at Bugeisha Aikido Club

Tuesday’s session was dedicated to techniques performed in response to a shomen uchi attack.

Sensei Richard placed particular emphasis on the first of the three fundamental elements of effective defence — taking your partner’s balance. As always, plenty of attention was also given to the quality of movement itself: fluidity, relaxation and the correct use of the whole body.

We also spent time on something that is just as important in our training — the mental side of Aikido. Calmness, presence and the ability to respond to what is actually happening in the moment are just as important as the technique itself.

Despite the group still being slightly smaller due to the end of the holiday season, the session once again took place in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, with plenty of good training and positive energy.

🥋 If you would like to discover Aikido and learn the principles of self-defence, you are very welcome to join us at Bugeisha Aikido Club in South Ruislip every Tuesday.

The dojo doors are open to everyone — training starts at 8:00 pm.

No previous experience is needed. Just come along and give it a try.

20/08/2026

🥋 Tuesday training at Bugeisha Aikido Club – fundamentals, development and plenty of good energy

Tuesday evening on the mat was another opportunity to return to the fundamentals of Aikido, but also to test ourselves in slightly more demanding techniques.

We worked on basic forms such as ikkyo, nikyo, sankyo and kote gaeshi, and then expanded the training with more advanced techniques, including sumi otoshi and tenchi nage, also in response to ushiro – rear attacks.

As always, the instructors at Bugeisha Aikido Club paid particular attention to what is most important in Aikido – the fundamentals of movement, correct use of the whole body, and especially the hips. It is these seemingly simple elements that often determine whether a technique becomes natural, fluid and effective, or remains merely a set of memorised movements.

During the session led by Sensei Wayne, there was also work on ukemi – breakfalls, mobility and increasing flexibility, which allow us to move on the mat more freely and safely.

And because we are Bugeisha… serious training definitely does not mean serious faces for two hours. 😄 There was plenty of hard work and learning, but also lots of jokes and laughter while studying and refining self-defence techniques together.

For many of us, time spent on the mat is not just training. It is also a great way to switch off from everyday life, clear the mind, move the body and spend a few hours in genuinely good company.

🥋 The doors of the Bugeisha Aikido Club dojo are always open.

If you have never trained Aikido before, that’s not a problem. You do not need to be fit, flexible, or have any martial arts experience.

Just come along, step onto the mat and give it a try.

You might discover something you never expected.

Beginners are always welcome.

13/08/2026

Tuesday’s session was a great reminder that good Aikido is built on solid foundations.
Our instructors dedicated the session to practising fundamental Aikido techniques from yokomen uchi — a diagonal strike to the side of the head — with particular emphasis on three key elements: distance, timing and taking your partner’s balance.
The session was not focused solely on the techniques themselves. The instructors gave plenty of individual attention to each student, helping us work on our own habits and areas for improvement — whether that was hip movement, reducing the unnecessary use of strength, becoming more relaxed, or developing smoother and more natural movement.
We finished the session with a short randori practice, this time removing one of our main senses — sight. Training without relying on vision gave us the opportunity to focus more closely on contact, movement, spatial awareness and what we could feel through our partner.
And, as always at Bugeisha, the whole session took place in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, with plenty of smiles and laughter along the way. 😄
Whether you already have experience in martial arts or have never stepped onto a mat before, you are very welcome to come along, meet the club and give Aikido a try.
Come and train with us — you may be surprised by how much there is to discover in even the simplest movement.
🥋 Beginners are always welcome.

23/04/2026

Tuesday nights training was a natural continuation of the bokken work we began at Sunday’s seminar in Poole — and you could really feel we were stepping things up a level.
The instructors at Bugeisha Aikido Club placed a strong emphasis on timing, technique and coordination — with particular attention to hip movement, which makes a huge difference. Richard, Marek and Wayne shared their experience and knowledge in a relaxed, and at times very humorous, atmosphere — exactly how good training should feel.
A great evening in excellent company and a brilliant mental reset — two hours to switch off from everyday challenges that really makes a difference.
The doors of Bugeisha Aikido Club are open to anyone who wants to begin their journey in this unique martial art.
We train every Tuesday, 8:00–10:00 pm in South Ruislip.
Join us — start your Aikido journey

03/12/2025

We might recall that when we first started to practice aikido we were very concerned with the arms and the hands, the wrist locks and throws, and how to be strong enough to control our partner. This is what we first saw, this is what we perceived. We may have used a lot of upper body and arm strength because strength was all we could reference at the time. The aesthetic flowing movements, the powerful throws, the control, really seemed to come from having a strong upper body and arms.

Eventually, we came to understand that it was actually the lower body that drove movement forward, that power comes from the ground and is driven by the center - but changing was difficult. Especially if we had previously been successful using arm strength.
The hope was that as we practiced and became more and more familiar, we would learn to relax -shifting the energy downward, dropping the shoulders, and naturally assigning the weight toward the undersides.
Oddly enough, even knowing this concept cognitively does not make the physical shift easy. Habits are hard (tho not impossible) to extinguish because they become ingrained in the brain's neural pathways.
However, with awareness, mindfulness, and attentive focus, the paradigm can shift. We learn, we unlearn, and then we relearn.

G. Breeland, 6th dan

24/06/2024

24/06/2024

“Aikido, in its true Ki form, is a fierce art piercing straight through the centre of opposition.“

“Aikido is generally believed to represent circular movements. Contrary to such belief, however, Aikido in its true Ki form is a fierce art piercing straight through the centre of opposition. The nature of the art being such that you are not supposed to adapt yourself to your partner by making a wide oblique turn of your body but are called upon to find your way onward while twisting your hips.
Since you are practising Ki exercise in this particular instance, you are expected, ideally speaking, not to touch your partners hands and feet. This does not mean that the act of leading your partner’s Ki and thereby adapting yourself to and harmonising with him may well be omitted. Real Ki exercise is the ultimate form of flowing exercise.”
After performing Ki exercise the Founder once observed that: “I am what I am today precisely because I have been carrying on solid exercises for as long as 60 years”.

-Morihiro Saito Shihan, 9th dan

30/04/2024

“There is no such thing as failure in Aikido; only opportunity, reaction, adaptation, evolution.”

“You must be studying what is difficult for you, not what is easy. This does not mean difficult struggling with Uke, it means struggling with your own temptation to “do what you know.” You must be making mistakes, even in front of your students; how you respond to your mistakes is a very important element of leadership.
You must practice shugyo, and discover your weaknesses.
You must identify and study the things that you cannot do, but that others can. No matter how old you are, you can continue to accomplish things you could not do the day before.
You must find new insights, seek new changes inside yourself.
You must be willing to challenge your beliefs, the things that you believe are facts, the foundations of your skill and knowledge…you must not treat today’s attacker like yesterday’s attacker, you should seek that what you know to be true of Aikido today can be different than what you knew to be true yesterday.”

-Mitsugi Saotome Shihan

Excerpt from article “Saotome Sensei on Getting Stuck on the Mountain”, fr Aikido Chuseikan, 2016

Original article:
https://tampaaikido.com/articles/saotome-sensei-and-getting-stuck-on-the-mountain/

28/04/2024

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09/01/2023

Our first class for the year will be tomorrow at 8pm at South Ruislip community centre. If you want to try something new or come back to training after a break feel free to come and join us. First class is always free.