Our club was started in November 1979 at the Saddlers Sports Centre. The chief Instructor at that time was Phil Newcombe and the club was one of the first in the UK to practice under the tutelage of Irvin Cleydon, a very well respected instructor of the sixties and seventies.
During the summer of 1981 Alan Higgs, one of Irvin’s original students, came to the UK after a visit to Japan. He introduced the system of training devised by Kenji Tomiki and practised in the Japan headquesters headed by TetsurÅ Nariyama. Our club was the first Shodokan Aikido club in the UK and was aptly named Shodokan London.
During the mid-eighties to the late nineties, Phil and his brother Jim spent a good deal of time travelling all over the UK and to Europe spreading Shodokan Aikido. Shodokan London had been responsible for producing many senior instructors who later started their own clubs and many have gone on to represent the UK in international competitions.
In summer 2003, Phil emigrated to Spain and is now teaching in clubs there as well as heading Shodokan Aikido within Europe. Today, there are four Shodokan London clubs; City University, Bromley, Greenwich and Dartford.
