Huddersfield man’s dreams come true as he opens new martial arts club

Huddersfield is to get an exciting new martial arts club from September.

Bradlee Clarkson says it will be a dream come true when he opens Tomiki Aikido Club on Monday, 4 September, at Huddersfield Leisure Centre in The Combat Room. Classes will be from 6.30-8pm every Monday and cost £5 per lesson. Open ages 5-16.

Huddersfield Tomiki Aikido Club is a member of the BAA (British Aikido Association). The BAA has both a Tomiki Aikido and Traditional Grading Syllabus Tomiki Aikido, otherwise known as Sport Aikido, which is a martial art that focuses on the use of locks and pins to throw opponents using their own movement.

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He says: “It differs from traditional aikido in the respect we host National, European and world championship competitions, in competitions we have an event called Randori which is where two opponents will fight on a score-based fight, much similar to judo if thrown effectively the more points you will get.

“One player has use of a Tanto (foam batton) which they have to try and hit the other person (in the chest area) who is trying to throw for 1.30 seconds, once the time of the person with Tanto stops they swap roles, each player gets 1.30 to try and either strike with Tanto or trying to avoid tanto strikes and then using Aikido to throw.

“Randori takes these principles and asks the Aikidoka to apply them in an unstructured/non-sequenced manner to see if the Aikidoka can decide which Aikido technique to apply. Bradlee said: “I began Tomiki Aikido at the age of four in 2000 and have trained ever since. I am now a 1st Dan in the sport and aspire to work my way through the grading syllabus to eventually one day be a 8th Dan (highest grade achievable) through 2000 – 2011 – I competed as a junior competitor winning Gold titles in every age group achievable (U8, U10, U12, U14, U16).”