Arun Aikido News
September 2021
The Arun Aikido Club has been offering regular offline newsletters to our members since 1992. We now also include them on the internet.
After 18 months of cancelled classes, the Arun Aikido Club finally resumed training with a unique Aikido seminar on Sunday 29th August 2021.
For now, we will continue to use our online payment system. All bookings and payments can be made at our Arun Aikido Club page.
Our Aikido seminar was conducted by Sensei Tony Wilden and assisted by Sensei Robin Wilden and Sensei Natasha Hadwick. Students who were present... Samuel Wilden, Roman Penzes, Daniel Grey, Richard Love, and Aleksander Dwelly.
Sensei Tony took the students through a long warm-up. This was to ensure that students were loose, relaxed and stretched thoroughly.
We then covered breakfalls, kihon dosa movements, followed by several partner exercises, a few basic and advanced techniques with principles and theory.
During the seminar Sensei Tony used Samuel as his uke, and Samuel was also asked to demonstrate a brown belt technique from the grading syllabus.
Grading Certificates
and Belt Awards
At the end, new belts and grading certificates were awarded... congratulations!
Richard Love - Green Belt
Daniel Grey - Green Belt
Aleksander Dwelly - Green Belt (junior)
Special Award
There was also a special surprise award to Samuel Wilden. Sensei Natasha Hadwick, Samuel's Sensei, and mother gave a short speech outlining the years of hard work Samuel had invested since 2010. She also thanked him for his support over the years with the junior students, and his serious attitude to training.
Sensei Natasha then revealed, and awarded, as agreed by all instructors, the honour of the rank of 1st Dan black belt (junior) to Samuel Wilden.
He was informed that the rank of black belt has only been awarded to 7 other people since the club was founded by Sensei Tony in 1992. They are...
Sensei Robin Wilden - 3rd Dan
Sensei Natasha Hadwick - 2nd Dan
Sensei Edward Snodin - 1st Dan
Julian Jessup - 1st Dan
Ken Ryall - 1st Dan
Ian Upstone - 1st Dan
Kevin Attrill - 1st Dan
Samuel Wilden - 1st Dan (junior)
Samuel joins this elite group of people who consistently trained hard over many years to achieve this high level of achievement. Qualities required to reach this level are... train regularly, work hard, help other students, and be open minded.
We hope to see more students and some beginners at our next Aikido seminar.
Samuel's Nannie Josephine and his brothers Leo and Mikey were present too.
