The City Club

The Aberdeen City Aikido Club's main training venue is St. Stephen's church hall on Powis place where we train every Thursday from 19.30 - 21.30 but please get in touch to confirm that the class is running and that you will attend (arrive after 19.00 / around 19.15).

The door to the hall is located along the side of the church (W.T.W.: ///tonic.backup.bumpy)

Dojo Leader & Instructor: Jo Duncan, 2nd Dan

The University of Aberdeen Aikido Club

After more than fifteen years of operation, The Aberdeen University Aikido Club closed its doors in 2020 as a consequence of the pandemic and that Jo no longer worked at the university. It was fun while it lasted! University students are very welcome to come and join us at The City Club.

Dojo Affiliation

We are members of the Aikido for Daily Life association (ADL) which is a member of The British Aikido Board.

We have no stylistic affiliation.

Club History

The University Club was once an Iwama Aikido dojo but their instructor left in 2004 and the club was folding. At the same time, Mike Haft (then of Banyu Hatten Aikido - BHA) arrived in Aberdeen to study and took control of the club and led its training. The club was a success and in order to allow non-university people to train in Aikido, The City Club was born on April 26th 2006. At this time, we went by the moniker "Banyu Hatten Aikido Aberdeen".

We started in a school hall on a hodgepodge of mats of all sizes and then eventually moved to The Beach Leisure Centre which we called home for some years (until July 1st 2010 when we moved to St. Stephen's). Mike left Aberdeen in early 2009, leaving Jo Duncan (then ikkyu) in charge of instruction at the clubs and we existed as a a part of BHA until mid-late 2009. When Mike decided to leave BHA, we elected to follow and changed our name to "Aberdeen Aikido Yuishinkai". 

We formed a new association called "Takagashirakai" (named after Mike's village of Hawkshead) and continued training in Aikido Yuishinkai under Koretoshi Maruyama Sensei. Not long thereafter, we were joined by our now good friends from Glasgow at Senshin Dojo (formerly Northwoodside Aikido, then Aikido Yushinkai Glasgow) and our small association started to grow and thrive for some time.

Eventually it was decided to dissolve the association with each club going their separate ways. Glasgow dojo and Aberdeen dojo each elected to join the Aikido for Daily Life association due to their ethos and diversity of stylistic approaches. Because we had met, trained with and invited members of ADL to teach us, Aberdeen clubs were accepted immediately and there we have been since early 2013.

We've gone through many changes with many people coming through our doors in the past. You are welcome to come and join our club so that you can be a part of our future.