Angry White Pyjamas

Iwama Ryu North West will be running a one year Instructor programme, based in Chorley, Lancashire

In Japan there is a zero to black belt course run for the Tokyo riot police. This course is spread out over a year and is very intensive. It is also available to foreign students, interested in Aikido. A former student of this course, Robert Twigger, wrote about his experiences of this course and life in Japan, a very interesting book entitled, Angry White Pyjamas. Iwama Ryu North west has received permission from Mr Twigger to use this name and link it to our version of the course.

The whole experience of our one year programme shall be based upon the "uchi-deshi" experience. Uchi deshi simply translates as live in student. Each person to enrol on this course will live in at the dojo (training hall) for the duration of the course. Everything revolves around the study of Aikido. Students will have access to a kitchen to prepare meals, will work together to maintain the cleanliness of the dojo and work together to develop their Aikido. The whole course is centred around strong basics of the Iwama Ryu syllabus. An extensive library of Aikido books and videos will be available for study. The course will be very intensive with a minimum of five hours tuition per day, Monday to Friday. Two weekends per month will be extra training courses. Overall each student will have logged over 1000 hours tuition, prior to sitting their Shodan (black belt, first dan) test. Each student must also keep a daily logbook of study and self study to be handed in at the end of the course.

This course is not to be taken lightly. Anyone interested in attending this course must first attend an assessment weekend and interview. At the end of the course students who succeed in passing the test may go on to coaching qualifications and then teach. There is also the possibly the opportunity to stay on as instructors for the following course.

This course is costed at £5500-00 per person for the whole year. This will include 3 meals per day, Monday to Friday. Students will have to self cater on weekends. It also covers the Black Belt test and the BAB level one coaching qualification.