Ai Ken Judo

Ai Ken Judo Club

The photograph above appeared in the 11th March 1966 edition of the Hornsey Journal with the caption ‘Mr. R. L. Searing, a brown belt judo instructor, shows a student how to execute a fall’. The article begins ‘Since September last year 1,400 people have enrolled for classes at Crouch End adult education centre’, but the judo classes there almost didn’t begin because, although a handful of students arrived for the first class, the instructor did not. Roy Searing was one of those students, then a blue belt who had trained under Eric Dominy and Senta Yamada at the London Judo Society, and as the senior grade there, he was happy to be put forward to take the class.

The evening classes were the beginning of what was to become the Ai Ken Judo Club, with Roy Searing instructing there twice a week as a 1st kyu qualified coach at the time the picture was taken. Soon afterwards, he was elected club president and chairman at the first annual general meeting at which he offered two cups to the club to be competed for annually in knockout competitions, one for women and one for men. This was in keeping with Jigoro Kano’s idea of judo as a form of training and education that should take a modern approach - Ai Ken included many women amongst its members - while giving due deference to budo philosophy by competing in open-weight categories. The club also looked to forge links that would encourage other related martial arts disciplines; the gallery below includes pictures of an aikido club demonstration that Ai Ken were happy to host.

Twice-yearly gradings were held at the club. Photographs from July 1966 show that Roy Searing had been promoted to black belt (1st dan), but the local journal article notes that ‘The examiner was Mr Eric Dominy, a British Judo Association member who is a black belt (2nd dan) and well-known author of “Teach Yourself Judo”.’ Twenty-nine club members were graded and all passed. The following January forty-one were graded, with thirty-nine promoted by Mr Dominy (now 3rd dan). Ai Ken had become a flourishing club with three large mats that welcomed visiting clubs and promoted judo to local schools, fairs and youth clubs.

The image above was the winning entry in a competition at the Ai Ken judo club in December 1967 to design a new badge. The club, now meeting at Highgate, held a grading that same month, and 32 new and existing members were promoted.

The July ’68 grading had only 18 entered, but all passed. This grading was done under a new syllabus that expected even colour belt grades not only to fight in contest, demonstrate techniques and understand judo theory, but also to demonstrate katas and be tested on contest rules. The New Year 1969 saw a slight increase to 11 women and 13 men promoted to higher grades, but the club was soon to see a decline, due in no small part to less frequent attendance by Roy Searing after family and career pressures were compounded by a serious neck injury. Roy, by now a Divisional coach, taught intermittently at a number of smaller clubs throughout the 1970s.

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If you’d like to contribute to this page, especially if you were a member of the Ai Ken judo club or had any connection with it, we’d be happy to hear from you.

Gallery