Equipment

Clothing

The aikido clothing (GI) we wear is a traditional part of Japanese/samurai culture. These are low in cost and come in heavy or light weight for winter or summer training and with long (like judo gis) or short sleeves.

The GI Top

The GI Trousers

The Hakama (or skirt depending how you look at it)

The Zori Sandal (mat slippers)

Weapons

In Aikido, we have weapons training which there are three main weapons that are taken from traditional martial arts and others which are used but at advanced senior levels.

The Bokken - japanese white oak wooden training vir of the katana

The Jo - japanese white oak short staff (or broom handle)

The Tanto - a rubber training knife in this case but can be wooden or felt.

The Katana - this is used but only at advanced levels of senior training.

The Yari (a japanese spear) - traditionally the Jo is known as the yari but cannot be used in training for safety reasons.

The formal Tanto - non training vir though is used in women's self-defence classes such as in Winchester Judo and Martial Arts Club's women's self-defence class.