"My quest has been to continually improve the quality, effectiveness and applicability of my Aikido and teaching."

Burke Sensei explored several forms of practice and began Aikido training in 1979. He attended a Summer School taught by Koichi Tohei Sensei (one of Aikido's original two 10th Dans), and saw that its harmonious movement and non-destructive values meant he could commit unreservedly to training, which he set about doing.

In 1985 he was appointed full-time Assistant (apprentice) to Sensei K. Williams, the UK's most senior Professional Teacher and one of Britain's greatest ever pioneers, exponents, teachers and servants of Aikido. This was a rare honour. The extraordinary training he received had a radical effect on his development. Following this period, between 1986 and 1992 he founded Clubs in Salisbury, Ringwood, Amesbury, Newbury, Winchester and eventually Andover. For several of these years, he also ran a full-time Dojo in London and travelled each month to teach in Paris. In 2000, after 21 years, he left the Ki Federation of Great Britain and founded Isshinkai.

The years that followed were ones of experimentation, exploration of different approaches and reconnection with the origins of Aikido. He made research trips to the US and Japan, and met, among others, John Smartt Sensei, Founder of New School Aikido, Hikitsuchi Sensei, (the other of Aikido's 10th Dans) and renewed a connection with Koretoshi Maruyama Sensei, Founder of Aikido Yuishinkai. In 2004 he was awarded the rank of 7th Dan.

Since the beginning of his journey Denis Burke Sensei has continued to work in the "everyday" world and to study a diverse range of related subjects. This has led him to work helping thousands of people in several areas outside the context of Aikido, such as for charities and large corporations, with employees, unemployed graduates and with sports people, including International Athletes in several sports. His book, “Purpose & Practice”, which outlines many of the principles behind this work, is available online.

We all have a story as to how we came to be practicing Aikido.  Mine didn't start as a happy one: I had just lost someone I loved very much and was, if I’m honest, a wreck.  I was determined to move on and live my life, and so ended up making a whole bunch of new friends. Emile Swain Sensei (then a Yellow belt) was one of those friends.  

After much badgering on his part (and even more stubbornness on mine!), he finally convinced me to come along to a martial arts class for something called Aikido… or was that Ikeia-do… I wasn’t sure then.  Then I met my teacher, Denis Burke Sensei, who - despite my reluctance - managed to get me to engage and, dare I say it, have a good time.  I still wasn’t “convinced”, so I went out to a couple of other martial arts classes (they just weren’t for me!).  

It was obvious though, even after that briefest of contacts, that no other class had the ability to make me feel like a human again.  This was my first taste of real Aikido. 

Since those early days (now more than a decade ago!) I have continued to grow and love Aikido.  Particularly Isshinkai Aikido, of which I have found no equal in its beauty, creativity and ‘realness’. An incredible tool for helping people become the truly amazing people they are. 

I’ve been a civil servant, working for the UK Foreign Office in some pretty incredible locations around the world.  I’ve also had a career in the private sector, working for PwC, the then largest accounting, consulting and business advisory business in the UK.  And I’m now an entrepreneur, running my own firm in venture capital.  I’ve been an angel investor, supporting a number of early stage businesses to achieve success.  I’ve chaired patron committees for charities.  I’m also a trustee for a charity which supports the teaching of stress reducing methods.  I’ve learned a huge amount doing all this, and have grown enormously in that time, all down to the mindset that Aikido has developed in me. I attest a great deal of my successes to the skills and qualities that Isshinkai Aikido has given me. 

I look forward to sharing this with many more of you and I hope to see you on the mat soon.

I first started practising Aikido in 2005 when a housemate suggested I do something physical and with movement to counter-balance all the sitting meditation I was doing at the time - and also to get me out of my head! That first part of my training was up in Manchester and lasted until 2008 when I moved down to London.

I was very keen to continue my training, but couldn't find any Aikido club that had that same flavour of dynamic but expansive practice which would leave me feeling that I was two inches taller than at the beginning of class. I tried 5 or 6 different teachers and came away a bit discouraged, though every now and again I would give it another shot. 

Eventually, after writing to my teachers, I received a hearty recommendation for Isshinkai, which they thought had classes near where I lived in Waterloo. The first class I went to, led by Emile Swain Sensei, one of the Founders' senior students, was a bit like returning home. I knew straightaway that this is what I’d been searching for. Powerful but with a light touch, creative & playful: wanting to give people a bigger experience of what they could be.

This positive response was multiplied when actually getting to work with Denis Burke Sensei in seminars and feel the depth of his engagement with the Art of Aikido, and the elegance and ease with which he made tangible in his technique the profound ideas he was teaching us about. I attended Tuesday classes and Thursday practice, pretty much without fail from 2014, until recently when I moved to Exeter, such has been the positive effect I noticed from such consistency. I now travel the two hours up from Exeter to Isshinkan for class on Tuesdays.

 Aikido has changed my life, no question. I feel much more balanced, more grounded, more accepting and less afraid. I passed my 1st Dan black belt in Summer 2017 and that really is just the beginning of all the learning and development I feel is possible if I keep challenging myself with the teachings and ideas in Isshinkai Aikido. The more I practise the more I see how wide the application of the principles we explore through attacks and throws on the mat can be in my life off the mat.

Aikido is a practical way of bringing together the different sides within our psyche and the different energies within our bodies. When mind and body start to be co-ordinated, life can be experienced in a much more fulfilling way - and I encourage you to come and try it out for yourself, as it really is a wonderful path towards deeper connection and authenticity.

Martin Sanderson Sensei began Aikido training at Isshinkan at the age of 12 in our children’s class, taught at that time by our Founder, Denis Burke Sensei, with whom he remains a direct student. This was not his first form of training, Martin already had a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.

In Isshinkai Aikido, the minimum age for taking 1st Dan, or first degree black belt, is 18, and Martin passed his 1st Dan as soon as was possible after his 18th birthday. To date he has also passed his 2nd Dan grading and gone through our Teachers Training programme, which is a demanding two year training. Our high grades are already sufficiently qualified to coach before they enter our Teachers Training Progamme. He is currently preparing for his 3rd Dan Grading.

In his “day job” he’s also enjoying success and amply demonstrating the applicability of the skills and qualities he has practiced to develop, and the positive impact they can have on a career.

Martin Sanderson Sensei is now the Teacher in charge of our Children’s and Youth section at Isshinkan.

Isshinkai Standards

Qualified Isshinkai Teachers have
passed the most extensive Teachers’
Training Programme available in Aikido,
and continue with ongoing further
Professional Development.

Teachers in Training will have already
trained in Isshinkai Aikido for several
years before starting Teachers Training.