Tomiki Aikido is a branch of the Japanese martial art founded by Kenji Tomiki, a direct personal student of both the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, as well as the founder of judo, Jigoro Kano. In contrast to other branches of Aikido, Tomiki emphasizes training against resistance, including freestyle practice, known as randori.
Historically, Kenji Tomiki taught at Waseda University in Japan. For a martial art to have a club, the university required a method to have competition. Tomiki developed a competitive system where one student attacks with a rubber knife for half the match, and then the knife switches hands. Defending against these attacks is quite difficult, and traditionally, this is where points were scored.
At the introductory level, students are taught based on this attack in competition. A series of basic exercises teach evasive footwork, methods of striking with the palm and edge of hand, and methods of receiving incoming attacks. There are several small categories of techniques, applied as throws, and locks against the wrist, elbow, and shoulder.
Aikido was not originally taught in this fashion, and the competition format limits the material for the safety of competitors. Morihei Ueshiba taught in a fashion whose logic was not readily apparent to most of his students. The students of his most successful in building their own organizations generally created an introductory framework similar to Tomiki (though without the competitive aspect). There is an older body of attacks and defenses seen more widely throughout the branches of Aikido. In Tomiki, this is exemplified as the Koryu kata Dai San. This is a partner exercise, broken down into a series of categories: empty hand attacks, attacks with knives, staffs, and swords, and finally, sword vs sword. Dai San gives students the opportunity to explore new techniques, and different attacks.
Finally, Tomiki Aikido was not intended to be comprehensive. Kenji Tomiki began as a highly successful, and highly ranked, Judo practitioner, and he intended his Aikido to work in concert with Judo. At a bare minimum, the Tomiki practitioner needs familiarity with Judo groundwork, in case a fight ends up there. At Evergreen, our practice of Tomiki Aikido is subsumed into Arnis de Mano, and Dragonfly Chikung. This way, the tactical and health benefits of Tomiki can be made more widely available than the only to those interested in competition.