Sensei Norman Ford first started Aikido in 1968 after a fellow lorry driver of small stature showed him nikkyo.
Eventually finding a club in Newport, he turned up wearing a Girlings boiler suit – Sensei Williams and Sensei Val Smith later told me he also wore it on attending his first course in the Rhondda – thinking to himself “there’s not a lot they can teach me, I was in the army.”
When he woke up the following day, he thought he had the flu, as he was aching from head to foot!
With his military background, the discipline, etiquette and principles of Aikido really suited him.
I first met him in 1974 when he was one of five Dan grades at a club known as The British, which was being taught by Second Dan Gwynn Rees.
The club closed in 1976, and in the summer of 1978 I happened to meet Sensei Glynn Smith who told me that Norman was opening a club in Pontypool leisure centre. I turned up in my new kit, met some familiar faces, and noticed a change in Sensei Ford – a softer side. The method of teaching was different, but the principles were there and it was now called Ki Aikido (shin shin toitsu).
Over those many years the club grew. When he was invited to take his Third Dan, the members rallied round to help, not with the throws but with the Japanese names – do any of the senior grades remember ushiro tekubitori kubishime?
In 1985, along with other teachers, he visited Japan for a seminar. Later his words were that he enjoyed Japan the country, but wasn’t impressed by the Aikido.
In 1990, he was asked to represent the Ki Federation and teach three young men in Romania – the country had just overthrown their dictator and now had a new freedom.
He was eventually awarded the grade of Seventh Dan. Anyone who met him will remember his humility, warmth, and down-to-earth attitude to life. He would be embarrassed if you called him Sensei if he wasn’t teaching, sometime whispering out of the corner of his mouth “when no one is about, call me Norman”.
He would meet up with Les Bragg from Plymouth at Mrs Puddy’s B&B. She would call them the Two Old Samurais.
Anyone who met him will have fond memories of him on and off the mat, probably enough stories to fill a book.
In December 2023, he suffered a massive stroke, and at one time it was touch and go. Thanks to Tim Brown from the Pontypool club and Sensei’s close friends he pulled through and was well looked after.
He passed away 26th October 2025 after a long illness, but I will always remember how he lived, and I will miss him.
Sensei Woolfall
Panteg Ki Aikido Club