Henry Lynch

Henry Lynch (5^th Dan) started his Aikido journey over 36 years ago and has been helping people learn Aikido for over 22 years. He has also studied judo, kendo and Shrinjo-kempo.

Sensei Henry is the Chief Instructor of the Riai Aikido Association which has schools throughout New Zealand. Henry founded the Riai Aikido Wellington School in 1993. He is currently based in Auckland, where he also founded the Riai Aikido Learning Centre. A life member of Riai Aikido Association, Sensei Henry is one of only two people to ever be given this honour.

He regularly travels to the USA to practice with his Sensei Shihan Robert Nadeau (7^th Dan) who studied with Aikido's founder Morihei Ueshiba. Shihan Nadeau regularly travels to New Zealand to conduct seminars and workshops.

Sensei Henry is a past Foreign Correspondent for the USA based Aikido Today Magazine and was an excutive member of the Aikido Association of NZ.

He regularly conducts seminars and workshops where he focuses on the "communication system" between uke and nage. His workshops are known for the visual tools he employs to explain the concepts of aikido, e.g. Henry's famous bunny ears to demonstrate the use of "where the head goes the body must follow" as an explicit visual example of Aikido's basic self defense technique of Ikkyo.

Sensei Henry currently teaches at the Riai Aikido Learning Centre in Auckland city.