Train with Pompano Beach Aikikai - Please join us!
Monthly Aikido Dues
Recurring monthly dues which help support our training by covering the price of rent, equipment, and the dojo's membership dues.
Pompano Beach Aikikai
Traditional Aikido Training
Pompano Beach Aikikai offers traditional Aikido training in Pompano Beach, Florida. We are affiliated with the Aikido World Headquarters, Hombu Dojo, through the United States Aikido Federation.
About
Our History
Founded in 2024, Pompano Beach Aikikai member trained for almost a full year at Community Park, in Pompano Beach.
We are now training in The Neighborhood Church in the "Old Pompano" area of Pompano Beach.
We are affiliated with the United States Aikido Federation.
Chief Instructor
David Mata Sensei, chief instructor of Pompano Beach Aikikai. He was formerly the Chief Instructor of Grand Rapids Aikikai and founder of Kyoseikan Dojo (2005), has been recognized as godan (fifth-degree black belt) by the Aikikai Hombu Dojo in Tokyo, Japan, and is a fully certified instructor (shidoin) through the United States Aikido Federation and previously by Birankai North America. Mata Sensei began his aikido training in 1995, spending a full year as a live-in student (uchideshi) and four years as a teacher trainee (kenshusei); he also led an Aikido program for youth for fifteen years.
Mata Sensei spent four years in the US Marine Corps, where he worked in aviation ordnance, on the Nuclear Biological and Chemical Response Team, and as an Aviation Ordnanceman, then became a Michigan State Police Trooper, where he served until his retirement, working for three years as a clandestine operative and raid team member with the West Michigan Enforcement Team and then as a Post Community Service Officer. Mata Sensei introduced the first Women’s and Children’s Self-Defense Programs to the Michigan State Police and trained hundreds of women and children in self-defense through the RAD program. He also spent seven years as a State Police Defensive Tactics Instructor providing groundfighting, weapons retention, and arrest and disarming techniques to troopers from Western Michigan. He received awards for marksmanship and a Life-Saving medal. Mata Sensei has also studied both Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (under Clint Crabtree and Professor Jorge Gurgel) and Kendo (under Yutaro Matsuura Sensei), and trained under Roo Heins Sensei in Iaido at Kyoseikan Dojo.
