AIWa Founder - Gary E Swift Saiko-Shihan
Gary Swift was born in Leigham Terrace, Plymouth, Devon, in 1956. He started his martial-arts training at the early age of 10 at his junior school at Laira Green. His first taste of martial-arts was learning the popular systems, at that time, of Ju-jutsu and Judo.
After a move to Prince Rock Senior School he was also introduced to the skills of Thai-boxing, known then as Kickboxing, by one of his gym teachers.
Upon his arrival to the South of England in 1972, from Liskeard, he started Wado-ryu Karate in Guildford and Bisley (Surrey), under his most influential Instructor Mick Rapley (5th Dan), in 1974 (affiliated to the United Kingdom Karate Federation (later to be known as the United Kingdom Karate-do Wadokai)).
Regular instructors at this time included Suzuki Tatsuo Hanshi, Maeda Tadayuki Sensei, Shiomitsu Hanshi and Kobayashi Katsumi Sensei.
From this day onwards he studied numerous other forms of Karate, as well as Shorinji-kempo, Muay-Thai, Malaysian Taekwondo (Thoi-kuen-do), Korean HoSin-sul Hapkido, various weapons systems, and a variety of other Japanese, Korean, and Chinese martial-arts.
Today he is holder of numerous titles and ranks in martial-arts including 7th Dan in Wado-ryu Karate, 2nd Dan in Korean HoSin-sul Hapkido, and 1st Dan in Malaysian Taekwondo. He has over 30 years teaching experience and over 40 years (including international) training experience.
He is the Founder-President of the Alliance of International Wado-ryu (AIWa est. 1982), and Chief Instructor of British Wadokai (BWK) formerly known as the Domei Kokusai Wadokai (DKW est. 1976).
He is also recognised within the Japanese Karate Federation's Wadokai England (to which he is General Secretary) and is member of the English Karate Federation.
Gary Swift Kyoshi has also had the honour of training, and being graded, under Ohtsuka Hironori Meijin 10th Dan (founder of Wado-ryu) in 1976. Other instructors have also included the famous: Tomiyama Keiji 10th Dan Shihan (Shito-ryu), Hoi Hean Thow 7th Dan (Thoi-kuen-do, Tong-long, Bo-jutsu, Escrima), Dr. Julian S Lim 8th Dan (Hapkido, HoSin-sul).
His return to Plymouth, in July 2004, has allowed him to open new clubs and build a new South-western based organisation, Wadokai Southwest, under the JKF-Wadokai England banner.