The Aikido Center of Atlanta

Aikido Center founder, Rodney Grantham, was first exposed to Aikido when he took ukemi for the legendary Koichi Tohei in 1967. He Began his martial arts training in Japan in 1950. He earned his first degree black belt in Judo there before returning to the U.S. where he rose the rank of 3rd Dan. During the early 1960’s he was first exposed to Aikido and began making trips to New York to study under Yoshimitsu Yamada. In 1967 he began offering Aikido classes at his “Black Belt School of Judo”. These classes were the foundation of what soon became the Aikido Center of Atlanta. After many years of practice, he became one of the first non-Japanese to be awarded the rank of 6th Dan. Grantham Sensei was a pioneer in introducing traditional Japanese martial arts to the Southeast. In 1989, after many years of teaching and shepherding the growth of Aikido throughout the region, Grantham Sensei retired to the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Janet. Grantham Sensei passed away in 2008, but his legacy is carried into the future by the hundreds of Aikidoka he influenced throughout his life as a Martial Arts pioneer.