Alan Roberts - Chief Instructor
5th Degree Aikikai, Degree 3 Cheng Hsin
Alan began practicing aikido in 1987, and from 1988 to 1994 he studied with Morihiro Saito, in Iwama, Japan. His first year was spent living in the dojo as an uchideshi, literally an inside apprentice. It was a spartan lifestyle, living communally and sharing responsibility for the daily upkeep of the dojo, the Aiki-shrine and the surrounding grounds. It was a great adventure for an 18 year old, providing total immersion in an aikido lifestyle with one of the art's leading teachers.
From his second year Alan lived in a tiny house near the dojo. He explored other aspects of life in Japan including studying sado, the way of tea, as well as training with aikido friends outside of the dojo, and mountain biking through the surrounding mountains and countryside.
While training in Iwama Alan came across Peter Ralston’s Principles of Effortless Power and was intrigued by its depth and apparent similarity with the expression of aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba. 
Alan returned to New Zealand in 1994 and was coaxed into teaching. Soon his enthusiasm took over and he had a thriving school to look after. He still thumbed through his copy of Principles and was surprised in 1996 to see a poster advertising Peter Ralston teaching in New Zealand. Of course, he signed up straight away. Alan was deeply affected by meeting Peter. He had trained with many highly respected teachers in Japan, direct students of Ueshiba O-Sensei, but here was someone extraordinary, someone who was clearly a master, and also an accomplished teacher.
Alan’s perspective on aikido was completely changed. He didn’t meet Peter again until 2004 when he travelled to the new Cheng Hsin Centre in Texas for the Spring Retreat, returning to Auckland as a Cheng Hsin trainer. Alan has returned to Texas to train with Peter as well as hosting him in New Zealand.
In 2010 Alan served a seven month apprenticeship with Peter Ralston at the Cheng Hsin Centre in the USA. This is an intensive programme of fulltime study aimed as much at reorienting one's relationship to life, self, reality, and others as it is to developing martial skill.
Alan holds a Fifth Dan in Aikido and a Degree Three in Cheng Hsin. He is also one of the world's few certified teachers of Cheng Hsin and is responsible for developing the study of Cheng Hsin in the Pacific Rim. He is a practitioner of Hellerwork Structural Integration, a system of bodywork and movement education designed to align and balance the body in gravity improving ease, fluidity, efficiency and grace of movement.
Alan is passionate about martial arts as a rewarding physical discipline that also provides an opportunity to learn more about ourselves and the world around us.