As an aikido practitioner and teacher for almost 4 decades, I occasionally get asked what advice I would give to someone who is just starting out in aikido. Probably the hardest thing to get used to as a new aikido student is learning how to move differently than how you are used to. In my…
Jim Ellison (Spiritual Gravity blog) and Tammy Epperson Have you ever watched martial artists on TV or in the movies and wanted to try it for yourself? Or maybe you have recently started taking a martial art, and are frustrated with your perceived slow progress and could use some advice or encouragement. Jim Ellison has…
Jim Ellison (from the Spiritual Gravity blog)
by Nick Lowry I state the following based on my decades of teaching, my experiences, my training, and personal observations. These are strictly my opinions. I trained directly and indirectly under Karl Geis in the arts of Aikido, Judo and Jodo from 1982 to 2009. At the time of my departure from his organization (Fugakukai)…
by Nick Lowry To understand what our ranking means and how we arrive at our ranking you have to understand that we are primarily a teaching institution- The initial ranks, kyu grades up through the dan grades Shodan , Nidan and Sandan all carry a set of technical requirements — particular katas, kihons, and waza,…
by Nick Lowry Don’t take a step you don’t have to take. Don’t put pressure in your hands unintentionally. Once you do have to step, try to keep at least one foot pointed at your target at all times. Invest in loss…repeat the pattern that is causing you a problem so many times that your…
by Nick Lowry Thinking back to the aikido I learned in the 1980s ….The ukemi and the Walking are mostly identical to what we do today. The 17 was very linear and clunky, but still very strong. Movement and angles were narrow and prescriptive, with precise and minimal handwork (two handed balance breaks) and homolateral…
by Nick Lowry DOJO is the way place. All the stuff we practice in a DO-jo — the aiki do and ju do and jo do and karate do and ken do and iai do and all the rest, are all just pointers to the DO– different lamps lighting the way. As we train in…
Kyle Sloan Let me start with this: If you play with knives, you’re going to get cut. Period. I seriously doubt there is anyone reading this who hasn’t been cut with a kitchen knife while performing some task of slicing, dicing, chopping, deboning, filleting, etc. in the kitchen. Paper cuts don’t count :). If you have…
by Nick Lowry Been thinking lately about a three tier curriculum for our dojo– at first was considering the the standard beginner, intermediate, and advanced idea but that seemed a little clumsy, linear and hierarchical — and would probably lead to folks being unnecessarily typed and excluded from work they might enjoy or benefit from….