ASL 2015 March

Evan and I are back from a week at Aikido of San Leandro and training with Pat Hendricks Shihan.

Evan did a successful 4th kyu test during the teens class on Friday so congratulations!

Being the only uchideshi has its advantages. Sensei spent all week focusing on the 4th kyu requirements for Evan, and san-dan requirements for me. I am feeling more confident about my upcoming test in August.

I brought back a lot of updates so come on out and get the latest! Since we're still transitioning from another style, the updates will be a constant fact of life for a few years. Not that what we're doing is wrong, but sometimes it is not the current variation of a technique or pin. These are important to keep up to date for when people who train at Kinjo go out to practice and/or test in San Leandro.

Also last week we worked on the 10 kumi-jo and variations. Coincidentally, that is what we're doing at Kinjo this week! Open hand attack will be moro-te-dori.

See you on the mat!

Charles

Ken-tai-jo This Week

This week we're working on the ken-tai-jo forms currently practiced in Iwama and shown by Pat Hendricks Shihan a couple of weeks ago at the CAA Division 1 training.

In the video, note the first (standard) ending of each form as we will be working on the first 3 this week.

Yasuhiro and Mitsuyoshi Saito, 7 kumi-jo

Open hand attack this week: kata-dori

See you on the mat!

Ushiro Ryo-te-dori (Morihiro Saito Shihan)

We're working on ushiro techniques this week.
Here's Saito Morihiro Shihan demonstrating from ushiro ryo-te-dori:

2015 MN Spring Seminar

MN Seminar Shoumen

Charles-sensei and Tyffany will be attending the 2015 Spring seminar hosted by Minnesota Aiki Shuren Dojo in Collegeville, MN.

It's always a great time of training, meeting new people, and reacquainting with old. Hope to see you there!

UPDATE:
Seminar details (PDF)
Online Registration
Lodging on campus at the guesthouse
Super 8 in St. Joseph/St. Cloud

2015: A New Year of Training

2014 was our first full calendar year at Kinjo Aikido Dojo. We're off to a great start and have had a steady stream of interest and new students on the mat. Thank you to everyone who has supported the dojo!

We're making a couple of minor changes that will hopefully simplify dues/donations and our free trial period.

Free Trial Period
Since we started, the trial period has been a free month of training, or 30 days from the time a new student starts at the dojo. Rather than use a period of time, we're changing it to 8 practice days.

Dues/Donations
Since forming the dojo, we wanted to have donations rather than dues since we are a non-profit and those of you that wished to work that into your taxes would be able to. However, since we are providing a service of aikido instruction, we'll have to just call monthly (or class by class mat fees) dues.

If you wish to make a donation in addition to monthly dues, please tell us that is the case and we'll write or e-mail you a receipt for your taxes. Donations made on their own are tax deductible.

Minimum Payment
We have always been flexible with dues and that will not change. Pay when you can, what you can. However, if you can't afford the $60/month dues, we ask that you pay a minimum of $20/month if that is what your finances will allow.

If the $20 minimum is still too much let us know. We don't want anyone staying home from class because they can't pay for practice!

Thank you again to everyone who comes out every week to train aikido and support the dojo. We could not do it without you!

See you on the mat!

Charles

2014 Embu Kai

Join us for our one year anniversary Embu-Kai (demonstrations)!

We will have the demos at the dojo and add two more rows of mats for some extra room to spread out.

We're still a small group so it shouldn't take long for all of our regular members to show what they have been working on.

schedule update 8/7

Shortened schedule this week and next week. JM sempai will be teaching class while Charles sensei, Tyffany, and Evan are on vacation in NC.

We will have class Thursday (8/7), Tuesday (8/12), and Thursday (8/14).

No class Friday and Monday. Charles sensei should be back for Thursday class (8/14).