June Testing

We will be testing students in the dojo on June 17, Thursday night, 7 pm class. Hope that everyone can attend.

Monday 5/24 - No 8PM Class

We will be having an instructors meeting Monday 5/24 in place of the 8pm Class. The 6pm and 7pm classes are as scheduled.

Thanks,
-b

New Dojo Promotion

New students joining the dojo between now and July 15 who train for two months will get their third month free. Please pass the word to family and friends.

We have some new flyers in the dojo, designed by Mark Tripp, which advertise this. You can find them in a folder near the attendance book. Please take one and post at work, where you shop, and any other place you can think of.

Print your own flyer here.

Much thanks!

Memorial Day Weekend Schedule

Classes will follow their normal schedule on Saturday and Sunday, May 29 and 30:

Saturday, 9 am - Kids Class
Saturday, 10 am - Adult Class
Sunday, 10 am - Open Mat

On Monday, May 31, there will be no morning or evening classes. Have a great holdiay!

Another Successful Seminar

Thank you Sensei Leon for a wonderful Seminar. And thanks to all who came and made it such a successful time.

The Greatest Defense

The call came as we were getting ready for bed. My step-son had been injured in a bar fight at college. He told his mother that he had accidentally stepped on an obviously inebriated gentleman’s foot and without warning, the guy head-butted him. As he gathered himself to fight back, he was blinded-sided by another guy who bashed him across the side of head with a beer bottle. He dropped to the floor where the two men, and possibly up to two to three others, kicked and punched him while he lay on the ground.

He came home the next day and we took him to a doctor who confirmed that his nose was indeed broken as I had suspected, but thankfully did not have a concussion from the beer bottle though the wide gash across the right side of his forehead disappearing into his hair served as a painful reminder of that cowardly attack.

I asked him for more details, and knowing my stepson, a former high school football lineman, full of bravado and not a small amount of attitude, I suspected that the head-butt and beer bottle, cheap shots to be sure, were not entirely unprovoked. He told me that he did indeed accidentally step on the guy’s foot, and the guy made a typical drunk “tough-guy” response. My stepson responded with an expletive-laced, “tough-guy” remark and was suddenly greeted with a forehead across the bridge of his nose. He said he was able to swing at the guy a couple of times, missing, but then he was struck with the bottle which knocked him to the floor.

I shook my head as this scenario was not fully unexpected, yet I was glad that he wasn’t more seriously hurt. He looked at me, kind of embarrassed that this big “tough guy” with an ego as big as his biceps, was so easily subdued, albeit overmatched by a group of drunken idiots. He said, “Well, what would you have done? You’re a black belt in aikido. You would have gotten your ass kicked too.” I said, “Absolutely not. I would have used my aikido training and none of them would have been able to touch me.” He looked dumbfounded. “What would you have used, nikkyo or sankyo or something?” he asked.

I said, “No, none of that. I would have just said ‘sorry’, and walked away.”

Sensei Leon This Weekend

Reminder, Sensei Leon will be here this weekend starting Friday night at Eastern Sky Dojo and continuing Saturday and Sunday at the Rochester Dojo.

Pamphlets are at the Dojos.

BTW, we are still looking for bed for an Maryland student who is coming. Please contact Candy for this and any other questions.

Thanks,
-b