Martial Arts or Dog Walking?

Martial Arts or Dog Walking. Which do you need these concepts for?

 

• Balance
• Posture
• Un-bendable Arm
• Moving from Center
• Positive Mind
• Relaxed Feeling

 

The answer is both! Arguably, more often for the dog walking! 

 

I recently met a new co-worker who greeted us with an awkward left-hand shake because his right shoulder was hurting. In a moment of mildly-embarrassing honesty he admitted his tea-cup Yorkie had tried to take off and wrenched his shoulder in the process. Yes, a 7 pound critter hurt the shoulder of an average sized human male. I immediately thought about walking with my two 125lb Newfies who love people, other dogs, water, and well, everything else and were bred to replace horses on boats. In that moment I thanked whatever gods might listen for the existence of Aikido Kokikai® in my life. I use Aikido principles every time I snap that leash on them or come home after being away for more than 30 seconds.

 

The principles used in Aikido Kokikai® prove useful in so many aspects of daily life. It's easy to dismiss martial arts as only being useful for fighting. But they are so more more. They add richly to the quality of every corner of life.

 

Come see for your self! Try a few classes for free!

https://www.aikidorochester.com/p/about-classes.html

#aikido #MindBodySpirit #martialarts #aikidokokikai #kokikai #dojo #selfimprovement #selfdefense #dogwalker

 

 

Halloween Seminar Success

 

Thank you Matt and Todd Senseis for another excellent seminar! Thanks to all those who lent their energy, sweat, and willingness to learn knew things, especially those that traveled from a far. And thanks to our sister dojo Eastern Sky Aikido for organizing the event.

Working together to share our experience, perspective, and enthusiasm is quintessential to both personal and communal growth. Sensei Maruyama provided us with a leap forward in martial arts with Aikido Kokikai®. Each of us who have learned from him have a mission to share that gift with others, to distill it, and learn to communicate it more and more effectively so that those that come behind us can learn it faster than we did. This paves the way for a future generation to continue its evolution to meet whatever the future holds. Aikido Kokikai® is the response to the stimulus presented by the unique physiology of North American bodies and culture on Aikido. Whatever the future holds, our work now to deepen the understanding of the principles of Aikido prepares the next generations to adapt the manifestation of those principles to whatever may come.

#aikido #MindBodySpirit #martialarts #aikidokokikai #kokikai #dojo #selfimprovement #selfdefense

Camp, Regional Seminar, Upgrades, and No class 8/2

I want to thank everyone for all the extra hard work and sweat equity (#5s) poured into our test candidates the past several weeks. I look forward to enjoying their tests this weekend at Summer Camp.

 

Since we have such a large contingent of people going to camp, we will forgo our Saturday class this week (8/2/25).  We’ll make it up at the post camp regional seminar on the 16^th.

 

If you haven’t seen it yet, there is another welcome addition to the dojo.  Our new biggest fan!  Complete with remote control.  Special thanks to the IOMASDA guys for helping me install it Monday night before their class.  It worked quite well for us on Tuesday evening!

 

  

Carrying the Baton(s).

Many of the Kokikai community traveled to Japan this April to train with Sensei. Our dojo was fortunate enough to have four of our senior practitioners make the trek. When I arrived at Sensei's dojo for the first of four days of training I was a bit early. I got to speak briefly with Sensei and he talked about Kokikai and how we need to work together. He joked that he traveled to teach in the US and to Australia for the past 50 years and it was now our turn to travel. As he often has, he spoke about the importance of the next generation of practitioners needing to carry on the legacy of Kokikai, to further the community, and to continue to develop the art. He made the analogy of a relay race. He said that he is now in the process of passing on the baton to us. I heard the conversation repeated several times that weekend as he spoke with senior students from both the US and Australia. 

 

I like the analogy of the baton. It invokes the idea of being a team. Each person who carries it is responsible for firmly and securely passing it on to the next. No individual needs to carry the entire race, just do their best for their part. Every time we come together in the dojo is an opportunity to implement this idea. We pass on what we know and have learned, regardless of where we are on the track. We share the responsibility of success.

Like in nature, patterns repeat at different scales. Within the dojo, members share what they know. From that, regional dojo share practices. Whole nations of practitioners regularly come together at camps. People from all over the world come together to practice like we just did in Japan. When we return to our home dojo, we repeat the cycle of improvement.

For that I am ever grateful. Thanks to all who made it out to make our regional practice a success and share in what we learned in Japan!!

#aikido #aikidokokikai #kokikai #dojo #selfimprovement #martialarts #MindBodySpirit #selfdefense

Join us for our May 2025 Regional Seminar!

Aikido Kokikai® students are welcome to join the Rochester Dojo for a Regional seminar!  Classes will focus on our takeaways from the 2025 International Seminar In Nagoya.  We were fortunate enough to have four of our senior practitioners attend classes with Sensei along with over 50 students from Japan, Australia, and the United States.

There are several lunch options near the dojo.  Traveling in?  Contact us if you need a place to crash.  FYI, the Rochester Lilac Festival is going on that week and that is a great destination for the family if you need an extra reason come.  Traffic near the dojo is not affected by the festival.