Getting Started
2024 Adult/Teen class:
Monday and Wednesday 5p - 6:30pm Ki Aikido Class.
Adult class is for teens (12 yrs and older) and adults.
Elementary school classes
We have several classes during school time, as well as After School Program class on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
These classes are free for all AV Elementary school students
Your potential most importantly is the ability to make the most of your life. In physical terms mind and body coordination shows itself as a real stability and strength that does not come from physical strength. In your first trip to our dojo we will teach you simple exercises that show the strength and stability that come from mind and body coordination. Once you have a basic concept of keeping "one point" it can be extended to dealing with the power and ki of an attacker without fighting them.
The first day that I went to a ki aikido class I heard about the concept of the greater power you have when you are relaxed and use your mind and body together. I was dubious.
Tohei Sensei said that your whole power is like an iceberg floating in the ocean. But most of us only use the power represented by the 10% of that iceberg that floats above the surface, never tapping or even seeing the other 90% of our power that exists below the dark surface of the ocean.
All of this sounded great but it was the experience that came next that has kept me studying for the past 39 years. It was small and perhaps a little silly but it was also profound. By relaxing and imagining that my arm was a fire hose my arm could not be bent, not even by someone stronger than me. If I used physical strength my arm would bend, if I relaxed and kept concentrating it would not bend. A simple analogy had tapped power I never knew I had. What if you could take this power into the rest of your life? If I had not had this physical experience backing up the philosophy I was hearing, I would have said thank you very much and gone on to something else, but I was hooked.
We welcome beginners and practitioners of other arts and styles. For a first class wear comfortable clothing that you can sit and roll back and forth in. Long sleeved t-shirt and sweat pants are a good start. Shorts can lead to worn knees.
2024 Special:
Fall 2024, Mendocino College is offering a college credit course in Aikido from 9/4/2024 thru 12/11/2024
College credit course, Fall 2024 in Boonville