“Aikido Yoshinkan”

Within the world of Aikido a variety of styles exists. The major ones include Aikikai, Yoshinkan Yoseikan, Shodokan Aikido, Ki Society and Iwama. Aikikai is a style led by O-sensei’s decendants and remains to be the largest Aikido organization.

Meanwhile, Aikido Yoshinkan was founded by Gozo Shioda and is known for its rigid practice of being precise or accurate. The Shodokan Aikido use to train with sparring and rule based competitions. The Ki Society in the meantime focuses on special training or programs for developing the ki. The Iwama style gives more attention to integration of weapon and barehand techniques. These are just a few of the major schools of Aikido. Let us focus on one: the Yoshinkan style. Read more…

“Aikido Video”

Among the various martial arts that have emerged over the years, Aikido is one of those that continue to gather more practitioners. Simply because more and more people believe that martial arts should not instigate attacks but should place great emphasis on motion and the dynamics of movement especially of the opponents’ and use it against him or her.

Having the basic principle of “not fighting force with force,” aikido has become popular and has been practiced in different parts of the globe today. Read more…

“The Aikidogi”

Like all martial arts or sports for that matter, Aikido has their own set of uniforms. The aikidogi or the uniform used in aikido is similar to the keikogi used in most martial arts. Keikogi is a term used to refer to uniform for training.

This is a general term used to refer to uniforms of donned for traditional martial arts class. For Aikido it’s the aikidogi, for Judo it’s judogi, for Jiujitsu it’s the jujutsugi, karategi for Karate, kendogi for kendo and the shinobi-iri and shinobi shozoku for Ninjutsu arts. The training uniforms used in martial arts are often times referred to as mere gi or dogi. Read more…

“Aikido”

Aikido is a modern martial art that is founded by spirituality and philosophy influenced by the Omoto-kyo religion associated with the Aikido founder Morihei Ueshiba. The etymology of the word Aikido stems from three Japanese characters. “Ai” literally means joining, with “ki” meaning something like spirit, and “do” meaning way. Loosely translated then, the meaning of Aikido is the way of joining the spirit.

The Aikido way is to align body and mind with the spirit or ki and it said that the only way to be able to do this is through cultivating a relaxed state. It is in this relaxed state that nothing is forced or contrived so the mind and body naturally join the spirit or energy and everything becomes one. It is this oneness and cultivation of relaxation that this martial art paradoxically gets referred to as the art of peace.Its founder Ueshiba was a pacifist and it is said that he taught Aikido as a peaceful means to end aggression. Read more…