Albuquerque Iwama Aikido

A couple shots from the Lunar New Year’s Celebration including my four-legged billboard. More to come.

Chinese New Year

Lunar New Year Celebration tomorrow at the Chinese Culture Center. Albuquerque Iwama Aikido will offer an aikido demonstration as part of the festivities.

It'll be outdoors, so dress warmly!

Chinese New Year Is live in person for 2023 We hold this event every year at the Lunar New Year (“Chinese” New Year) and it’s a fun, exciting, family friendly event. Sunday January 22, 2023 1 – 2:…

Rest in Peace, Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei
February 17, 1938 - January 15, 2023

A pioneer in Aikido in North America.

Rest in Peace, Yoshimitsu Yamada Sensei
February 17, 1938 - January 15, 2023

Our new nafudake! I’m optimistic our membership will increase!

We'll be offering a demo at this event!

Sensei's Blog

2022 was an amazing year for Albuquerque Iwama Aikido and 2023 promises to be even better!

Throughout the year we continued to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic. We even shut down for a couple of weeks as we saw local hospitals near capacity. Nevertheless, we persevered. The pandemic is not over and the COVID virus continues to evolve so we’ve kept up our precautions by maintaining our requirement for vaccinations and masks and disinfecting the mat after each class. These efforts have served us well because although individual members have tested positive for COVID, it has not swept through the dojo.

Our membership continues to grow, albeit slowly. Thanks to an outstanding effort by Nicholas Johnson Sensei, we now have a thriving children’s program. Nicholas started his aikido journey in a children’s program and has some great insight into what motivates kids. He put a lot of thought into what and how we offer the program before the first child stepped on the mat. Paulina, Thomas, Charles, and others have generously assisted him with the classes.

The most important and positive change in 2022 was our affiliation with Kim Peuser Shihan as our supervising sensei from the Takemusu Aikido Association. Peuser Sensei is one of the most advance Iwama aikidoka in North America. He has been very generous with his time and knowledge, travelling down from Santa Fe twice a month for tai jutusu and a bukiwaza classes. We are amazingly fortunate to have him so close.

A highlight of the year was the fantastic and long delayed seminar presented by Hoa Newens Sensei of The Aikido Institute, Davis.

I want to acknowledge all our sensei. Nicholas, in addition to the children’s program offers a weekly adult class. Paulina’s women’s and femmes’ class has proven very popular. Our resident rokudan, Fred, generously teaches each Monday. (On a side note, Fred has probably forgotten more aikido than I’ve ever learned, and I encourage everyone that can to attend his classes.) All the sensei, including Patrick, have filled in when work, travel, or other issues have required the regular sensei to be absent. Similarly, Lauren has stepped in when Paulina is absent from her Wednesday evening class.

We have had several promotions this year. Notable among them were Thomas’s sandan, Patrick’s nidan, Paulina’s shodan, and Lauren’s 1st kyu. Congrats to all!

In 2023 there will be some fundamental changes to the dojo. However, they will be behind the scenes and will not affect our training on the mat.

Since we moved from the University of New Mexico to our own space, and through our name changes from Albuquerque Iwama Aikido to Duke City Dojo and back, we’ve been a private Limited Liability Corporation. Until 2022 we rarely made a monthly profit. However, due to the very generous agreement for use of the building we have with Keith Winterkorn Sifu of the Chinese Culture Center, we did begin to profit in 2022. Despite this positive financial direction, I felt with all the volunteer labor by the sensei and others, and to ensure the long-term viability of the dojo, it would be best if we converted from an LLC to a nonprofit corporation.

The paperwork has been filed and approved by the Secretary of State and as of January 3, 2023, we will be Albuquerque Iwama Aikido, a Nonprofit Corporation. The corporation will have five initial board members, Patrick, Paulina, Lauren, Katie, and myself. We will have staggered three-year terms, and all are serving without compensation.

I will remain as Dojo Cho and have responsibility for what is taught and the daily running of the dojo. The Board will have financial oversight of the dojo and handle all necessary paperwork with government entities, both the state and the City of Albuquerque, insurance carriers, and others.

In 2023 we can look forward to a weekend seminar by Peuser Sensei with visitors from the Aikido Institute, Oakland and elsewhere visiting. I am also hopeful the annual TAA Gasshuku will be live and at Lake Tahoe.

Most importantly, thanks to all the members of the Albuquerque Iwama Aikido community. A dojo is a very lonely place without its members!

Gambatte!

Paul Barrett
Albuquerque Iwama Aikido Dojo Cho

Holiday Party and open house Saturday, December 17th.

The children's portion begins at 11:00 and is open to everyone. If you've ever been curious about aikido come on by. Bring your children, your friends and your friends' children!

Our newest Sandan! Congratulations Thomas Kurucz!

Photos from Aikido Institute Davis's post

Albuquerque Iwama Aikido Schedule Survey

Free aikido training for all of January 2023 for new students that complete this survey!

Albuquerque Iwama Aikido Schedule Survey Complete this form and train for free all of January, 2023 at Albuquerque Iwama Aikido! New students only. Proof of COVID vaccination required. Visit us at www.ABQIwamaAikido.com for more information on aikido as well as our current schedule.

More photos from an amazing weekend with Hoa Newens Shihan here in Albuquerque.

Big thanks to our friends from Tucson, Las Cruces, Santa Fe, Pagosa Springs, Reno, and Davis that attended.

Also a shout out to everyone at Albuquerque Iwama Aikido that helped with the cleaning, coordination, and all the other behind the scenes work required to put something like this on.

A couple of photos from our first session with Hao Newens Shihan’s seminar at Albuquerque Iwama Aikido this weekend!

Order Albuquerque Iwama Aikido LLC eGift Cards

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Order Albuquerque Iwama Aikido LLC eGift Cards

Albuquerque Iwama Aikido Gift Cards are now available!

Order Albuquerque Iwama Aikido LLC eGift Cards Order Albuquerque Iwama Aikido LLC eGift Cards online and give the perfect gift. Send gift cards instantly to anyone. Powered by Square Gift Cards

Events – Aikido at the Center

https://www.facebook.com/100057410561834/posts/584309480159399/?d=n&mibextid=ziJpKh

Events – Aikido at the Center Please join us at Aikido at the Center for another wonderful seminar with Hans Goto Shihan. Goto Shihan has over 40 years of experience in martial arts. His main study has been Aikido, with extended residential training in Iwama, Japan under Morihiro Saito Shihan. Goto Shihan is the first non-Japane...

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=5551229551660976&id=120492754734710&mibextid=ziJpKh

“When I was 15, I spent a month working on an archeological dig. I was talking to one of the archeologists one day during our lunch break and he asked those kinds of ‘getting to know you’ questions you ask young people: Do you play sports? What’s your favorite subject? And I told him, no I don’t play any sports. I do theater, I’m in choir, I play the violin and piano, I used to take art classes.
“And he went wow. That’s amazing! And I said, ‘Oh no, but I’m not any good at any of them.’
“And he said something then that I will never forget and which absolutely blew my mind because no one had ever said anything like it to me before: ‘I don’t think being good at things is the point of doing them. I think you’ve got all these wonderful experiences with different skills, and that all teaches you things and makes you an interesting person, no matter how well you do them.’
“And that honestly changed my life. Because I went from a failure, someone who hadn’t been talented enough at anything to excel, to someone who did things because I enjoyed them. I had been raised in such an achievement-oriented environment, so inundated with the myth of Talent, that I thought it was only worth doing things if you could ‘win’ at them.”
Kurt Vonnegut

Congratulations to Kaimi on her 10th kyu promotion!

We’re about a month out from Hoa Newens Shihan's seminar. If you are interested in attending, please do so soon.

Also, please pass along to other interested aikidoka.

Domo arigato!

Paul

Big congratulations to Leo and Olly on obtaining their 10th kyu and belt stripe!

Great job guys!

Fred is still out of town so Charles Neal Sensei will teach a basics class Monday evening from 6:00 - 7:00 pm.

Paul