Aikido of South Brooklyn

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🥋✨ Martial Arts Day at Japan Village – FREE Event! ✨🥋

Experience the power, precision, and philosophy of 武道 (Budo)!
Join us on Saturday, March 22nd, 2025, for an action-packed FREE showcase of Aikido, Judo, Battodo, and Karate, featuring live demonstrations from skilled martial artists. 🏯⚡

👊 Watch exciting demonstrations
📖 Learn about each discipline at our info tables
📸 Catch all the action—our team will be capturing epic moments!

📍 Where? 2nd Floor, Japan Village
⏰ When? 12:00 PM - 6:50 PM (*The demo starts at 1 PM)
💰 Admission? FREE!

Witness the strength, skill, and discipline behind each movement as martial artists bring centuries-old traditions to life! ⚔️🔥

Packed and ready to go!

Industry City, see you tomorrow.



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And with the last class at 205 Columbia St over, Sensei began shredding documents. 😳

Classes start 2/1/2025!

We started packing up the dojo for the big move to Industry City and found Josh Sensei's kyu certificates! He saved all of them: 7th to 1st.

There's only one day of classes left at 205 Columbia St! Find us starting February 1 at Industry City. Look for Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo!

Please join us in congratulating our head instructor Josh Paul Sensei on his promotion to rokudan (6-degree black belt)!

Josh Sensei will teach adult and youth classes at the new Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo at Industry City when we open on February 1. Find out more about Josh Sensei and sign up for a trial class at the links in our bio.

I started 2024 celebrating my 25th year in aikido. I intended to write about changes in the art, dojo culture, and the market. I revisited my dan essays, my thoughts on testing, and dojo etiquette, and I started making plans for the future.

However, about halfway through the year, while on vacation and super stressed about the dojo, I accepted that what I needed more than anything was a change. I say “accepted” rather than “realized” because the thought had been lurking in the back of my mind for sometime.

I was suffering from a classic case of burnout. Indeed, on the Hamburg Burnout Inventory test I scored “complete burnout.” It made sense. After all, I’ve been teaching 10-15 classes per week, 5-7 days per week for more than a decade. In addition, I managed all of the behind-the-scenes work—book keeping, marketing, social media, recruitment and retention, facility maintenance, correspondences, special events, etc.

This all led to the creation of Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo. Classes at KZA start in February 2025! Be sure to follow us on IG to stay current!

In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this month’s video post at this link: https://tinyurl.com/5ybdurf2. It’s an AOSB photo montage from 2011 to the present. It’s not exhaustive: not everybody and every event is represented. It’s also not chronological. However, you’ll be able to distinguish the old from the new photos by the image quality and by my hair. I had a lot more of it in 2011!

Congratulations to Sylvan on his promotion to green belt (6.5 kyu)! We can't wait to see him continue to progress at the new Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo. Classes start February 2025. Follow us at for all the details.

Congratulations to Ira on his promotion to green belt (6.5 kyu)!

This was our last round of kyu exams at our Columbia St location. We'll have classes there through January 2025. Join us in February at in . Kid's classes start winter 2025. Visit kzadojo.com or follow for details!

Congratulations to Felipe Perez on his promotion to nidan! We're super excited about his practice and promotion and expect great things from him at !

We’re very excited and rather sad to announce that after more than a decade of aikido at 205 Columbia St, WE’RE MOVING! Our lease is up for renewal and it is just too (f***!) expensive. We’ll continue training at Columbia St through January 2025. In February 2025, we’ll begin classes at the very cool !

Josh Sensei will continue as head instructor at the new location, but we also have a new dojo name, a new dojo-cho, and new management.

Our new name is Kaizenkan Aikido Dojo. You can find us at . Be sure to follow us to keep up with news and events!

Josh Sensei will continue as the head instructor.

Stephanie Flores Sensei is taking over as dojo-cho, and will oversee the dojo’s day-to-day operations. Stephanie Sensei brings decades of aikido and managerial experience to the role.

Greg Squared, Felipe Perez, and Avi Kaplan will be working with Stephanie Sensei, and taking on various administrative and managerial responsibilities. They all bring decades of aikido experience and diverse professional experiences to the dojo. Together, they will ensure a smooth transition to the new location, and ongoing dojo operations.

Follow the link in our bio for all the details and keep and eye out for more news and information!

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After returning from the AWA’s Fall Camp with Eiji Katsurada Sensei, I was inspired to reread The Art of Peace. After revisiting some of my favorite passages, I started asking my students about their favorite O’sensei quotes. It’s the best idea I’ve had in a long time. It’s revealed if, when, and how they think about their practice off the mat. It’s also been great fun discussing the quotes, and discovering which quotes resonate with different people. A wonderful first response is at the link in our bio.

What’s your favorite O’sensei quote?

The September issue of our newsletter Inryoku is available at the link in our bio! This month, Josh Sensei looks back his 2014 essay written for his promotion to yondan. Doing so, he said, was timely and uplifting. We hope you will find it so, as well.

Here’s an excerpt:

“I once read that to understand aikido, aikido must be practiced as a lifestyle. I wanted to understand aikido. I still do. And so I set about integrating aikido into my life, so much so that it is difficult for me to explain how I apply aikido to my daily life because aikido is my daily life. There is no separation between training, the dojo, and some other self and life. It is all one. I try to apply the principles of aikido to my relationships, my lingering part-time day job, and the management of my dojo and, in return, the practice of aikido opens the world before me.”