Kingston Aikido

Great to have my long time friends, Brian and Linda Cox from Albany, here to train and hang out. Always a pleasure. We also got to see Fern one last time before her migration to Montana. We will miss her and wish her well in her new adventure.

Great to have visitors from Seattle. Great workout. Looking forward to future visits.

We have some exciting news at Albany Aikido! Please help us congratulate our new Chief Instructor, Keith Pray, 5th Dan Shidoin. Keith brings almost 30 years of experience practicing and decades of teaching aikido. Kevin Grace Shidoin will remain an active part of our dojo teaching and training, but he has decided to hand over the reins to Keith Sensei. We are all honored to have such a talented teacher and we thank Grace Sensei for his many years of guidance on the mat. Domo Arigato 🙏

Check out our new flier courtesy of Sul Hakeem of Aikido of Greater Philadelphia! 🙏

Happy New Year. Thanks to all who came to celebrate the new year. We also celebrated Damon and Dmitriy. They are being promoted to 4th dan and were given the honor of demonstrating for the class.

"Spanda is a Sanskrit term – derived from the root spadi: “to move a little” (kimcit calana) – for the subtle creative pulse of the universe as it manifests into the dynamism of living form."

What it really means (and we know this very clearly from science) is that motivation comes from action, not the other way around. YOUR BODY PRODUCES ENERGY WHEN YOU GET UP. It doesn't bother producing energy when you're laying around, because that would be stupid. That's why you feel like you have no energy. Because you don't... yet.

Want motivation? Take some action. "Move a little." Get your spanda up.

🎨: Dugald Stewart Walker, early 1900s

Intentionally control the body.

Take care to not ‘throw’ weight forward to rely on momentum. The tensioned upper body will move first throwing off central axis and alignment.
Also, while transitioning, do not rush into the next move without a ‘settled’ stability. Do not be too quick to throw.
Intentionally control movement, take the time. Notice the pauses. We are controlling not only our own body, we are also safely controlling our ukes body.
We do not force, make, insist.
Find the harmony.

Eventually, we may want to flow beautifully doing more ‘advanced techniques’.
But remember to first focus on foundation.
Improvement isn’t about grasping fancy techniques, instead, a quietly controlled, rooted stable foundation helps with economy of movement, efficiency and precision.
True strength is subtle, not showy.
A consistent good foundation will create a profound, sustainable state.

It is not magic, just clean, clear intentional movement.

G. Breeland, 6th dan