February 6th-10th 2023 5:30-6:15am
Aikido Olympia Schedule
Monday 7:00 PM – Zazen (Seated Meditation)
Tuesday and Thursday 5:30 – 6:20 – Kids Class
Tuesday and Thursday 6:30 – 7:20 – Beginner’s Class
Tuesday and Thursday 7:30 – 8:30 – Adult General Class
Saturday 7:30-8:15 AM – Bell Misogi
Saturday 8:30- 9:20 – General Class with Weapons Focus
Saturday 9:30 – 10:20 – Teenager Class (tailored to 12-18 year old Aikidoka)
Summer Vacations and Aikido
It is summer time in Olympia and many of us have had the opportunity to get out of town and spend time with friends and family on the road, in the woods, or other spots across the globe. This has had a couple of impacts. First, we’ve had a little extra mat space over the past couple of months, and we’ve been a bit creative with the instructor calendar in the dojo. However, Aikido is not just what happens in the dojo and vacations provide many of us an opportunity to see how our practice works when we’re navigating different cultures, spending extra time with our families, or navigating a new terrain. It is an opportunity to see how well we can keep our awareness, maintain our centers, or come back to our centers when we’ve lost them just a little bit. I hope you all get the chance to rest, recharge, and reflect a bit on how this practice can make you a better vacationer.
Upcoming Testing and Seminar
Jim West Sensei is planning on coming to Olympia May 9th through May 14th. During this time, he’s planning to teach a couple of classes, help conduct some promotional demonstrations, and lead a seminar. We’re also planning a bit of social time to get together and connect.
Tuesday, May 10th West Sensei will teach classes as normally scheduled
Thursday, May 12th, we will hold promotional demonstrations for color belt ranks beginning at 5:30 (we may have a couple of people testing for blackbelt ranks doing some demonstrations as well)
Friday May 13th, those testing for Yudansha (blackbelt) ranks will perform their promotional demonstrations beginning at 5:30. These demonstrations are a little long and we have several people testing so we’ve decided to split the demonstrations up just a little bit.
Saturday May 14th, we’ll have bell misogi at 7:30 and then host a seminar from 9:00 – 11:30. Following that, we’re working on a location for a potluck/barbecue for everyone to get together.
By Nate Weed
Aikido in Daily Life – April 2022
We come to our dojo to train so that we’re better able to apply the principles of Aikido in our daily lives.
Reflecting on the plan to begin Misogi this month, Aikido practice when approached with seriousness and intention is a form of misogi. At the core, misogi is about doing something hard, that requires commitment, and may well lead to failure in order for us to further develop as human beings.
Each time we step onto the mats and commit to a technique with our minds and bodies unified, we have a single opportunity to learn something about ourselves. Each and every shomenuchi, yokomenuchi, or other attack will result in a unique event in which the energy we’re committing is transformed into something bigger, something connected beyond our local selves. In this transformation we gather insights (if we’re paying attention) about our own fears, biases, and areas for further progress. Sometimes this learning is subtle and other times it can be rather profound but the opportunity is precious and with repeated moments we have a valuable process for improving ourselves.
By Nate Weed
Bell Misogi Returns to Saturday Mornings
Throughout the pandemic, Aikido Olympia has suspended our Saturday morning practice of bell misogi. Starting on April 2nd, we will resume our bell misogi practice every Saturday morning from 7:30 to 8:15. This will mean that we’ll also be adjusting our regular Saturday morning schedule and beginning the general Aikido class at 8:30.
For those not familiar with misogi, it is a side practice that goes along with Aikido. There are many ways to practice misogi (immersing ones self in cold water, doing 1000 bokken cuts, and our approach which included vigorously ringing a bell and chanting while seated). Bell misogi (Soku Shin no Gyo) is a practice that originated in an intense school of kenjutsu founded by Yamaoka Tesshu and has been carried into the 21st century by his students.
The purpose of misogi is to help unify the mind and the body while forging the spirit. If you’re interested (or have been waiting patiently for the return of this practice), we look forward to seeing you on Saturday mornings.
By Nate Weed
Aikido Olympia COVID-19 Update
Given the low levels of COVID-19 transmission in Thurston County and the ending of mask requirements in our community, Aikido Olympia is making masking optional beginning on April 1st for all classes. Because of the nature of our practices, we still encourage masking and ask that anyone who is feeling even a little ill, not participate in class. As always, we encourage good hand hygiene and appropriate respiratory etiquette regardless of circulating respiratory diseases.
By Nate Weed
Aikido Olympia Schedule – November 2021 through December 2021
Monday 7:00 PM Zazen (Seated Meditation)
Tuesday and Thursday 5:30 – 6:20 – Kids Class
Tuesday and Thursday 6:30 – 7:30 – Beginner’s Class
Tuesday and Thursday 7:30 – 8:30 – Adult General Class
Saturday 8:00 – 9:30 – Meditation and General Class
Saturday 9:30 – 10:30- Teenager Class *NEW class tailored to 12-18 year old Aikidoka
Note: Brandon and Nate are facilitating several open mat times – announced at the dojo.
Reminders – No class on Thanksgiving
Dojo COVID-19 Update
The COVID pandemic is slowly becoming something we’re all learning to live with. This is a challenge for martial art’s training as we share physical contact with one another. That said, Aikido Olympia continues to implement our safety protocols with masking, hand washing, getting vaccinated, and encouraging people to stay home and get tested even if they are feeling a little bit “off”. These behaviors have served our dojo community well for the past 21 months, and we have confidence that they will help keep our training environment safe for the foreseeable future.
By Nate Weed
Aikido in Daily Life
We come to our dojo to train so that we’re better able to apply the principles of aikido in our daily lives.
Training in Aikido is fundamentally about unifying our mind, body, and spirit in pursuit of our life’s ambitions (whatever they might be). In our practice we often use our bodies to better understand how to approach obstacles we face in daily life or how to comport ourselves mindfully and energetically and thereby better flow with the routine. At a recent class, with some of our more advanced students, we took an opportunity to explore this more intentionally than we often do. In this, each person considered a challenge they were personally experiencing, and then each worked to find a physical posture that provided a similar feeling. From there, we applied the principles of ukemi: finding our centers, moving intentionally to a safer posture, and then to a posture where we were again prepared to engage. This was a slow and deliberate way of stepping through a process by which we explore both physical discomfort and the physical movements that help us transform a challenging situation into one we can more effectively address. It was simply doing one Aikido art slowly and mindfully, or at least doing the ukemi for one art.
Every time we take ukemi, and every time we practice an art, our bodies, minds, and sprits are learning from the experiences. When we apply greater intention to our practices and accept them as a way to learn how to transform what is uncomfortable (or even painful) into feelings of safety and confidence, we are preparing to apply this learning in our daily lives.
By Nate Weed