KIDS 6-11 & TEENS 11-16 CLASSES
Mon, Thu & Fri .............Aikido for Kids .....2:30-4pm ...... for Teens ..... 4-5:30pm
Single class fee $20 per 1 1/2 hour of class
Kids or Teens times are not strictly adhered to. If the kids want to come later or stay longer or the teens want to come earlier
It's OK.
MONTHLY RATES
4 Classes / month = 1/wk or 4 Class Card = $ 75 / month
8 Classes / month = 2/wk or 8 Class Card = $120 / month
12 Classes / month = 3/wk or 12 Class Card = $150 / month
Unlimited Classes / month = 5/wk or 20 Class Card = $200 / month
3 extra classes for each new relative or friend who buys classes.
Other Class Arrangements may be Negotiated
Such as buying and tracking more classes by non-expiring punch card.
Family Discount Plan per Month.
Classes may be purchased at the dojo or online via the
Aikido Lessons Store page under the Classes heading.
Saturday Mornings.........FREE..Aikido for Kids..FREE....9:00 - 10:30am
Saturday Mornings......FREE..Aikido for Teens..FREE.....10:30am - Noon
4 Aikido Classes $75
8 Aikido Classes $120
20 Aikido Classes or Unlimited/ Month. $200
This coming Saturday, Feb. 29th, we will have the party for everybody with a birthday in February. We will have cupcakes or pastries depending on what they put on the day old cart late Friday night. By going in late Friday night, I have been finding lots more day old things, so we have a pretty good choice of things for our parties. We will also have ice cream, grapes, bananas, apples, chocolate milk, orange juice and apple juice. We will stop practice and set up for the party about 10:30. After we clean up from the party, we normally play games till noon.
Saturday Feb. 22nd, we had 9 kids and 2 adults. Feb. 15th, we had 6 kids and 3 adults. On Feb 8th, we had 5 kids and 2 adults. The numbers fluctuate from week to week. We had 3 new kids on the 22nd. They came in around 10:30, so I stopped working on the more advanced kids tests and we started practicing some tehodoki, wrist grab escapes. This is what I am focusing on for the first test out at the Queen of Peace Academy for a number of reasons. I have noticed over time that when there are no senior students, new students don't get to see or understand working together with each other. They also don't understand relaxing and not putting up hard resistance to techniques being put on them. Tension and hard resistance can lead to injuries, which nobody wants. The tehodoki techniques help them understand the wrist warm-ups, simple get-out-of-the-hold movements, working together with a partner, simple responses to aggressions on the playground and how to respond to the technique as the effect of the technique comes on. They are also seeing pretty quickly that these responses can be pretty effective with minimal efforts. So the first test is made up of 1st, 2nd, 3rd techniques plus simple Kotegaeshi. I'm seeing reasonably good results from this path, so I will probably change my whole repertoire for how I run the Kyu rank tests. Just today, Sunday the 23rd, I'm thinking I could develop a simple Hiji Kime, elbow focus technique. This would cover all the wrist warm-up techniques. The test would have 5 same side wrist grabs and 5 opposite side wrist grabs. A good start.
Last Saturday, Feb 1st. We had 8 kids and 4 adults on the mats plus one little brother. 3 new students started. One is a Chinese girl who is so new to the country that she only knows a few English words. The Chinese boy, James, had to interpret for her. When we did the stretches at the beginning of class, omg! She stretched her legs straight out to either side and from there she could put her chest clear to the mat. She's very sharp. She understood what to do immediately each time I showed her something new and by the end of class she had picked up a bunch of English words. I hope she comes back. Thursday, the 6th, Rock passed his third test. It started out as a mock test with Sandor and Sorin as alternate Uke's (attackers), but Rock went through the techniques so smoothly, I only had him repeat about three times. So I passed him for 8th Kyu. He really understood what he's doing.
The Kagami Baraki Practice, in Orlando, Saturday, Jan 18th, was good. Christopher, 10 year old blue belt was able to come down. He had a good time. He said so many people were so helpful to him. I had just started teaching him Katate Dori Kaitenage (rotary throw) last Thursday night, then Grady Lane, the last teacher for the practice, showed a Kaitenage that entered across the attacker's front that was confusing a number of the black belts, so I know Christopher was really struggling. Over all I thought he gave a good showing and I am very proud to have him as my student.
Saturday, Jan 18th, the dojo will be closed. We are going down to the Aikido Orlando Dojo on the north side of Orlando, Winter Park area, for their Kagami Baraki opening the new year practice. There is no charge, no fee. Sensei Keith and I will be leaving early because I am going to teach an Iaido (sword) class starting at 9am. Therefore we will have to leave here between 6:15 and 6:30 in order to be down there in time. The Kagami Baraki Aikido class is starting at 10am. Then after the practice, I will make a video of the 15 Aiki Toho Katas with instruction, so they will have a base video to use for practice. I don't know if we will go out to dinner after that or not. We will kind of play that by ear, deciding on the times so we don't get back to Gaineville too late.
Saturday, Jan 11th. Terrific day! We had 12 kids and 1 adult. Sensei Keith was down in Orlando for training. After the bow in, I assigned senior students to help junior students. They were very happy to be helping others, then the two most senior students arrived and immediately asked, "Who can we help?" Wow! THEY'RE GETTING IT! It's not just about advancing yourself. Helping others actually helps you get better. I think that Simone and Sandor are realizing that helping the lower students helps them to remember those techniques I taught them earlier and keep them ready for whatever I throw at them that is more advanced, yet uses those earlier principles. I am so proud of them! We had one new boy start and two other students who have not come in a long time return. Wonderful day.
Last Saturday, Jan 4th, we had 6 kids and 2 adults. These small classes really allow everybody who shows up to get more out of it. They usually get at least one stripe or more.
The coming Saturday after this, the 18th, we will not have a class here in Gainesville. Aikido Orlando Dojo is holding a Kagami Baraki, new year practice get together. There are normally guest teachers and I have been invited to be one. Any students from here who are interested can go down with us and practice. There may be a fee, but I don't think it will be much.
We ended the year 2019 and started 2020 OK. Monday evening, the 30th, I had 6 students for Iaido class. I think that's terrific! The adult Aikido class has become a usual no show. If somebody does come they are getting a private lesson at class rates. I don't mind that. I want to teach somebody. Tuesdays are my day off from teaching, but still work on the dojo or paperwork, normally accounting. Wednesday, the 1st, there were 3 students for Iaido. That's still a pretty good showing for Iaido. I'm loosing one to go back to college up in Kentucky next week. Starting about the middle of January I will have Community Education classes for Aikido and Iaido starting. So perhaps I will get a few more students.
Saturday, Dec. 28th. We had a good showing for the Bonenkai & December Birthdays Party. The Herron family came and added to the festivities. All in all we had 15 and 1/2 kids. Gavin's little brother is still 4, so he's not practicing yet, but he runs around and has a lot of fun while he's here. We also had 11 Adults come in. John came down from Live Oak to check in with us. Gavin passed his 3rd test. He has done nearly all his practice with me, so having Christopher to Uke (be the attacker and receive the techniques) for him pretty much threw him for a loop. He got through the test with a triangle grade, but it took some pulling it out of him. Once he would get though doing a technique once with Christopher, his memory would come back some. He was pretty happy when he got to the last technique. Keith brought chili and Bharathi brought rice which went so well with the chili. We cleaned out most of the chili and rice. Afterwards we had a really tough game of "Samurai Hockey". They kept the score tying up and passing back and forth for over a half hour. I passed out a bunch of Year End gifts for everybody. It was a great fun morning, then 4 students for Iaido till 1pm. The Iaido has done better than the adult Aikido classes this year. I would love to be teaching more Aikido to adults, but the students just haven't show up this year. Well this is it for 2019. Everyone have a Happy New Year for 2020!
Saturday, Dec. 21st. We had 9 kids and 2 adults yesterday. OK for being right before Christmas and people traveling. Gavin finished up his last two stripes, which were half stripes already. In addition we went through all the rest of the techniques to make sure to get him ready for taking the 3rd test next Saturday just before the Bonenkai. I am very pleased with the results of the breaking up of techniques to parts, to drill smaller sections and build the techniques out so students remember lots more. The hard techniques on this test are shoulder grab Nikyo, same side wrist grab Sankyo and cross hand grab Sankyo. These are introductory on this test, focusing on the names of the attacks with forward take-downs to pins. For the little kids, on Sankyo's, I have them do all standing pins. The breakdown of a technique like Katatedori (same side wrist grab) Sankyo goes like this. Step out to the side (get off the line of attack), then step in towards my knee and throw a punch. That gets repeated for 10 times practicing on both hands, left and right. The next section is grasping the attacker's hand , driving it in and up towards the armpit while twisting, then continuing to twist the hand to set the Sankyo. The last section is twisting the Attacker's hand towards his nose, then cutting him down to the side and walking backwards to pull Attacker down to the mat before spinning back along-side to pin. The 1st section is done 10 times, 5 on each hand. Then adding the 2nd section and doing that for 10 more times. Finally, adding section 3 to take the Attacker down and pinning 10 more times. So by the time the student has done the whole technique 10 times he or she has done section 1, 30 times. Section 2, 20 times and section 3, 10 times. Then I change the attack to opposite side hand grab with a new section 1, but the same sections 2 and 3, 10 times each.
Saturday Dec. 14th. We only had 6 kids and 2 adults, but everybody was working towards their next test and getting stripes this morning, so it was still a productive morning. We are aiming for Gavin's purple-with-a-white-stripe belt test for the 28th. Trying to get him promoted before the end of the year. I had a new 11 year old student come in Monday afternoon. He's very sharp. He and his mother came back Friday and he accomplished all his stripes for the first test. I expect he can pass the first test the next time he comes.
Thursday Dec. 12th. The free classes on Thursday nights has tapered off to just two students showing up. I came to the conclusion that people have been hurt in this class, so I informed the person that I can't have this happen anymore, no matter whether intentional or because of a mental handicap. So as an alternative, he can come to the weapons classes as free. I can keep these safer and not touching people, so no injuries. This will continue to help his mind develop more neural pathways and get a good workout as well, actually more-so than the empty hand, because I usually don't have to stop as much. There is more continual movement with lots of coordination required.