Strengthen your mind, body, and spirit through our martial arts training. Apart from great self-defense skills, you will also gain increased power and flexibility, enhanced focus, better reflexes and a great community of people ready to welcome you into the wonderful world of martial arts.
What is the Martial Art of Aikido?
A Japanese internal energy-based martial art, Aikido (pronounced "Eye", "Key", "Doe") was created in the 1930s by Master Morihei Ueshiba. The martial art of Aikido incorporates a very unique philosophical foundation of peace and harmony along with well-defined self-defense techniques to control a bigger, stronger, and faster person.
How Does Aikido Work?
Aikido is a "grappling & throwing" art (like Jiujitsu/Judo). That means instead of strikes or blunt-force trauma, you use as system of throws, take-downs, joint-locks and leverage based principles to take your opponents off their feet quickly. Whether you are struck at with fists, feet or weapons, whether you are grabbed, pulled or shoved, you will be trained to take away and control the one thing every opponent needs to be a threat, their balance. Most importantly, you will be trained to take a fall, a throw and lose your balance properly so you can not only protect yourself from an unseen attack, but also learn to use this skill as leverage to facilitate counter techniques.
Will I Learn to Use and Defend Against Weapons?
Absolutely. Opponents come armed and unarmed. We prepare for both scenarios.
What Type of Student Does This Aikido School Produce?
You will learn traditional, Aikido form and you will progress beyond the basics of a traditional, Aikido school. This means that we care about consistency in teaching traditional, Aikido skill foundations, but we are not going to limit your growth and exploration as you progress. We want your skills to have practical application for self-defense, for use in every day life, for growth as a person.
How is This School Different From Other Schools?
We are not a club, a non-profit, or a part-time school. We are a full-time, fully staffed, professional martial arts school. We have all the resources that a student will need to not only get a great start training, but the continued support and attention you can expect to receive from both our staff and our amazing community of students.
What is The Community Like at DC Aikido?
I like to say that, "Everyone comes here for the martial arts training, but they stay for the community." - Ryan
Let's be honest, the martial arts are amazing and we do love to "nerd-out" learning new skills and polish what we've already learned, but we wouldn't do it if the people we trained with didn't make it a fun and welcoming place that we look forward to returning each and every week.
I think our "dojo philosophy" can be summarized below:
Aikido training places great emphasis on the development of positive human qualities such as compassion, courage, endurance, and inner strength. In this spirit, Aikido training is undertaken with the goal of improving the individual and thereby society as a whole.
Our school exists to introduce the Art of Aikido and foster a community that will support all students in their martial arts journey that is fun, safe and practical.
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