Introduction
After careful consideration over the last few days, we’ve come to the very difficult decision that it’s time to transition from “weapons only” classes to a full closure of the dojo. We are initially closed until 27 March 2020, but we may be forced to extend the closure, if the current health crisis evolves, into April. We didn’t come to this decision lightly, but we consider our health and the health of our students to be of paramount importance.
Recent guidance from both the CDC and the WHO makes a strong case for “social distancing”. These recommendations, in conjunction with recent studies that indicate that the SARS-CoV-2 virus (the virus that causes COVID-19), can be spread for several days prior to an infected person becoming either symptomatic or testing positive (see References section below), led us to the conclusion that closure is both the safest and most responsible course of action for both the dojo and the greater Colorado Springs community. It’s worth noting, by the way, that Colorado, based on CDC data, is currently the #5 US State with regard to reported cases of COVID-19. Washington, California, Massachusetts and New York are all showing an order of magnitude more cases than Colorado, but Colorado is climbing the curve quickly (Reference) .
During our closure, and given the uncertainty of the schedule for returning to a regular class schedule, we’ve come up with some ideas to keep everyone engaged in training. There are lots of activities we can engage in, both individually and as a dojo, to keep everyone moving forward with their Aikido training. Some of our current plans our outlined below, but we are open to any ideas that our students (or anyone else) may have.
Virtual Dojo
With the assumption that we might be forced to extend the closure for a longer period of time, we’ve set up several services to support the Virtual Dojo.
The first service is Zoom. Zoom provides online teleconferencing capability. Our plan is to use this for weekly dojo status meetings. Our first meeting will be on Monday evening, prior to class. I’ll be sending out invitations to current students sometime between now and late Monday morning. This will allow us to check in with each other, and enjoy a bit of social time. I’ll also be using Zoom to schedule individual discussions about 2020 training goals. Meeting notices will be via email and dojo meetings will be posted on the dojo event calendar.
We’re also standing up a live video/audio feed from the dojo to support remote teaching. We’ll mostly be working on the following skills over the next two weeks:
- Aiki Taiso
- Ken/Jo Suburi
- Ken/Jo Kata
- Meditation and Breathing
As Iwama-Ryu practitioners, we are well equipped to weather a crisis like this. We have a rich weapons curriculum that includes both suburi and weapons kata. If you can convince your significant other (or kids) to pick up a ken/jo we may also teach some paired practice.
We’re still setting up the video feed from the dojo, but it looks like we’ll either be using YouTube Streaming or Facebook Live. I’m actually setting up both to provide a backup, if necessary. I hope to have everything set up and tested by this evening. Early testing is going well so far. I will post specific information for accessing the feed both via the dojo email reflector and via Facebook.
Training Goals
This closure is a really good opportunity for everyone to give some thought to their training goals, and what they hope to accomplish, over the next 12 months. I’ve been planning on having individual conversations with folks, in person, about their training goals and interests, and I’m going to do my best to turn this brief closure into a positive training opportunity for all of us. We’ll chat more about this at the dojo meeting on Monday evening.
Home Training Tips
Below are some of the things that I’d recommend we all do while classes are suspended. Some of these I’ll be teaching, and some you might consider doing on your own.
Warm Up/Stretching
We derive a lot of health benefits from our 15 minutes of warm up and stretching at the beginning of every class. We’ll continue doing this during our virtual classes, and I’ll try to put together a video so that everyone can start doing this on a daily basis.
Solo Weapons Practice
We’re very lucky, as Iwama stylists, to be practicing a style of Aikido that has a robust weapons curriculum. I’ll be teaching suburi and weapons kata during the break as part of online classes. These are aspects of your study that can also be practiced regularly at home!
Online Learning/Virtual Dojo
We’re standing up a live video feed, starting on Monday 16 March 2020. I did a good deal of setup and testing today, from home, and I’ll be moving the video streaming hardware to the dojo tomorrow afternoon for testing there. We’ll hold our inaugural online class starting at 6:30 PM. Classes, and their associated invitations, will be posted on both the dojo events calendar and on the Facebook page. We’ll either be using Facebook Live or YouTube Live Stream. Please bear with us tomorrow night, as I’m sure there will be a few technical challenges to overcome. I’ll be emailing details to everyone via the dojo email reflector.
Meditation & Breathing Practice
I’ll be teaching both meditation and breathing classes for anyone interested in participating. Once we get the “features” worked out of the video streaming system, we’ll schedule up meditation and breathing classes online. These are stressful times, and I’d encourage everyone to attend these sessions if possible. This is also something that can be done in your spare time outside of class.
Online Dojo Meetings
We’ve also activated a Zoom account that we’ll be using to hold weekly dojo meetings. I’ll try to hold these to a maximum of 30 minutes, but more than anything I just want to make sure we spend a little social time together as a dojo. I want to make sure we all are doing well, and that we all take some time, while we’re not training in the dojo, to maintain our social ties. I’ll both send invitations and post the invitation on the Event Calendar. Beer is allowed.
Training Resources
Over the next few weeks, our blog posts will focus on providing “home training” resources. If there is, in particular, anything that people want to see, or have questions about, please email me.
References
Below are a few of the references that motivated suspension of classes. These are well curated references that both provide useful information about COVID-19 and support our decision to suspend classes.
