Introduction
The last few months have certainly been challenging both for our dojo and for our parent organization. We’ve also been in contact with a fairly large number of Aikido dojos outside of our local area, and we’re all working hard to keep our heads above water during the COVID-19 pandemic. This post describes our current dojo operations, relative to our six phase pandemic response plan. I also describe both our current and future plans for the dojo.
Where Are We Now?
As of early November, we transitioned back to Phase-2 of our COVID-19 response plan. It was clear, based on both El Paso County COVID-19 Dashboard data and Colorado COVID-19 statistics, that we were headed into a infection surge that could potentially be worse than the initial surge back in March. Phase-2 operation restarts both our online classes and outdoor weekend weapons practice. Outdoor weapons practice has relocated to Keller Park, which is proving to be a very nice location. We upgraded the dojo with dedicated high-speed internet access in late October, anticipating that things would probably get worse before they got better, and we’re well positioned to continue teaching online.
Since shifting back to Phase-2, El Paso County has moved to “Level Orange”, and has since transitioned to “Level Red”. We believe we positioned the dojo to transition at just about the right time.
What’s Next?
The short answer is… We wait… Colorado, in my opinion, is doing a great job of keeping it’s citizens informed. The well-being of our students is our absolute first priority. When we say this, we mean it. No one wants to get back to regular practice more than I do. We have major curriculum enhancements that we were rolling out prior to the pandemic, including continuation of our “Labs” and introduction of a regular “Applied Aikido” class. We’re continuing to refine these changes, and once we’ve re-opened for Tai-Jutsu practice we’ll be allocating one class per week to more advanced Aikido practice, where we’ll explore expansions to “ground work” and responses to more advanced attacks! While the pandemic has put a damper on our growth, we feel that we’ve made the right decision in transitioning back to Phase-2. We just signed a three year lease extension, so we’re not going anywhere, and we very much appreciate the on-going support of our students! We also miss those students that haven’t been able to attend classes regularly because of the pandemic!
Conclusion
It’s unfortunate that we’re closed right now. Fortunately, our dojo is financially able to continue to exist, more or less, indefinitely. We’ve been fortunate to find ourselves with as many good students as we have at present. In my opinion, as a dojo-cho, when I describe our dojo as a safe practice space, I’m not just talking about minimizing injury during practice. We value our students’ long term health, and closing our dojo temporarily, in conjunction with moving classes online, is really the only path we can take that represents responsible consideration for both our students and our community.
