Introduction
We celebrated our Dojo’s 4th anniversary on May 7th 2022. Quite by accident, our Dojo’s actual anniversary is Cinco de Mayo. We didn’t realize this until we went to grab a beer after our very first class, and “Cinco” was in full swing. Looking back… The last two years have been tough for everyone. Many Aikido dojos, and martial arts schools, in general, have not survived the pandemic.
We’ve been really lucky. Over the last four years, all things considered, we’re doing pretty well. For various reasons, we lost a few students during the pandemic, but we gained a few more. Thankfully, none of our students lost their lives to COVID-19. We hope to see anyone that chose to stop practice during the pandemic return to the mat soon. We’ve been able to attend a few in-person seminars over the last 12 months, and the experience of in-person practice with old and new friends has been wonderful. Above all, we’ve been able to attend regular online practice with our teacher and those that we consider sempai.
Giving Thanks
We wanted to take the opportunity to thank a number of people. First, our teacher, Patricia Hendricks Shihan. In addition to both her teaching and her efforts to support the community via online training, she has been very supportive of our Dojo both before and during the COVID pandemic. Our ability to teach online classes has improved immeasurably due to Hendricks Sensei’s work. We deeply appreciate Hendricks Sensei’s teaching, support and friendship. Her deep understanding of Iwama Aikido is something that we value beyond measure. Her leadership, as Division Head of CAA Division 1, has been an inspiration.
We’d like to thank Yvonne Thelwell Sensei, who has for both Liz and I, always been both teacher and friend. If Thelwell Sensei hadn’t kept the Aikido of Arlington Dojo open all of these years, changing the lives of countless people along the way, our Dojo would not exist today. Although I sadly never had the opportunity to meet Donny Lyon Sensei, the founder of Aikido of Arlington, we also owe an enormous debt to him. Thelwell Sensei was instrumental in helping us open our Dojo, and we value both her friendship and the many thousands of hours of dedication she put into making our Aikido what it is today.
We also owe a debt of gratitude to Mark Larson Sensei for his teaching over the years. I’ve been trying to make it every year to his annual Spring seminar since about 2015. His dedication to preserving Morihiro Saito Sensei‘s legacy has been a personal inspiration to me. His new Dojo is absolutely amazing.
I also thank George Simcox Sensei who was my first Aikido teacher. Simcox Sensei was Dojo-Cho at the Virginia Ki Society (Now Northern Virginia Ki Aikido) Headquarters Dojo in Merrifield, VA. I started my Aikido career at VKS in 1995. I studied there until a few months after Simcox Sensei passed away in November of 2000. At the time, Simcox Sensei had been Dojo-Cho of VKS for 25 years. I’ve been reflecting on the fact that he was Dojo-Cho for almost as long as I’ve been practicing. George was an amazing guy.
I also owe an ever-growing mountain of gratitude to every one of my Sempai. Some of you spent a lot of time and energy sanding away on me to what I can only hope has been “good effect”. Many of you gave me opportunities to take Ukemi, for which I am always grateful. My Aikido Frequent Flyer card has been punched by many Aikidoka. I always try to learn something from everyone I practice with.
Lastly, I owe a lifelong debt to my best friend Ed Golden. Ed and I started Aikido together in 1995. While I had been planning to start Aikido practice, I was in the midst of studying Bagua, Chin-Na, and Tai-Chi. Ed’s desire to study Aikido, and potentially “meet girls”, is what brought me to the Aikido mat for the first time. As ridiculous as that now seems, in the end, he was right. I did eventually meet a girl. I married her. We now run a dojo together. Ed lost interest in Aikido after about a year, but we continued as friends and colleagues. Our friendship developed over the last 26 years and Ed became the closest thing I had to a younger brother. Ed passed away unexpectedly in mid-January 2022, leaving a legacy of lives that he touched in ways that I’m not sure he completely understood. I miss him everyday.
Community
I’d like to take a moment to reflect on our place in the greater Aikido community. During the pandemic, I received an unsolicited and somewhat ironic reminder from someone about the importance of “Aikido community”. I always try to assume that people’s intentions are at least well heeled, and regardless of the actual intention, I did take something positive away from the advice. In the end, I agree that community is important. Our Dojo’s Mission Statement is quite clear about on building community, and why we believe that doing so is important.
Our Dojo’s mission is to foster the development of a vibrant, sustainable and robust Aikido community within both the Colorado Springs region and the greater state of Colorado. The focus of our curriculum is on Traditional, or Iwama Style, Aikido. We study and teach Aikido as a martial art. We believe that the benefits of Aikido are derived through consistent and spirited practice. We strive to make Aikido accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, age, previous experience, or physical capability. Our principal goal is to preserve the teachings of the founder, Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei, as passed down by Morihiro Saito Shihan. We practice Aikido as a means to reconcile conflict.
Mission Statement – Traditional Aikido of Colorado Springs
The goal of our practice is to preserve and teach the Aikido of Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei, as taught by his longest term live-in student (uchideshi) Morihiro Saito Shihan. Our mission is to develop an Aikido community along the Front Range. The community that our dojo belongs to is global. Our dojo embraces the Aikikai, the Iwama Takemusu Aikikai (ITA), the Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai and, by way of my personal lineage, the Ki Society. Within the Aikikai, we are a member dojo of Division 1 of the California Aikido Association. We are also well connected with the Takemusu Aikido Association (TAA), and the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba (ASU).
I’ve practiced Aikido with skilled practitioners of every major style of Aikido and while I don’t advertise my complete martial arts “resume”, I’ve also practiced a few other martial arts over my lifetime. I specifically choose to continue studying, and teaching, Iwama-Ryu Aikido, because it is Budo. We focus exclusively on the study and preservation of Iwama Aikido, because, in my opinion the foundation that it provides is essential to technical mastery of Aikido as a martial art. I continue to invest time and energy in building community for my students. This includes an ongoing and active relationship with our teacher and our sempai. Our students benefit directly from our membership in this community. This is what’s important.
Traditional Aikido of Colorado Springs is a Traditional Dojo. We believe that the sempai/kohai structure that rank establishes within a Dojo is an important part of our training environment. Aikido is a martial art, not some kind of bastardized Japanese Yoga. Trivial things have little to do with tradition. Tradition, in the context of a Japanese martial art, means fostering an environment for accurate and historically correct transmission of the art to students along a lineage that is honestly and genuinely directly traceable to the founder of the art. You cannot learn Aikido from videos or books. It is a physical, experiential art. Aikido is nothing like “dancing” and it is not a medium for “self-expression”. It is a martial art. It is Budo.
As we enter our 5th year as a Dojo… Our dojo is a member of a global community. We absolutely understand the necessity of being an active member of the Aikido community. Community membership is part of our Mission Statement and is a part of just about everything our Dojo does. We support the Aikikai and the Ueshiba family. We support our teachers, and their Dojos. The rank we grant is valid globally. The organization we belong to has a global presence. Our teachers and sempai are among the finest living examples of Traditional Aikido.
We’re here to bring the global Aikido community to Colorado Springs, not to join the existing local community as some kind of “junior” dojo. Our mission is to work toward developing the finest environment in the Front Range region for teaching and practicing Traditional Aikido. As we enter our 5th year, we’re just getting started. Our Dojo warmly welcomes everyone. We’re happy to teach Traditional Aikido to any sincere person that walks through our door. We invite you to join our community and experience Aikido as Budo.
