Nevada County's Family Martial Arts School -- Focus, Fitness & Fun
I am regularly asked what the name of the dojo – Aikido’Ka — means. Written and spelled this way, it’s not a real word. We made it up.
Throughout most of the world, including the United States, the word aikidoka means someone who practices the art of aikido.
In Japan, the word aikidoka means a professional or expert aikidoist. In fact, one would rarely hear a native Japanese speaker use the term aikidoka.
Here’s a brief video of Kahlil practicing soft ukemi (soft falls, also known as feather falls). You’ll see two parts of the practice. First, Kahlil practices a stretch on the ground followed by a roll. Second, Kahlil practices that same roll off of his dad’s back while his dad is down on all fours. You’ll see that Kahlil has complete control of his body and that the fall from his dad’s back is extremely soft and controlled. Kahlil is well on his way to spectacular ukemi.
People get sprained ankles and other ankle injuries often. And once you have a sprained ankle or other ankle injury, chances are that you’ll injure it again and again. In fact, some researchers suggest that the recurrence rate for ankle injuries can be from 30% – 80%.
Back in the 1960′s, a doctor noticed that people who suffered an ankle injury, had really bad balance on that leg — even after the ankle didn’t hurt any more. He didn’t know why that was, but here’s a pretty big part of the answer: Proprioception. Proprioception is your sense of your body’s position in space. During aikido training, we improve our proprioception a lot. But our proprioception can get messed up through even minor injuries.
When you have an ankle injury, you suffer ligament injury and damage the neural receptors in the ligaments. These neural receptors communicate with your brain and tell it how your ankle and foot are positioned relative to the ground. When the neural receptors are injured, your brain doesn’t understand what’s going on with your foot and ankle and you can easily re-injure your ankle.
In other words, ankle injuries hurt your proprioception. You become less stable and are more likely to step wrong or fall and re-injure yourself.
Some people’s neural receptors heal quickly, but often the receptors don’t heal quickly. And repeated injuries follow.
A big part of regaining your proprioception and healing the neural receptors is to do balance exercises. Here are some really easy balance exercises (don’t do these until your ankle can comfortably bear your weight):
These super simple exercises will really, really help your balance, your ankle and your proprioception.
When you really want to work on your balance and proprioception, come to the dojo and practice aikido and kettlebells!
Here’s the link to the article in the NY Times that I based this post on.
We had the most amazing seminar yesterday at the dojo. Danielle Smith Sensei taught two classes. What a total blast. We had visitors from all over. And, best of all, Asia Currie gave a spectacular nidan (2nd degree black belt) demonstration. We’ll have video and photos posted ASAP.
As everyone probably know by know, Aikido’Ka held We Can Drive Through on October 8, 2011 in Nevada City. Here’s the tally for Satruday: $2,900 and 350 pounds of food.
That means in our 4 food drives, our Grass Valley martial arts school has raised $11,000 and 5,750 pounds of food for the Food Bank!
Click here for pictures of the food drive.
We held We Can Drive Through on Saturday, October 8. It was an amazing success. The day was absolutely gorgeous, happily sunny between rainy days.
Thank you so much to everyone who participated and donated.
The Food Bank hasn’t told me how much we raised yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear.
I have posted photos of our food drive in a few places. They are:
High resolution photos. You can have these professionally printed, if you’d like.
Community service photos here at the Aikido’Ka site.
Please leave nice comments at the photos to show your appreciation for these folks efforts.
On Saturday, October 8, from 11 am – 6 pm (rain or shine), Aikido’Ka members will be at the corner of Broad & Union Streets, in Nevada City, for We Can Drive Through 2011. This will be the 4th Annual Aikido’Ka food drive for the Food Bank.
Drive Through is an amazingly easy and effective way for you to support the Food Bank and our community. Clean out your pantry and drop off your extra non-perishable food items at the corner of Broad and Union Streets in Nevada City. Just pull in on either side of the street, drop off your cash and/or food donation and drive away. We will be there rain or shine. It’s that easy!
Here is a partial list of the food items that the Food Bank needs (of course, this is not a complete list):
100% Fruit Juice
Canned Fruit
Dried Beans (any type)
Canned Tomato Products
Enriched Rice
Powdered Milk
Canned Fish and Meat
Enriched Pasta
Peanut Butter (plastic containers only)
Additional Child-friendly items:
100% Fruit Rolls
Raisins
Graham Crackers
Unsweetened Applesauce
Cheese and Crackers
Fruit Cups
Raisins
Pretzels
Trail Mix, Granola, Nuts
String Cheese
Dried Fruit
Please help us make this the most successful We Can Drive Through that we’ve had!
Please help us raise us many donations as possible by telling everyone you know about We Can Drive Through. Please invite all of your Facebook friends to the event. Here’s the link. Here’s the We Can . . . Drive Through link on the Aikido’Ka website.
If you have any questions, want to make donations or would like to volunteer, please contact Frank Bloksberg at (530) 273-2727.
Asia’s 2nd degree black belt (nidan) test paper begins:
Aikido, the art of peace, is a path of compassion. It is a narrow path, winding with many turns and twists, always changing and ever challenging our concepts of self and the world around us. Not always easy to follow, it is compelling in its unfoldment of compassion for our own selves and others.
Compassion exists as a dynamic balance between the two extremes of mercy and severity. Being not fully one or the other but a blending of both. Although it may lean at times towards one or the other, it always includes both aspects. This balance is a fine line to walk. We weave and stumble our way along, sometimes forgetting about it altogether, but always returning to it. This is the work, the training, to walk this path. In this way we learn to be centered, grounded, connected, have expanded awareness with an open and loving heart, and all with a sense of trust and gratitude.
No. Aikido is not a religion and we practice no religion at the dojo.
The bowing that you see simply shows humility and respect. We bow to clearly display our respect for ourselves, the dojo and our training partners. We also bow to share our gratitude to our training partners for the opportunity to practice aikido with them and for the many benefits we receive from aikido and the dojo.
Since Aikido’Ka is a traditional Japanese-style martial arts school (dojo), we practice the traditional custom of bowing as a mutual sign of respect and appreciation.
If bowing conflicts with your religious beliefs, we do not require that you bow. Rather, you will show your mutual respect, appreciation, thankfulness and humility some other way, such as with a sincere handshake and smile.
The practice of aikido does not conflict with any religion or healthy philosophy of which I am aware. Aikido practice supports understanding, respect and love both of ourselves and others – even those who might do us harm. Aikido is based on the philosophy, ethics and wisdom of mutual protection. Aikido practice, therefore, encourages this mutual respect, understanding and love within its physical practice.
Since Aikido is about resolving difficulties with respect and avoiding harm, people all over the world train together no matter their sex, creed, color, age, size or shape.
This philosophy is what leads to Aikido’Ka having a safe, kind, loving community of martial artists.
In addition to having a contest for folks who weren’t yet members of the dojo, we also just completed a contest for dojo members.
Congratulations to the winners!
1st Prize: Jeff Peterson
2nd Prize: Jeff Haut
3rd Prize: Asia Currie
Here’s what they won:
First Prize: 1 month unlimited free training (aikido & kettlebells), Kingfisher bokken, Kingfisher tanto, free trip with Frank Sensei to an upcoming seminar (or free attendance at an upcoming seminar at the dojo — winner’s choice), custom Aikido’Ka T-Shirt, Aikido’Ka backpack, aikido book and DVD.
Second Prize: 1 month free unlimited training (aikido & kettlebells), Kingfisher tanto, custom Aikido’Ka T-Shirt, Aikido’Ka backpack, aikido book and DVD.
Third Prize: 1 month free kettlebells training, custom Aikido’Ka T-Shirt, Aikido’Ka backpack, aikido book and DVD.
Jeff with his New Kingfisher Bokken
This was really fun. We will be doing this again!
