Our dojo offers a non-traditional aikido training developed to bring a student to a more profound experience of what we believe the Founder intended. Rather than the typical technique emulation teaching format, our training is based on an understanding of the nature of attack. Once the nature of attack is understood from a physical and, more importantly, a spiritual perspective, even beginners can experience the highest form of aikido - take musu aiki - the spontaneous manifestation of aikido. Beginners learn a condensed and simplified set of movements integral to aikido while studying the aspects of attack that create the "aiki resolution." Intermediate and advanced students then learn and practice how to support and protect the attacker as his intention brings him to the ground. Our advanced practice is always jiuwaza practice, that is, a technique is never prescribed. In the role of uke, our students cultivate the ability to initiate and maintain authentic attacking intention so as to create a more realistic response to nage's actions, and therefore a more realistic representation of the effectiveness of those actions in creating a transformative experience. In practicing with this emphasis, it becomes easier to see how aikido principles can be employed in everyday interactions and as a tool for self improvement as well as as an effective way of non-violently resolving physical conflict.
