Playing with words can be fun, if done in moderation. So when we refer to Aikido (or any martial discipline) as an ideal discipline for the integral development of the individual, we are faced with three chances. If we are equipped with a standard, well-operating brain, we read the sentence for what it is: Aikido […]
Supporting people development means knowing how to deal with their vulnerabilities. Those operators who work with those people who society places on the margins due to traumas in their experiences, economic difficulties and cultural barriers know this well. For such people it is essential to develop a certain capacity for resilience, drawing on their own […]
Aikido wa ichiban budo desu – 合気道は一番武道です。 This sentence from the founder of Aikido pops up cyclically. In some articles, in some conversations among practitioners, during training at the Dojo or attending some seminar. An evergreen, in short. But what does it mean? If we ask the various practitioners who grew up with a drip […]
Recovering the meaning of what we do every day is a goal, perhaps the highest, of a martial discipline. The Founder of Aikido often used the term sumikiri (澄み切り). A very interesting term, because the two parts of which it is composed mean “clean cut” but the term in its entirety means “complete serenity”. And […]
A child is completely dependent on his parents. It is no coincidence that in the early years, mum and dad are usually children’s heroes. At the same time, however, around the age of two, we all start to say our first no. No which most of the time are totally unreasonable and which, if indulged […]
In the first of his books, Morihiro Saito tells of when he presented himself to Morihei Ueshiba to be accepted as his student: Sensei stared at me and asked, “Why do you want to learn Aikido?” When I replied that I’d like to learn if he would teach me, he asked, “Do you know what […]
It took me several years before I understood and felt that Ueshiba Sensei’s Aikido was very different from that of his disciples. It must also be said that each of his students practiced it in their own way, according to their own personal motivation, according to their own open-mindedness. […] What was, based on what […]
At least in words, everyone desires freedom. Anyone wants to express his choices without constraints and thus determine his, her own life. The last years, with the pandemic first and with the war re-emerging in Europe, have also brought to light the fragility of freedom, together with its importance, in the Western world. A condition […]
In the Dojo where we practice, we dedicated the last three years to building a vast archive of the technical program, now available on YouTube. An intense work, which to date allowed us to draw a first perimeter, a framework to the purely formal aspect of the practice of Aikido. So far, we have cataloged […]
Yes, it’s true: that alien O Sensei, green but still with almond-shaped eyes who speaks with verbs in the infinitive form, said: “Do. Or do not. There is no try”. Unfortunately (?) Yoda Sensei lives in a future that only exists in the Star Wars movies. His teachings are based on true principles: you can’t […]
