protectivearts

CLASS NOTES – MARCH 8, 2021

As we get back to training in the dojo, movement and breathing are the keys to development. To facilitate upper and lower body integration, conditioning practice focused on Suri ashi and Okuri ashi footwork: contact with the ground with a variety of movement patterns. The patterns derive from Japanese swordsmanship and kendo preserves the granularContinue reading “CLASS NOTES – MARCH 8, 2021”

RETURN TO THE MAT – MARCH 2021

March 1, 2021, the first Monday class after almost a full year off the Aikido mat. Restrictions are still in place – masked, no-contact training – which makes for a challenging teaching and learning environment. Aikido is an energetic art: we need to touch each other to understand how to ‘blend’ with the intentional forceContinue reading “RETURN TO THE MAT – MARCH 2021”

Bill Bagwell

Japanese swords and smiths have an aura of the exotic, but the truth is a master smith in every culture is a wizard. The skill to transmute and forge raw materials into something beautiful and deadly is marvelous and magical. Bill Bagwell was an American mage of blade craft. He died February 17, 2021. TheContinue reading “Bill Bagwell”