by Dr. Paul Williams, PT, DPT ​I wanted to preface this article by saying that in no way am I trying to point my finger at any one style of aikido or teachers. Aikido is a vast cornucopia of differing styles that emphasize one or more principles that make them unique. In my experience, there…

In the past few years, I have been working with the leadership in our Takemusu Aikido Association (TAA) to enhance our instructor training and certification program. I have been struggling with how to build as well as assess a critical attribute of a good instructor, namely integrity. As a personal attribute, integrity refers to the…

Domo arigato gozaimashita! Last week, toward the end of a class in the Beginners Course, I explained to students the reason we need to thank our training partners is that, without them, we cannot do Aikido. As in any martial arts, we need another person to train with, to get feedback from and perfect our…