Aikido (合気道) is a synthesis of his various martial arts studies, philosophy, and spiritual realizations. Ueshiba's goal was to create an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury. Aikido is often known as the "Art of Peace".
It has been said there are three ways to defend oneself. One is to kill the attacker who is coming to kill you. Two is to injure the attacker. Three is to somehow solve the conflict and no one gets hurts. The third way is called the gentlemen's art Aikido.
In our training at Aikido Del Mar, we explore ways to resolve conflicts from a physical level by first firming up one's own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual integrity. We study the mind/body connection and through working on our own posture, smoothness of movements, and a sincere connection, we learn to sense and feel our partners (or attackers) by being more understanding and in-tune with our environment.
Aikido is not only a physical training but also a way to conduct one's life outside of the dojo. We treat others with understanding, kindness, and integrity, and through the proper conduct, we strive to bring more peace and harmony no matter where we go.
Yoshinkan (養神館) Aikido is a style of aikido developed by Gozo Shioda (1915–1994). It is translated to "Hall to Cultivating the Spirit". As one of the live-in students of the founder of Aikido, Shioda noticed some frustrations in students training to learn the seemingly complicated art form. Hence he developed the six basic movements to lead students to learn the techniques more easily.
It is said the basic stances in aikido are the ABCs, the basic movements are the words using our ABCs, the basic techniques are sentences using the words, and later freestyles using sentences to write an entire essay. Our goal is to express poetry through the art of aikido.
Yoshinkan Aikido is known as the "hard" style of aikido because the repetitive training methods came from Shioda's grueling life before the war. Yoshinkan Aikido is also the official martial Art of the Tokyo riot police and compulsory training for Tokyo policewomen, making it a particularly efficient system for self-defense without actively harming another. Yoshinkan Aikido is currently the second largest aikido organization worldwide.
Aikido Del Mar use mostly Yoshikan style of aikido of the basic stances, basic movements, and basic techniques to help students gain a sense of confidence before moving into freestyle. We also share our combined knowledge in various forms to give students freedom of not being locked-in one way of thinking.
Long term practitioners trained in various styles of aikido notice all aikido merge to look and feel the same at higher levels. In our school, we focus on posture, smoothness of movements, and maintaining integrity while shifting our weight for beginners. At the intermediate level, we start to introduce making sincere connections to our partners. At the advanced level, we maintain our own integrity while maintaining the right connection to our partners. At the higher advanced levels, we learn to "dance" with multiple partners without giving up ourselves.