A Letter to our Training Partners: COVID-19

Dear Fellow Dojo Members,

We have had such a great time working with Elizabeth weekly in a virtual setting! While nothing compares to being in our dojo, it has kept our minds engaged in aikido, kept our bodies feeling ready to return to the dojo at a moment’s notice, and kept our hearts feeling full. We still get to experience the aikido high! That is what really has drawn us to doing online training; the sense of serenity, calm, focus, dedication to personal practice and grounded being.

In short, these sessions are one of the things we value most in our week. We’ve been overwhelmed by how hard it is with one of us finishing a degree program online, one of us teaching full-time online and the other of us being five years old. Getting to step away from our daily rush of existence and some amount of aikido on a routine basis has been vitally important for us to maintain a deeper connection to the practice.

Elizabeth (and Jeff)’s classes have been a great opportunity for us to dive deeper into connecting basic terminology with basic movements. It has been humbling trying to correlate the footsteps for various techniques in this new virtual solo practice with the memory of executing techniques when training with a partner. As it turns out...it’s really hard to visualize and feel a non-existent foe with even the most familiar of techniques!

Practicing the footwork in isolation is something we don’t often have the opportunity to do in our typical practice at the dojo. Practicing these movements slowly has really shown us how weak our lines of attacking / receiving / redirecting are and how much stronger our aikido can become in light of this. For example, we have a better grasp on what it means to change the line of attack via a simple movement (ushiro) and to proceed on that new line.

Of course, Sensei has been telling us this for a long time, but that’s the life of a teacher - constantly hearing students proclaim loudly when have revelations from other experiences. Revelations that you’ve been trying to get them to have for a very long time. Thank you, Sensei! 

On a separate but related note, over the past month, there have also been some great videos released by Sensei, Elizabeth, Bill, and Jeff that we always make a point of trying, at least once as soon as possible. It has been hard to be consistent because our family is particularly bombarded with communications right now. While we don’t always find a time to practice fully on a daily basis, Torrey is frequently walking through the house swinging a weapon and we are all practicing walking from our hips without bobbing our heads during our nightly post-dinner family walks :)

It has also been great to see the broader Aikido community online. We found recent videos by Piotr Masztalerz Sensei and Leonardo Sodré Sensei particularly interesting, especially videos explaining how to practice ukemi in tight spaces or on hard surfaces. We have also been diving down the rabbit hole with footage of Chiba Sensei lately...wow! And the epic footage of O-Sensei demonstrating on a rooftop and in a few short documentary videos.

However, despite having these resources available, for us there is something visceral about the accountability to show up, practice, and engage to our fullest. We were of course tempted to put our aikido practice down for a bit when the quarantine started, but after trying out a couple of classes, it has come to light how significant and important incorporating this practice really is. It is such a privilege to have these resources at our disposal and to have someone like Elizabeth to break down each move into something tangible.

Of course, none of this compares to being on the mat with all of you. The community in the dojo is a major reason we joined in the first place and we miss it. We miss you! It’s craziness out there, but please come join a class if you are able so we can see your lovely faces and chat briefly afterward.

Thanks, everybody for reading, we hope to see you on your living room floor!

-Sara & Torrey (and Adamina)