Rocky Valley Aikido Dojo

Rainbows inside clouds - saw this once before sailing out by the Farallons.

Morning above the arctic circle. We crossed about 8 hours ago. The sun is below the horizon, but some light reflects into the sky.

Tuesday night park classes are starting again on January 14th at Mitchell Park from 6:30-7:30! Bring your bokken and jo. Message us for more details.

Aikido Summer Seminar!

Tuesday, July 9th, 8:00-9:00 pm
Thursday, July 11th, 8:00-9:00 pm
Location: Pacific Cultural Center
1307 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz

Saturday, July 13th, 5:00-9:00 pm
Sunday, July 14th, 5:00-9:00 pm
Location: Gold Star Gymnastics
727 Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road, Sunnyvale

Suggested donation:

Adults - each weekday $25, each weekend day $125, or all weekday and weekend events $250
Kids - each weekend day $10, or all weekday and weekend events $25.
Teens - each weekend day $25, or all weekday and weekend events $60
Families - one kid free with each adult

Rocky Valley is a 401C3 charitable organization and your donation may be tax deductible. All seminar donations are used to defray the costs of running the program including bringing our visiting teacher from Japan and renting space. While we would appreciate the suggested donation if possible, donations of any amount will be gratefully accepted.

Our Winter Aikido Seminar with our senior teacher visiting from Japan starts tomorrow! Everyone is welcome to join us:

Tuesday, February 12th, 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Thursday, February 14th, 8:00pm - 9:00pm
Saturday, February 16th, 2:30 - 5:30pm
Sunday, February 17th, 4:30pm - 7:30pm

Location for all seminar events:

Pacific Cultural Center
1307 Seabright Ave.
Santa Cruz

Suggested donation:

Adults - each weekday $25, each weekend day $100, or all weekday and weekend events $200
Kids - each weekend day $10, or all weekday and weekend events $25.
Teens - each weekend day $25, or all weekday and weekend events $60
Families - one kid free with each adult

Rocky Valley is a 401C3 charitable organization and your donation may be tax deductible. All seminar donations are used to defray the costs of running the program including bringing our visiting teacher from Japan and renting space. While we would appreciate the suggested donation if possible, donations of any amount will be gratefully accepted.

Saturday morning classes will be meeting tomorrow, November 25th!

Our Fall Aikido Seminar with our senior teacher visiting from Japan will be held:

Tuesday and Thursday, November 7th and 9th
8:00-9:15 pm
Pacific Cultural Center
1307 Seabright Ave.
Santa Cruz, CA 95062

Saturday and Sunday, November 11th and 12th
1:30-5:00 pm
Gold Star Gymnastics
190 S. Whisman Rd. Bldg. B
Mountain View, CA 94041

We hope you all can join us for the seminar.

Suggested donation:

Rocky Valley is a 401C3 charitable organization and your donation may be tax deductible. All seminar donations are used to defray the costs of running the program including bringing our visiting teacher from Japan and renting space. While we would appreciate the suggested donation if possible, donations of any amount will be gratefully accepted.

Kids - each weekend day $10, or all weekday and weekend events $25.
Teens - each weekend day $25, or all weekday and weekend events $60
Adults - each weekend day $100, or all weekday and weekend events $250
Families - one kid free with each adult

Save the dates 11/6-11/13 for our fall seminar and classes with our visiting teacher from Japan. Stay tuned for details including locations, specific dates and times, etc.

New class time and location in Santa Cruz - Tuesday evenings 6:30-7:30 at Pacific Cultural Center, 1307 Seabright Ave.

Brian's Notes from Aikido in the Park 3/13

It was a beautiful evening for training in the park on Monday night with the promise of Spring in the warm and fragrant air and blossoming trees. We began class with some furutama (vibration) and torifune (rowing) practices with the intention to 'keep our minds quiet, like the reflection of the moon on water' as my Sufi teacher Dr. Kianfar has mentioned. We explored the experience of allowing our minds to become quiet and allowing our bodies to be a channel for a waterfall of light or feeling flowing down from above and into and through our bodies and into the earth.

We then began with tai no henko, paying attention to maintaining a good bond with our partners as uke and working to maintain the sense of flow down through the body as we pivoted next to our partners as nage. We moved through a series of techniques from the ryote dori attack, tenshinage, ikkyo, shihonage and iriminage.

As we were working on ryote dori shihonage an image of Kato Sensei standing next to where we were training entered my mind's eye, it was a place where he stood for a long time one day before class a number of years ago and he was visibly doing what appeared to be a very subtle torifune practice where his body posture was opening and closing and I remember standing quietly off to one side and becoming very conscious of the trees, earth, birds and the air itself as if they were all taking part in one unified dance. I remember commenting on this unity I saw between Kato Sensei and the circle of trees he was facing during this time and I still remember my impression of his response (given my limited understanding of Japanese this is more a reflection of what I felt and heard him say) 'Are you aware of your own root in the ground and can you extend your awareness to communicate with the roots of the trees?

We completed class with a practice with the bokken, basic walking forward and backward paying attention to the movement of the hips, ikkyo paired practice and shihogiri.

Notes from the Workshop 3/12

We began with kokyudosa and explored the interstices between yin (flowing in) and yo (flowing out) and how both qualities are present and active in forming a balanced and grounded relationship with ourselves and our partners. We took this into ushiro ryo katate dori practice first exploring ikkyo through yonkyo omote variations and tried to find the same balance and sense of connection in this more challenging dynamic movement and relationship with our partners. We then explored the differences and similarities of this rhythm and flow during the ushiro ryote kote gaeishi and shihonage practices. The class ended with a look at the larger and more fluid practices of ushiro ryoteo dori iriminage and kokyuho.