Can you believe that last Friday was our last Elementary School Aikido Club session of the year? To celebrate the end of our first year running the club, we held the awarding ceremony for their very first Aikido promotion to eleventh kyu

Even though Aikido has no matches or competitions, there are plenty of opportunities for aikidoka to challenge themselves, meet other practitioners, and experience different approaches to the art. A major source of such challenge and discovery usually comes under the form of seminars, which are technical masterclasses placed under the direction of one or several teachers. Those can last from half-a-day up to an entire week in the case of resident training.

For a number of years, Elementary School students have been able to enjoy the practice of Kendo, a Japanese martial art that focuses on swordsmanship. With its emphasis on proper manners, sportsmanship, safety awareness, as well as basic swings of the bamboo sword (shinai), Kendo has proved a wonderful way to help our younger students to grow and develop as global and moral citizens.