Aikido of Northern Colorado

People who have been practicing martial and other arts for decades say that there is no substitute for getting out and practicing your art. Some people also seem to fally into this "let's get hands dirty" style naturally. Others tend to learn more about things that might take them a lifetime to study first. Yet others find out that their practice may benefit from the greater understanding of the an art that may come, for instance, from studying its history, founders, and theoretical underpinnings and from interacting with those who walk the path alongside or ahead of them. So, if you might want to sit down on a slow Sunday afternoon or grab your favorite drink and settle into a chair in front of the monitor on a quiet night and learn more about the wonderful art of Aikido you've come to one of the right places to start. There is a lot written about the history of Aikido, its background, rules and other things. We are going to help you get going by pointing to the relevant materials available on the web at this time.

If you'd rather make up your own mind on what to read you can start from the community and publication sites such as AikiWeb, Aikido FAQ, Aikido Journal, and the Wikipedia Aikido page have good references and original content.

To get an overview of Aikido as a martial art and its history you could start your reading with the words of the Founder of Aikido O'Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in the following materials - Excerpts from The Founder's teachings, The Memoir of the Master, Dojo regulations as written by O'Sensei.

Good overview of the various aspects of Aikido is presented in Eric Sotnak's Aikido Primer. There are also shorter original articles written for AikiWeb such as Aikido general information" by Eric Sotnak, "Aikido History" by Eric Sotnak, "Did Morihei Ueshiba invent Aikido?" by Peter Boylan, Aikido Etiquette, and Basic Aikido Vocabulary.

If you are interested in learning about the effectiveness of Aikido as a martial art, the "real World (TM)" use of Aikido and other questions of this sort you could read "Aikido and Combat Effectiveness" by Erik Sotnak, "Life, Not Death" by Dennis Hooker, "Does Aikido Make Me a Warrior?" by Dennis Hooker, and "Real Aikido" by Carol M. Shifflett.

If you'd like to learn more about the training methodology, pitfalls and ways to improve your practice then "Common problems and observations" by Carol M. Shifflett, "Analogies for the Aikido Learning Process" by George Simcox, "Training the Mind" by Eric Sotnak, "On training" by Eric Sotnak, "How Much?" by Cady Goldfield, "Danger - Lottery Mentality" by Roger Alexander, and "Kata Training and Aikido" by Diane Skoss may be appropriate.

Some interesting psychological aspects of training are illustrated in the "Polishing the Mirror and Grinding the Stone" by Dennis Hooke , "Honest practice" by Jim Zimmerdahl, "Aikido to Apples" by Lee Escobar, "On Stopping, Starting, Persevering and Growing" by Mike Collins, and "The Role of Fear" by Tarik Ghbeish.

As Ukemi is such an important part of keiko there are some good AikiWeb articles that illuminate it - "About Ukemi" by Lisa Tomoleoni, "Appropriate Ukemi" by George S. Ledyard and "Taking Ukemi and Being Uke" by Peter Boylan.

Some good information that might help you make your decision in selecting a place to train can be found in "How to Choose an Aikido Dojo" by J. Akiyama and "Evaluating a Dojo" by Bill Witt.