Aikido Yoshinkai NSW

Im a late 20s male, and naturally quite strong, but I have always been concerned that if I was to get into a threatening situation and I utilised my strength, i could seriously hurt the other person.
It didnt help that in high school Karate I had a teacher who enjoyed showing us teenagers kill moves, which are easy to execute but hard to forget. My concern was that in a pressure situation I might fall back on what I know.
I looked at a few different martial arts schools in Sydney and chose Yoshinkan Aikido, as it came closest to what I was looking for in this regard. Training at AYNSW has opened me to how I can deal with situations without falling back on such brute force ...read more

The club is well set up with permanent mats down on a sprung floor. This is important to look for as lots of places rent share and have the students put down and lift the mats each training session which is a drag and also tatami mats are not designed to be laid on concrete. Thery should be laid on a sprung surface / floating floor such as is installed at this club. This is a basic safety consideration.
I like the attention to detail the instructors give. I feel their knowledge within this art is good and the explanations have always made sense to me. The facilities are kept clean, there are showers, change rooms etc and ample local parking.

My sons started training at this club last year. I enrolled them because aikido is not an aggressive martial art and I was keen for them to do an activity in a strructured disciplined enviroment. The teachers are good with the kids and run classes that are fun, disciplined and challenging enough to keep the kids interested.

I first started in Yoshinkan Aikido in the UK and have been to Japan twice to train at the Yoshinkan Headquarters. I found that the classes at this club fit exactly with my previous Yoshinkan experience and it has been easy for me to continue my training.

As a female I was attracted to aikido because it did not seem to rely on strength and the aggression that is associated with martial arts in general was not there. I am also a dance instructor and so I had somewhat of an idea as to how I wanted the classes to be structured. The detail with which the techniques are taught makes sense and provides a base pattern with which students can learn the footwork. I looked at a number of aikido styles in the UK but chose Yoshinkan Aikido as the presentation to students seemed the clearest and easiest to follow.
It is also pleasing to train at a dojo with a female instructor.

I have been training at AYNSW for about 3 years. I came to this club after experience in a number of other Japanese and asian martial arts and have found it to be very professional in its approach with instructors teaching with a high level of detail. Classes are offered 6 days a week so it is easy to arrange training to fit your schedule. To their credit the instructors have brought out several prominent teachers from Japan so that local students could be exposed to the highest levels of instruction. Safety is at the forefront of classes held at AYNSW, I know from my previous martial arts experience that the instructors take care to ensure that students can learn the stronger style techniques safely.
With regard to self defence, this was not why I started aikido as I already was confident in my ability from having trained in other arts. I find the ...read more