We are back from the Summer Seminar, tired but happy. It was a very special Summer School – the first after a three years break, and the feeling on the mat was tremendous. It reinforced for us the meaning of Aikido practice – to learn to be happy ourselves and try to share it with others.

If anyone you know is thinking of trying Aikido, please pass on this encouragement – the best moment to start would be now.

The Saturday classes are on, the usual 9.30am – 11:30am. We are considering a mixed group for the adults and juniors/youth from 12 y/old. We also consider adding back the second evening, most likely Tuesday. Please email us to register your interest.

With the very best wishes,

Sensei Dimitri

There is an old photo hanging by the entrance door to the studio where we practice. Four women from 1920s-1930s moving on a shore with an immense feeling of freedom. It was always intriguing who they were and what they were doing.

Well, it’s not a mystery anymore thanks to this article on CBC:

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/writer-olivia-laing-explores-the-power-and-vulnerability-of-bodies-1.6185606

A quick demonstration and explanation by Sensei Walters, video from the Ki Federation web-site

With Ontario moving to Stage 3 and the outlook being good we are planning for August / September for resuming of in-person classes.

The weekday class time has now been confirmed on Tuesdays 7pm-8pm for Ki Development class and 8pm-9pm for Ki Aikido class.

In case you were wondering what Ki Development classes look like and why they are very accessible, please have a look at the Ki for Health set of exercises performed by one of the Federation’s top Teachers. This set is typical for exercises practiced in the Ki Development class. In case you were wondering, the garden gnome is not linked to the practice of Ki Aikido in any way.

The all-important mind aspect of the exercises cannot be seen on the video, but you might notice how all major joints and key body movements are covered by the set in a gentle and accessible way.

We’re cancelling classes until further notice. Please stay safe!

The building where we practice is very old and full of odd and wonderful things. One of them is this fencing club poster

This says about fencing pretty much the same as what we could say about our Ki Aikido classes: safe, easy, inexpensive. Muscular and mental response – yeah that is one way of expressing what we try to achieve.

One wonders who Lorand Kaffka was, besides being a member of 1936 Olympics team. The famous Olympics in Berlin…

If I could express the same thing with words as with music, I would, of course, use a verbal expression. Music is something autonomous and much richer. Music begins where the possibilities of language end. That is why I write music.

Jean Sibelius, 1919

Replace in your mind ‘music’ with Aikido. … and then perhaps try to experience it on the mat as ‘something autonomous and much richer’.