YouTube: Tenzan Aikido Brown and Black Belt Children's Program

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[akiy]

DODY-R4i54k

Here's an 11 minute documentary on Tenzan Aikido's brown and black belt children's program lead by Bruce Bookman (6th dan) in Seattle, WA. In it, Bookman explains his experience and philosophy in teaching aikido to children.

What are your thoughts on this video?

-- Jun

[aikishihan]

Bookman Shihan has painstakingly created, built and nurtured an authentic tribute to Kaiso Ueshiba's own creation of Aikido. You see it confirmed in the quality and sincere dedication of his students of all ages and backgrounds.

I highly recommend attending his innovative and enjoyable classes and seminars, and to study carefully his excellent videos of specific emphases of instruction.

He is a proven leader and mentor to serious students of all ages and experience levels, and a genuine student of the Founder's vision and passion.

[tlk52]

fantastic! I hope to attend the seminar on Oct 26th in NJ (Aikido Schools of NJ). the thoughts on parenting are insightful.

[Dan Richards]

Excellent! Bruce found out exactly what I did, which is just teaching kids straight ahead aikido, and nothing that's modified, and no little silly kids games. Just teach them aikido.

We used to have a class on Sundays called "Family Class." Adult student classes and the kids classes were mixed together. There were even six-year-old kids who could train right along with the adults, who had just as much experience, technique, and understanding as the adults.

One kid could take bokken strikes from adults, and move calmly out of the way. Nose and toes. He got it.

His favorite technique was kaiten nage. He would apply atemi, knee to the stomach, and grab uke's hair. It was flawless and very effective. He and his father, who reached shodan, are still training together.

[Robert Cowham]

I had the pleasure of recently attending a couple of classes at Tenzan and meeting Bruce sensei on the Monday evening - a great dojo and great atmosphere and a real pleasure.

Look forward to potential future visits to Seattle!

Regards
Robert

[lifestylemanoz]

Thanks for that post. Since our dojo is not for profit, we have often debated running kids classes and come to teh conclusion that "no" too much work but this video has given me pause for thought. I am particularly impressed by the students abilities, posture technique and so forth. Really inspiring and might be the catalyst for us to begin kids classes again. Def posting this on my blog (http://aikidohombu.com/running-kids-class-dojo/).

;)