Aikido Academy of Martial Arts

Martial Arts… especially the Art of Aikido is about taking a journey to better one self through years of practice. Each student, in my experience of 20+ years, takes the same journey but in greatly varying length of time, their experience depends on how much they give of themselves in the process. We have all heard the term «empty your cup», you must truly choose to do this to make your martial arts journey worth while. It does not sound to me like the initial reviewer of this school «emptied their cup». The descriptions of their experiences are not even remotely close to what is described. Students safety is always paramount. Teaching is only done by the head instructor or assistant instructors who are qualified and closely supervised by the head instructor. As to the charges or fees described, they are totally false. As to the student handbook, it is not meant to «teach» you the art, it is meant a new student guide that explains certain expectations, rules of the dojo, names of techniques, suggested reading, etc. You do not learn from a book and it is never even suggested that you do so. Lastly, the size of a school does not directly correlate to the quality of instruction. Space is used very efficiently and have never seen any issues with size of the school being a limitation. It seems to me that the initial reviewer did allow themselves to be taught but merely expected by default and by a simple money exchange to «magically» learn without putting in the time.
Chris Leventis
Ni-​Dan