From Sunday July 29th – Saturday August 4th we will all be converging at the Dolce Seaview Hotel and Resort in Galloway, New Jersey for another stellar week of Aikido and luxury. Hosted by Yamada Sensei and guest instructor Osawa Sensei, along with the USAF Technical Committee and other USAF Shihan and instructors, we will celebrate our 4th year at this outstanding facility. After the New Year, the summer camp committee will circulate more information both through this newsletter and the USAF Summer Camp facebook page. So mark your calendars and stay tuned for further updates! See you in 7 months and 6 days…
Archives for December 2011
Save The Date – USAF Summer Camp 2012
December 23, 2011 by
Aikido Roll-A-Thon Raises Funds For Local Food bank
December 22, 2011 by
Press Release: Litchfield Hills Aikikai is proud to announce the results of the Aikido Youth Program Roll-a-Thon held on Monday, December 12th. The children completed 4,490 Aikido rolls in ½ hour, and because of their outstanding efforts and dedication to this cause, they raised $1650 in sponsored donations Upon completing their rolls, the funds were presented to Kevin Purcell of Torrington FISH to help support the local food bank during the holidays and winter months ahead. As Sensei Laura Pavlick stated, “This was a special moment for the kids – they worked so hard, set their own goals, worked with such concentrated effort towards those goals, and gave back to their community in a huge way. This touches on so many important lessons – what a great experience. We are all so proud of them.”
In addition to Mr. Purcell attending the event to watch the children work tirelessly towards their goals, Litchfield First Selectman Leo Paul was there to show his support as well. The local flavor of the event was topped off with other contributors: a special thanks to Bantam Market for its support – their donation of snacks and drinks was greatly appreciated by the kids after all their hard work was done; local artist Elizabeth Wolff for providing her great art work for the documents and certificates; and photographer Jacek Dolata for his outstanding pictures which capture the essence of this important project. Click here to the photos of this.
To learn more about the Aikido Dojo go to www.litchfieldaikido.com
Holiday Greetings From Yamada Sensei
December 22, 2011 by
I can truly say it’s good to be home! I have traveled all over the world and coming home to NY to finish the year at my dojo always makes me happy.
It’s hard to believe that another year has passed, but when I look on the back of my office door at my calendar for 2012, I think that the new year will be just as busy. Even though I am tired from traveling so much, every where I go the aikido is growing and the people are excited to learn. Many people who live in countries where they have to struggle every day are so happy on the mat. It makes my job so much easier because of that. And as always, being at our own Summer Camp is one of my favorite weeks of the year – it makes me very proud to see so many members coming to camp, and now they are bringing their families. As you know, I love children and as we are all getting older, this seems to make it feel more complete.
The Board and Technical Committee meetings every year are usually very long, but I sit through them because I know how important it is to listen to what our members are discussing and see how hard they are all working to keep the USAF the best aikido organization possible. They have worked very hard this year to make sure that the future is in order for the USAF to continue in a strong and positive way. The TC will be in touch with instructors this year to discuss suggestions for how to improve our teaching curriculum and they will continue to work with the Board towards providing the best benefits for our members possible. Next fall will be the IAF meeting in Japan, where I will go with representatives from the Board of Directors and Technical Committee. Since this happens only every 4 years, we will spend a lot of time preparing for the meeting so we can have a good voice representing the future of the USAF.
As usual, I would like to thank everyone who came to the christmas seminar at New York Aikikai this year. We had close to 250 people here, and 46 tests. I like to be at my dojo when members and visitors from all over the world are all around me. It feels like the dojo is alive and home to everyone.
As I sit in my office and listen to the song “There’s no place like home for the holidays,” I think they are right.
Sincerely,
Y. Yamada
New York Aikikai’s Christmas Seminar & Testing Information
December 8, 2011 by
8 December, 2011
Dear Aikidoka:
New York Aikikai will be hosting its annual holiday seminar on December 17th-18th. Information about this great event can be found through the link on their home page, www.nyaikikai.com.
If you, your student or your friend will be testing at the NYA seminar, please be aware that all test payments will be collected separately from the seminar fee payments. That is, all seminar fees will be payable to NYA, and all dan test fees will be payable to the USAF. For the seminar fee, NYA will accept cash, checks, or credit cards, which will be charged at the time of registration.
Please be prepared to make 2 payments if you will be testing, with your test payment in cash or by check made payable to the USAF. If you would like to pay with Mastercard or VISA (not Amex or Discover), you will be asked to fill out a credit card form authorizing the USAF to charge your card at a later date – your card will not be charged on the day of your test, but rather at a later time from the USAF office.
In addition, please remember that all dan applications need to be typed. They are available online through your instructor or dojo-cho in a fillable pdf format. There are 4 forms for shodan, and 2 for nidan and sandan. Shodan is $200, nidan is $250 and sandan is $300. Please come prepared with your paperwork and payments ready to be handed in. With the number of seminar participants and dan tests, this will help the process remain as efficient as possible. It’s always an exciting day, so your help with this will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you so much for passing on this important information. See you next week.
Sincerely yours,
Laura Pavlick
Director of Operations
