First fall session for SF Rec and Parks!

We had our first fall session of Oni Kai Aikido for SF Rec and Parks down at Helen Wills yesterday. It looks to be a great venue and an enthusiastic bunch of kids. Everyone had a good time and they were all learning fast picking things up in a hurry.

Turning Aikido into play so it translates well for the very youngest students can be a challenge but when it takes hold it's an incredible thing to watch. The group for this class is all between 3 and 6 years old, so the focus is somewhat different and the fighting aspect of is hidden in congenial game play. At this age it's far more about body movement, cooperative exercise and organization than self defense. In many ways it's as true to the art as it gets and children often, as was demonstrated again yesterday, have a deep and intuitive understanding of how to move and adapt with very little guidance.

For our first class we worked on the simplest of things like bowing and sitting in seiza as well as tenkan and the early phases of falling safely. With children it can be helpful to use visualization tools such as imaginary balls or birds flying toward them so as to build the foundation skills without sending them home attempting to send their siblings and schoolmates sprawling. The martial applications become obvious with practice and they quickly figure out what they are doing but in a relatively soft and kind way. We even managed to sneak in an introduction to Japanese language that was happily received. These little folks will be learning an awful lot over the next several weeks!

Thanks to any of our Oni Kai Aikido parents our there as well as SF Rec and Parks for making it all possible!