Ikkyo is usually the first technique a new student learns, which convinces almost everyone it's the simplest. After 45 years on the mat — practicing it, teaching it, and taking ukemi for it from partners at every level — I can tell you the opposite is true. Ikkyo is one of the hardest techniques ...

When the Challenge Stops Coming From Outside

For most of your time on the mat, progress has an obvious engine. A sempai throws harder than you can handle yet. A technique won't sit right in your hands. A partner's ukemi keeps surprising you. The mat pushes back, and that pushback is what makes y...

I lived and trained in Japan for nearly a decade, and there is still something about the way senior Japanese instructors move that I have never seen fully replicated — not in seminars, not in videos, not even in very advanced Western practitioners. I have thought about this for years, and I wa...

Ukemi is about much more than falling safely. Explore how receiving techniques can improve timing, sensitivity, connection, and overall Aikido development.

Years of observing Japanese Aikido teachers revealed surprising lessons about timing, posture, zanshin, and why expert practitioners often seem to move less while accomplishing more.

Soft Aikido may look effortless, but developing true softness requires structure, awareness, timing, and years of repetition. In this video, Lia Suzuki explores why softness is one of the hardest skills in Aikido.

Progress in Aikido doesn’t stop when you stop moving. Learn how observation develops perception, accelerates understanding, and helps principles transfer from Sensei to student.

If you’re new to Aikido and feel stuck, this lesson explains why plateaus are part of real progress, how ukemi accelerates learning, and how observation trains your intuition both inside and outside the Dojo.