Josh GoldAikido Journal is pleased to announce our new video course: Power and Grace, Portrait of a Master.
The course highlights T.K. Chiba, the legendary master who captivated the aikido world with his dynamic and powerful technique and played a major role in the international development of the art.
The course is not designed as a pure instructional, but as a beautiful showcase of T.K Chiba’s personal expression of the art of aikido and how it evolved over his lifetime. Nevertheless, great technical knowledge and insights can be gained from Power and Grace.
We’re honored to bring this course to life and hope it will inspire and inform future generations of aikidoists. My personal understanding and appreciation of aikido expanded and deepened as I immersed myself in the production of this course. I hope many others will have a similar experience as they journey through the series of videos and stories within.
This was the most challenging project I’ve undertaken at Aikido Journal since taking over the helm in 2018. Project planning happened in early 2020 and we went into production during lockdown. Despite a flurry of pandemic related obstacles and challenges, we were able to bring the vision for the course to life. None of this would have been possible without the help of the Birankai organization for their spirit of collaboration, the encouragement and guidance of Darrell Bluhm, the incredible video production work of Roy Dean, and the monumental contributions of Rob Schenk, without whom this project would never have been completed in the midst of a pandemic.
The course releases on May 4th. You can learn more about the course and pre-order it here.
Josh Gold
Executive Editor
Antonio Aloia
Looking forward to the Chiba sensei production……sounds like a lot of effort and hard work was put in here as usual…….it’s nice to see AJ step forward on an always controversial subject as is Chiba Sensei.
Let me know when available……all the best
Scott Howard
Hi Scott! Great to hear from you and yes, a lot of hard work went into this project for sure 🙂 The course releases on May 4th.
Chiba Sensei was an extraordinary instructor and individual. His life journey is a great story of resilience and triumph. I appreciated every opportunity I had to be in his presence and experience his perspectives on martial arts and on life. Thank you (and Stan Pranin) for documenting this for others.
LOVE IT !! And BJJ Roy Dean contributions too, WOW… can’t wait to sink into this… Keep up the good work Josh Gold..
Thank you Carlo! And yes, Roy did great work with the video production.
Lovely. I would like to ask a question I studied ki aikido to orange belt and really enjoyed it. I am thinking of taking aikido up again but why does it keep getting attacked as not being an effective martial art. Clearly if needed we need it to work. Is it still an effective martial art. This is a genuine question from a 59 year old.
I am a practitioner of ki aikido in the UK and we have just returned to the mat after the rigours of lockdowns and complex health and safety hoops. I am 66 this year and am an orange belt in ki aikido. I practiced another style of aikido until a knee injury put me out of action. I think your questions begs another question: what is an effective martial art? Do you mean standing toe to toe in a MMA cage, fighting in open competitions or defending life and limb in the mean back streets of …. (fill in shady part of town)? For me I focus on the art side of the martial – that is why I came to ki aikido. One of my most revered martial arts instructors told us that the best form of self defence was to be aware of any situation as it developed and to avoid the situation or not even be there. There – like the best movements in aikido I have completely side-stepped your question….
This is an amazing surprise, can’t wait to enjoy the result of this project.
Chiba Sensei is a huge inspiration in the martial path and Aikido in particular.
Who will address the ongoing violent destructive negative repercussions his teachings and energy had on his students which continue to injure students and the universe at large? Who will address the continued cycle of violence he perpetuated and continues to infect those who studied with him and those who carry on his legacy by replicating destructive toxic behaviors that reward those who violate others? Who is brave enough to stop the cycle of abuse that keeps permeating the universe by mere falsely representing a skewed view of his impact and teachings?