March 9, 2005
Foundation of ExcellenceThe not-yet-spring rains have brought forth a host of new life and beginnings on the Dojo property. The trees, dormant through the mild winter, have begun to sprout buds. Annuals have struggled up through the Texas clay and have spread their new leaves to the sun - and yesterday, where once there was a bland patch of featureless dirt, a large concrete foundation had sprung up in the space of a few hours.Of course, it didn't literally appear as quickly as that. The forms had been in place for a week or more, waiting on the endless succession of Texas storms to run their course before the concrete crew could arrive to do their work. Once they were there, however, the concrete was poured, smoothed down, had the forms removed and was being burnished before most of us could dash out to have a look.
Here is what we found.December 15, 2004
Signs and wonders!North Texas Aikido has Adopted a Highway. Should you find yourself traveling along Lucas Road between the "Bait Sandwiches" shop and the driveway to the new dojo property, look for the signs that mark the two-mile stretch recently "adopted" by North Texas Aikido. Four times a year we will conduct cleanups, picking up any trash and other interesting items* that find themselves on the sides of the road. This is a valuable community service provided by our membership that will help to build positive relationships with our new neighbors.*Besides the 30+ bags of expected bottles, cans and fast-food wrappers, our first cleanup day netted an "athletic supporter" and half a bra - go figure...
September 11, 2004
Summer Schedule Ends!
Along with the most of the summer heat, SUMMER SCHEDULE HAS ENDED*. Normal
Class Schedule resumes. (* Translation: no more 9:00 am weapons classes outside)Our hopes are that we will no longer need a morning weapons class come next year. With any luck, we'll have a nice, new facility with high ceilings to practice inside during the hot summer months.
June 6, 2004
Summer Schedule Begins Again!Due to the summer heat, North Texas Aikido is instituting its Summer Schedule once again. What does this mean to you? For those of you who attend the Saturday weapons class, this means we're meeting outside in the parking lot for weapons training at 9:00 am until 10:00 am. This way we get out and start training while it is still (relatively speaking - it is Texas, after all) cool outside under the unlimited sky, weather permitting, rather than under our low ceiling at our current facilities. The regular 12:30 class will still continue inside as a continuation of the week's theme of instruction and may take a more spirited pace.
May 15, 2004
Kids' PromotionsLots of kids' tests completed.The dojo was abuzz with the sound of plenty of kids being tested this past Saturday. We are pleased to announce that all the candidates up for promotion successfully passed their exams.
May 14, 2004
Happy Anniversary!This month marks the 20th year of Russell Alvey Sensei's path in Aikido! On behalf of Students, Friends and Family, Congratulations, and ... Thank you, Sensei!
May 10, 2004
Tweaking the SiteYes, Phil, we're still here... ;-)
Online Calendar of Events AddedPartially out of a desire to keep upcoming special events posted for easy perusal by our members and guests, but primarily to help your absent-minded webmaster remember his teaching assignments, we present our North Texas Aikido Calendar of Events. At present, it only lists our current class schedule, but as events are planned, they will be added to the schedule. Check back often, and feel free to
prod the webmaster with dojo events that should be listed.
April 29, 2004
Did you miss us? We certainly missed you!
We're Back Online! Bear with us as we gradually unpack our website on a new server and try to figure out where all our digital furniture should go. Many heartfelt thanks to Kent and the rest of the Merrell family for graciously hosting our website at their own considerable expense for the last several years. Thanks also go to Chris Pearce and Clay Luther for their help in obtaining a new home for our website.Along with the move will come the usual host of broken links and a general house-cleaning of old, outdated pages and pictures, as well as new and expanded content to better serve our students and visitors.
April 3, 2004
Yet another new Shodan!Congratulations to Dr. Mike Sealock on his successful Shodan test! Once again, a full dojo was was on hand to view an excellent performance and to celebrate with Mike afterwards - and boy, did we party!
February 7, 2004
Another new Shodan!
Congratulations to Doug Koval on his successful Shodan test! The dojo was packed with well-wishers eager to see Doug's excellent performance and to celebrate with him afterwards.Naturally, nobody thought to bring a camera ... Fortunately, we had the good fortune of a visit from Dave Delong, Sensei of the Aikido Institute of Texas- and his student, Jared Mays, who had a disposable camera in his truck. Hopefully, we will eventually have a picture or two to post online.
September 6, 2003
Along with the crushing heat,
SUMMER SCHEDULE HAS ENDED*. Normal
Class Schedule resumes. (* Translation: no more 8:30am weapons in the park until next summer)
July 31, 2003
A good excuse for a party!Russ Sensei has been in California all this past week serving as uchi-deshi (full-time live-in student) at
Aikido San Leandro, under his instructor,
Pat Hendricks, Sensei. In his absence, senior students, Nancy, Nina and Keith, of North Texas Aikido have been instructing all the classes and keeping the home-fires burning.
While in California, Russ Sensei has been brushing up and preparing for his Yondan demonstration, given just this past Saturday. Richard and Daniel flew out on Thursday to assist as ukés during the demonstration - which culminated in the promotion of Russell Alvey, Sensei to Yondan (4th degree black belt). We are all very excited and pleased for Russ Sensei and will doubtless use his promotion as an excuse for a big party at the dojo!
July 2, 2003
Thanks!Thanks go out to everyone who helped to make the seminar with Pat Hendricks, Sensei a success! We are still glowing from the success of the seminar with Pat Hendricks, Sensei, June 28-29.. While quite hot even during the early-morning outdoor weapons sessions at Ford Park, nobody saw fit to pass out or even make too big a fuss about the summer heat and humidity here in north Texas. The two-day seminar on weapons and taijutsu wrapped up with Dan tests, and we are pleased to report the following promotions:
Shodan:Sharon AlexeichikIan Alvey Nancy Cushion
Nidan:Keith FinkJanice GilbertDaniel GonzalesNina HoggMark HolmgrenThanks also go to our guests from Colorado, Kim and Paul, who found themselves suddenly conscripted into taking ukemi for many of the candidates during the tests. (We couldn't have done it without you two - Thanks!) Last, but certainly not least, thanks to all the students, parents, friends and of course our own Dojo-Cho of North Texas Aikido, who spent countless hours cleaning, planning, decorating the Dojo, and cooking for the pot-luck party following the completion of the seminar. We've already begun plans for next year's seminar, to be held during a cooler month - and with any luck - in our new facilities. Stay tuned!
SEMINAR RESCHEDULED
June 28-29, 2003A Weekend withPat Hendricks, Sensei
Seminar schedulefor Sat & Sun:9am - 10am 10:15am - 11:15amLunch1:30pm - 2:30pm2:45pm - 3:45pm
Seminar with Pat Hendricks, Sensei. To our great delight,
Pat Hendricks Sensei, of Aikido San Leandro has graciously agreed to visit us once again and conduct a weekend seminar June 28-29, 2003. Due to the very limited space at our current facilities, the seminar will be open to all current students of North Texas Aikido and a limited number of guests only. Visitors should speak directly with Russell Alvey, Sensei for confirmation of their attendance. Seminar fees are $75 for the entire weekend of instruction or $10 if you would just like to observe.
June 7, 2003
Summer Schedule ResumesThe Summer Schedule Resumes June 7. The Saturday weapons
class, will move to 8:30am Saturday mornings to try and beat the heat. The standard 12:30 weapons time slot will temporarily be used for test preperation and more advanced-paced training for the duration of the summer schedule.
January 1, 2003
New Class OfferedThe new Beginners' Class will begin January 6. All new students and those wanting to "brush up" on basic Aikido techniques and information are encouraged to attend the new Monday night
classes, held from 7:00-8:00pm. These classes will be taught by the Dojo's sempai and will cover requirements for the first rank test, as well as concepts on etiquette, terminology and basic weapons.
December 14, 2002
Party time!In honor of O'Sensei's birthday, North Texas Aikido will be having a Potluck Party immediately following the 12:30 pm class on Saturday. All students and their families are invited to come and share their favorite recipés. Russ Sensei may even blow the dust off of his Aikido Video collection for viewing during the festivities.
December 2002
Please make a note...
The Dojo will be closed on Christmas Day and on New Year's Eve. New Year's Day class will be held at 10:00 am. You can always sleep later...
November 2002
Please make a note...The Dojo will be closed Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, as well as the following Friday and Saturday.
November, 2002
Getting caught up...Updates and RamblingsFrequent visitors to the site will note that not much has been posted or updated for some time, now. Please don't infer that nothing has changed or is going on at North Texas Aikido – Quite the opposite. We hope to be adding new photos and other information, and perhaps archive some of the older photos on the site. Also, there will be updates to the
Yoga schedule soon, as well.
In the meanwhile ...The class schedule is slowly morphing into one that more closely meets the needs of our students and full-time Dojo Cho. By popular demand, the early-morning Saturday weapons class, originally intended to beat the heat of summer and give us all a chance to train under the endless ceiling of open sky remains in effect – even as the weather cools into winter. Just like the weather here in north Texas, this is subject to change at any time. The standard weapons class time of 12:30-1:30 has become more and more an advanced-pace taijutsu class, due mostly to the number of yudansha typically in attendance. Newer members should not feel the need to shy away from this class, but are asked to be aware of advanced pace the class is likely to take.
On the near horizon, a new beginner level-specific class will be added to the
schedule, most likely on Monday nights. This class will focus primarily on familiarizing new students with the most basic positions, stances and techniques required on the students first rank test, as well as history, concepts and
etiquette. This class will be taught by the senior students of the dojo.
As for the progress on the new Dojo, we're finally wrapping up the architectural drawings and just about ready to submit them to the engineers. For those of you keeping track (scroll down a bit, if you like), this has taken over a year just to get to this point. Our original attempts to mark our property line with laboriously transplanted cedar trees met with a sudden end at the hands of a rogue mowing tractor. When the hay in the field gets taller than the saplings, it gets tricky knowing when to turn... The freshly cropped cedars were ultimately replaced with heavy fence-posts, which will doubtless make much more of an impression on the neighbors mower should there be any future lapses in judgement.
May 14, 2002
the end of an era...It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Morihiro Saito Sensei in Iwama, Japan early Monday morning, May 13, 2002. Stanley Pranin of Aikido Journal writes, "Saito Sensei was truly one of the giants of modern aikido and his strong presence will be sorely missed. This editor was among the thousands of students touched by Saito Sensei during his lifetime. His son and successor Hitohiro Saito Shihan plans to hold a private funeral for family members shortly and a formal ceremony to be held in Japan in about one month's time. He asks that anyone planning to go to Japan to pay their respects attend the formal funeral to be announced soon."
Those of us at North Texas Aikido who have had the privilege of meeting and training with Saito Sensei in person will doubtless feel the loss more accutely, but his life has made a lasting impression that is felt by all his generations of students across the globe.
Our hearts and prayers are with the family and other loved ones of Morihiro Saito Sensei.
May 10, 2002
New Pics...New Pictures Posted!CJ has been kind enough to post some pictures he took out at the property shortly after its purchase. Check 'em out!
March 18, 2002
Some catching up is in order...
Quite a bit has happened since the last update. Here's a few tidbits to tide you over 'till we get a chance to post some pics.The new NTA acreage has had quite a bit of work done on it to prepare it for our eventual building site. Brush has been hogged. Weeds have been eaten. Chains have been sawed ... er, that is chain saws have had the dust knocked off by copious use on brambles and branches. Those willing to take on the mission of poison ivy patrol have all been awarded the Red Rash of Courage by the local flora. You wouldn't believe the mounds of trash collected and hauled off our little corner of Collin County over the last several months. The vast majority of junk has been removed, but we suspect we'll still be finding hidden bedsprings, tires and bottles for some time to come. The laborious task of transplanting cedar trees to denote our property line and provide a little more privacy has begun, and two out of the three people assigned the task one Saturday a while back really threw themselves into the work. (The other person decided he's better suited to writing about it here instead...) Most notable, however is the new driveway just installed this past week. It winds a leisurely path from the main road back to the parking pad on the other side of the treeline. The driver is treated to a quick view of the lake along the way, and Sensei says it provides a lovely vantage point to watch the sun rise. Actual building plans are still in development, and as much as we'd like to get started on the construction of our new home, we are taking great pains to be sure all of North Texas Aikido's needs will be met by the new Dojo.
More to come soon!
March 10, 2002
Recent sightings...Worm Boy Lives! If you don't know ... don't ask. Hi, Mike!
November 20, 2001
Several New Yoga Classes have been added to the
Class Schedule.
September 15, 2001
Summer schedule has ended. Normal
Class Schedule resumes.
