KW YOSHINKAN AIKIDO CREATES MARTIAL ARTS COMMUNITY IN WR
Shelly Keilikhis, Jake Hutter and Michael Wright met at a Yoshinkan Aikido workshop. There they discovered they were all from the Waterloo Region and decided to form their own club. They founded KW Yoshinkan Aikido in January 2023 and joined the Heritage Martial Arts dojo in November of that year.
Keilikhis began her martial arts career at age five and began aikido at age nine. Despite working on her Master’s of Business Administration and working at Amazon, she continues to prioritize aikido.
“I’m just making sure that Aikido is still part of my priority and a passion for me and something that I see going through my whole life,” she said.
“I love Aikido because it brought us together,” Keilikhis said.
Aikido was founded in 1925 by Ueshiba Morihei and stems from samurai martial arts but is adapted to more defense and control-based moves. Rather than focusing on violence, aikido teaches students to redirect the force.
“We’re prioritizing de-escalation and control… [and how to] create a safe space for yourself, safe space for the people around you, without causing more harm than is necessary to anybody in the group to get there,” Hutter said.
In a class setting, it also requires trust and vulnerability between partners to help each other learn.
“[Y]ou can also use that vulnerable position to help teach your partner…that sense of collaboration, of meeting each other halfway, of finding the best way forward, even–it kind of slowly implicitly changes the way that you look at the world and the way that you treat other people around you,” Wright said.
“I think that translates over into a really healthy way of treating other people out in the community; developing empathy and responsiveness to other people’s needs,” he said.
Yoshinkan Aikido is a branch of aikido founded by Shioda Gozo, a student of Morihei. It is like the original style and is the second most practiced style in the world.
Practicing aikido brings different meanings to each of the founders’ lives.
Keilikhis said training with multiple people means learning something new with each partner. She said the repetition and consistency of practicing aikido helps her be disciplined and build good habits.
Hutter finds empowerment in learning to control one’s own body and environment.
“[F]or me, that was a big part of what drew me to this martial art was that idea of focusing on kind of your balance, your ability to move, and your ability to respond to an attack, plus falling down is fun once you learn how to do it,” he said.
Wright was introduced to aikido while in graduate school. He sees it as a tool for fitness but also poses a constant challenge where there is always something new to learn.
“[…W]e can get a really good cardio workout with our basic motions practice and our break falls a lot of work on the core strength and leg strength in particular…I always feel like there’s something more for me to learn and something more for me to get better at. So it keeps me coming back,” he said.
KW Yoshinkan Aikido is located inside Heritage Martial Arts. there are many different fitness and martial arts programs that use the space together. Wright said this creates a community of different martial arts groups, which cross-refer students based on personal goals and interests.
“We want people to find something that works for them and inspires them to train and to stay fit,” Hutter said.
Community is also a priority for Keilikhis. She said she and the instructors are very dedicated to the art and to maintaining the heritage of aikido.
“I’d say the biggest thing it means to me is the community that it brings together of people who are really excited about this pretty niche thing…and just maintaining that [Japanese] heritage and those ways of practice is really meaningful for me as well,” she said.
Hutter hopes that current students will progress and help teach junior students, creating a community of learners.
“[I]t’d be really nice to have keep focusing on building with the students that we already have…and creating this community where, if somebody’s new and nervous, there’s a lot of people able to say, ‘I’ve been there’,” he said.
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