Welcome to South Austin Aikido

South Austin Aikido's 7th annual Aiki Week kicks off this Saturday, August 11th.  With seven consecutive days of training and a different focus for each class, this week will provide a great opportunity for extra training!

In addition, we will celebrate the first day of Aiki Week with a Potluck at Kammerer family home Saturday night.  This is a wonderful opportunity for our Aikido community to share good food and fun off the mat :-)

Saturday, August 11th

• 10:00am – 11:00am Kaeshi Waza
• 11:15am – 12:00pm Spiritual Aikido
• 6:00pm – 10:00pm Potluck Party

Sunday, August 12th

• 11:00am - 12:00pm Yoga
• 1:00pm – 2:00pm All Levels Aikido
• 2:15pm – 3:00pm Jo Waza

Monday, August 13th

• 12:00pm - 1:00pm Yoga 
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Ukemi
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Tanto Dori

Tuesday, August 14th

• 5:00pm - 5:45pm Kid's Class
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Kihon Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Jo Dori

Wednesday, August 15th

• 12:00pm - 1:00pm Yoga 
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Rolling
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Randori

Thursday, August 16th

• 5:00pm - 5:45pm Kid's Class  
• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Tachi Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Bokken

Friday, August 17th

• 6:00pm – 7:00pm Henka Waza
• 7:15pm – 8:00pm Two Sword
• 8:30pm - 9:30pm Go out for dinner after class

This will be an awesome week of training and we look forward to seeing y'all on the mat!

Please contact Todd Kammerer ( This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it ) if you have any questions about Aiki Week or the Pot Luck.

Mark your calendars! 

Mary Heiny Sensei will be back in Austin January 18th - 20th, 2013.  We look forward to seeing Heiny Sensei at South Austin Aikido and will be posting more information soon.

On Sunday we had a celebration party to commemorate the opening of our new dojo. The new space is a lot nicer that what we had before and we are hoping it will serve us for years to come. As part of the party we had food and a very special cake. During the party, we took time to recognize two people who have diligently served our community for the past six years, Tim Schmelter and Todd Kammerer. Both of these guys have worked hard and contributed a lot of their time to make sure the dojo operates smoothly. In spite of having families and full time jobs they have selflessly taken care of the dojo business operations by keeping records, paying bills, responding to insurance and tax requirements in addition to upgrading our non-profit status. Each of these guys deserves a note of thanks and a pat on the back for working hard behind the scenes to keep things going. Way to go Todd and Tim for all of your efforts and thank you very much for all you do for all of us.

Following the short word about Tim and Todd, we continued the celebration by burning sage and taking a moment of silence to build positive ki into the new space. The sage ceremony was led by Seth Green who smudged each of us in addition to covering the entire space. I think the ceremony was a great success because the training energy has been off of the charts ever since!

Many people contributed to finding and building out this new space. Although, there is still some work to be done we are here and ready to rumble. Thanks to everyone who has come out to help in the build out, we could not have accomplished this without everyone’s contribution. I look forward to seeing all of you on the mat.

Last Saturday, we had four kid’s tests. First, Henry Brodkin tested for his second green stripe. Henry did a great job of performing all of the required techniques and showed great improvement in his aikido. Henry trains regularly and that consistency showed clearly during his test. He had confidence and remained relaxed during his test. Way to go Henry on a great test!

The second test was Lily McAllister. This was Lily’s first test and even though she started off a little anxious, she settled down and accomplished all of the required techniques plus some. Lily did a great job and is off to a great start in her aikido training.

Next, Mikaila Ulmer tested for her second orange stripe. Mikaila is growing fast and her aikido is improving as quickly as she is growing. Mikaila cruised through the techniques without any problem and showed a lot of aikido understanding in her movement. It was fun to watch her tackle all of the techniques.

Finally, Aaron Brodkin tested for his second Green stripe. Aaron did an outstanding job of remaining calm even when confused on some of the techniques. He really stayed with it and did an outstanding job.

Following the test, we ate donuts and kolaches to celebrate all of the kids’ efforts. It was really fun to watch the changes in all of the kids’ aikido. They all did a great job and all of them have improved a great deal. Congratulations to all of the kids on a great test!

Saturday, June 30th

• 9:00AM - Aiki Kid's testing.  Our members are encouraged to come and support the aiki kid's tests.
• 10:00AM to 11:30ish - Open mat and test prep for our Dan candidate.  All are welcome to participate in this 90+ minute training session.

Sunday, July 1st

• 1:00PM - Normal class schedule
• 2:00PM - Dojo Party to celebrate our wonderful new space with food (supplied by South Austin Aikido).  All our members, friends and family are welcome join us for this special celebration.

See you on the mat!

Today Jay Lindholm Sensei celebrated his birthday, rolling 66 times for the many energetic Aikidoka who helped him celebrate his 58th birthday.  What a wonderful start to our new dojo on W. Ben White!  Awesome job Jay Sensei and Happy Birthday!