Last year the Diversity Martial Arts Association donated a great deal of used clothing to HOLT Elementary School in Durham. HOLT Elementary was chosen because of the high percentage of children living in poverty at that school.

We had the participation of about 8 dojos and in turn received a wonderful letter from the Principal.  She was completely blown away as every table in their cafeteria was filled with clothes for the kids ranging from socks to jackets.

The need is even greater this year.  Please set aside clean used clothing items and start bringing them to class.  The deadline for the donation is mid December and we will make the presentation to HOLT Elementary on December 18^th.

I want to say thanks again to Winslow Thornton who made a huge contribution last year.

Thanks in advance for your help.

3rd Annual Doshinkan Aikido International Festival!!! October 29th-30th, 2011

The annual event was a great success even though the crazy weather impacted attendance.

Here are video clips from the demonstrations.  I was only able to get a few since Richard Vinesett Sensei and I had to do our own demo.  In typical fashion we didn’t plan as our dojo emphasizes spontaneity.  Richard did perform the old traditional jo kata in excellent form.

Click these links below:

http://vimeo.com/31405351

http://vimeo.com/31349979

http://vimeo.com/31347681

This documentary is at least 30 years old but has a wonderful section highlighting Gozo Shioda, founder of Yoshinkai Aikido.

Unfortunately the name of the documentary was – Budo, The Art of Killing and clearly the writers were inaccurate in the script and title. However the quality of the martial arts within is classic.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sud8bsZyn84&feature=related]

New Documentary on Doshinkan Aikido Trailer