# Had my first aikido lesson/experience today.



## ST1Doppelganger

First off ive always been interested in aikido and also always wondered how applicable it actually is in a self defense scenario. 

Since I've given up on finding a Kung fu school after I relocated residence i figured id look for a judo school since I love judo. 

I was lucky enough to find an affordable judo school that also has a separate aikido instructor that teaches there. So I did my first aikido lesson today. 

I will say It was beneficial because I learned a new method of doing some stretches that I already knew and also picked up a new joint lock even after knowing quite a bit about joint locking. 

The school im attending teaches aikido with a bit more of a linear approach then most other aikido schools which I'm fine with because it seems pretty applicable this way. 

Overall it was a great experience an i look forward to doing some more aikido.


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## jezr74

Good to hear, so you are doing both? 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk


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## Instructor

Cool!  Keep us posted.


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## Xue Sheng

Awesome, glad to hear it went well


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## ST1Doppelganger

jezr74 said:


> Good to hear, so you are doing both?
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk



Yes I will be doing both with the occasional rolling with their BJJ and MMA people as well as sparring their kick boxers in the near future after my work schedule settles down and I get all my wisdom teeth yanked and dental work done. 

I'm going to concentrate on the aikido for a couple of months to come to my own conclusion if I like it and want to go forward with it. The judo would be the other art i study just to hone in my previous judo skills but I think it will be on the side if the aikido. 

I'm trying to figure out how to fit in my MA with my work and wife schedule. 

As it stands I think I will be doing the Tuesday & Thursday aikido class and do the open mat on every other Sunday so I get my judo randori & BJJ rolling around. I have to ofcourse fit in time for a weekly wing Chun meet up with my wing Chun training partner I have acquired as well so its a pretty full schedule.


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## Instructor

Sounds pretty ambitious....  Do you worry about any of these styles conflicting?


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## ST1Doppelganger

Instructor said:


> Sounds pretty ambitious....  Do you worry about any of these styles conflicting?



Nope because I make sure i learn each as an individual art then i apply it to my own strategy during free spar or self Defense training. 

I already have the grappling and judo background so thats not a new style and I look forward to having some live training again in that. I then have my CLF (i practice late night when wife is asleep) as my main stand up so the open sparring won't be bad for me and I look forward to live training again and seeing what my CLF can do (I sparred MMA for a year as first style). 

The only new style is aikido and of course I'm still working on honing my previous WC training and learning more about it everyday i practice it. But in reality the only new material will be the aikido and WC and I feel that all the styles i trained in have filled gaps that and or offered an important fighting strategy, concepts or structure to my own training.


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## tshadowchaser

Good Luck with your study of Aikido, I  hope you enjoy it.  Balancing work, MA studies and a wife is sometime hard so I wish you the best.


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## ST1Doppelganger

tshadowchaser said:


> Good Luck with your study of Aikido, I  hope you enjoy it.  Balancing work, MA studies and a wife is sometime hard so I wish you the best.



Thanks and yes when I was working 50 hours a week at my job that payed the bills and teaching at the Kung fu studio and other 20-30 hours a week while juggling the GF almost cost me my relationship so I had to prioritize and quit teaching. 

I believe I made the correct decision the GF is now my wifey and I have a 3 year old daughter and 11 month old son now because of my very hard to make decision.


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## scottcatchot

The Judo and aikido will blend well, I started with Aikido and then Judo. Enjoy your training


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## ST1Doppelganger

scottcatchot said:


> The Judo and aikido will blend well, I started with Aikido and then Judo. Enjoy your training



Thats what I figured and I already have a judo background that i comfortable with.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Well I did my second lesson yesterday and will definitely be continuing my aikido lessons. 

I'm realy enjoy the methods of deflection and melding with your opponent to get the joint lock and throws. 

Like i said this school (tenshin) is allot more direct and less circular compared to most of the aikido I've seen but it seems to be very applicable in the throwing and joint locking concepts which is what I'm enjoying. 

I also joined at the rite time since the dojo will be hosting a seminar with John Araujo Sensei and he will be there teaching the two nightly classes before the 4 hour seminar as well. 

This should be an awesome learning experience for me and give me the ability to really see if this art if something for me (which I already  think it is)


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## Xue Sheng

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Like i said this school *(tenshin)* is allot more direct and less circular compared to most of the aikido I've seen but it seems to be very applicable in the throwing and joint locking concepts which is what I'm enjoying.



This comes from Steven Seagal?


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## ST1Doppelganger

Xue Sheng said:


> This comes from Steven Seagal?



Realy Xue why did you have to mention that? (I will admit I was a bit a bit discouraged when I I found out about the origins.)

Yes it's affiliated with him. So far I've enjoyed what I've been taught and am keeping an open mind. The sensei at the dojo is good and what he teaches is applicable and those are the two things that are important to me.


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## Xue Sheng

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Realy Xue why did you have to mention that? (I will admit I was a bit a bit discouraged when I I found out about the origins.)
> 
> Yes it's affiliated with him. So far I've enjoyed what I've been taught and am keeping an open mind. The sensei at the dojo is good and what he teaches is applicable and those are the two things that are important to me.



No reason to be discouraged, Seagal is the real deal as it applies to Aikido and he was (and/or is) pretty good at it, so an Aikido from him is likely pretty good. However as a human he leaves a lot to be desired.....and you are not studying his philosophy on life, just his Aikido.

Frankly I would be very interested in looking at it and comparing it to what my daughter is learning that comes from Yamada Shihan


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## ST1Doppelganger

Xue Sheng said:


> No reason to be discouraged, Seagal is the real deal as it applies to Aikido and he was (and/or is) pretty good at it, so an Aikido from him is likely pretty good. However as a human he leaves a lot to be desired.....and you are not studying his philosophy on life, just his Aikido.
> 
> Frankly I would be very interested in looking at it and comparing it to what my daughter is learning that comes from Yamada Shihan



Yep when I found out it was his lineage I did some research and found it to be pretty legit. I will say its quite odd that I made the switch from Kung Fu to aikido but I feel its one of the more legit schools where I'm locate at and I've always been interested in it due to me always loving my little bit of bagua studies.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Ok so I thought of update this thread a bit. 

I've been doing the Tenshin method of aikido for a bit over two months now and even had a chance to attend a seminar with my sensei's sensei which was pretty awesome. 

My sensei's sensei taught both classes 2hour sessions each day and did a 6 hour seminar on the seminar day for us.

The classes and seminar was an awesome learning experience for me and gave me a crash course in what aikido has to offer.  

As it stands I've already had my first belt test and look forward to training this style to at least the brown belt level since I'm enjoying it and learning a new style that compliments  my prior arts I've studied.


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## ST1Doppelganger

I forgot two other details. 

I'm very happy to have my sensei's instruction since he is a very good instructor that is application based while teaching in a very positive manner. 

The second thing is I've grown to enjoy the small group of us training this art and realize that all of them are goo training partners with out egos which is what I look for in a school.


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## hussaf

Isn't Tenshin Seagal's school?


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## ST1Doppelganger

hussaf said:


> Isn't Tenshin Seagal's school?



Yes its the Dojo he use to teach at but has become more of a method of aikido now. 

Think of aikido done with a more straight forward approach. Rather then the big circular aikido movements that most aikido schools do this method is a bit more linear but still has all the same techniques and throws as the traditional aikido schools. 

I actually find it quite effective and am glad i found this method of aikido for my first aikido school.


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## K-man

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Realy Xue why did you have to mention that? (I will admit I was a bit a bit discouraged when I I found out about the origins.)
> 
> Yes it's affiliated with him. So far I've enjoyed what I've been taught and am keeping an open mind. The sensei at the dojo is good and what he teaches is applicable and those are the two things that are important to me.


I wouldn't be at all concerned. Seagal's karate is much the same as Aikikai. 
:asian:


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## hussaf

Glad you like it.  Not many of those schools around.


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## ST1Doppelganger

K-man said:


> I wouldn't be at all concerned. Seagal's karate is much the same as Aikikai.
> :asian:



Thanks K-man i did realize this after doing the research on Seagul. I was originally discouraged because I'm not all in to movie star martial artist but will say he was a pretty legit Aikido practitioner before he became a movie star and do enjoy his different but applicable method of aikido.


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## Xue Sheng

Doppelganger 

I was wondering how you were doing with Aikido. Glad to hear it is going well


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## ST1Doppelganger

Xue Sheng said:


> Doppelganger
> 
> I was wondering how you were doing with Aikido. Glad to hear it is going well



Thanks Xue I will admit the hardest thing for me is learning the Japanese vocab now (at least i know the judo terminology) since my background is CMA. 

I guess my martial arts background and prior teaching has helped me pick it up pretty quickly hence the belt promotion but you know me and how belts don't mean a whole lot to me but is still pretty cool. 

I'm very happy with finding my sensei and the system since he teaches very well and the style is quite a bit different from all my other martial arts training so it's added quite a bit more strategies and techniques to my personal style and mind set on self defense. 

I somewhat messed up  my left shoulder  at the seminar so i do left rolls more triangular now (its amazing what pain compliance tells your body to do). I messed it up since it was so crowded t the seminar I was reaching down and not out while doing the rolls because I didn't want my legs hitting people or walls (it sucks being tall at times) but I know ill heal up and be back to normal circular rolling some time soon 

Other words training is going well ive been slowly organizing my CLF forms again while still doing my Yang Cheng Fu lineage 24 step form and learning my bagua.  I still haven't learned the eighth circular palm change yet but know it will come when I can fit it in an the linear changes will be a cake walk for me to learn.


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## ST1Doppelganger

I'm still practicing my wing Chun techniques quite a bit and been realizing the CLF or general shaolin based arts equivalents to the WC techniques. 

For instance Tan Sau would be chin Nau or Nap Sau in CLF, pak an gam Sau are covered by the poon que in CLF, jeet would be the snake poon que return in CLF, Bong Sau is a similar movement to Quan que in CLF and the list goes on and on in my head but its pretty interesting to try to find the difference but equivalence in the WC & CLF styles curriculum of techniques. 

Yes I know WC is totally different compared to the more long armed circular movements of CLF but there are pretty much equivalent techniques that each style has for certain scenarios and I believe they compliment each other very well.


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## Xue Sheng

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Thanks Xue I will admit the hardest thing for me is learning the Japanese vocab now (at least i know the judo terminology) since my background is CMA.
> 
> I guess my martial arts background and prior teaching has helped me pick it up pretty quickly hence the belt promotion but you know me and how belts don't mean a whole lot to me but is still pretty cool.
> 
> I'm very happy with finding my sensei and the system since he teaches very well and the style is quite a bit different from all my other martial arts training so it's added quite a bit more strategies and techniques to my personal style and mind set on self defense.
> 
> I somewhat messed up  my left shoulder  at the seminar so i do left rolls more triangular now (its amazing what pain compliance tells your body to do). I messed it up since it was so crowded t the seminar I was reaching down and not out while doing the rolls because I didn't want my legs hitting people or walls (it sucks being tall at times) but I know ill heal up and be back to normal circular rolling some time soon
> 
> Other words training is going well ive been slowly organizing my CLF forms again while still doing my Yang Cheng Fu lineage 24 step form and learning my bagua.  I still haven't learned the eighth circular palm change yet but know it will come when I can fit it in an the linear changes will be a cake walk for me to learn.



Sorry to hear about the injury, hope you recover soon.

I know the vocabulary is rough, I sit there at my youngest's Aikido class and try and figure out just what the heck they are talking about. So far I am pretty sure they are counting during the warm-up


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## hussaf

does your aikido dojo do weapons?


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## ST1Doppelganger

hussaf said:


> does your aikido dojo do weapons?



Were going to start another training day specifically for weapon training and we are going to also be incorporating some knife and weapon defense so we can see how difficult it is to disarm an armed assailant with out being cut or shot.


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## Argus

ST1Doppelganger said:


> I'm still practicing my wing Chun techniques quite a bit and been realizing the CLF or general shaolin based arts equivalents to the WC techniques.
> 
> For instance Tan Sau would be chin Nau or Nap Sau in CLF, pak an gam Sau are covered by the poon que in CLF, jeet would be the snake poon que return in CLF, Bong Sau is a similar movement to Quan que in CLF and the list goes on and on in my head but its pretty interesting to try to find the difference but equivalence in the WC & CLF styles curriculum of techniques.
> 
> Yes I know WC is totally different compared to the more long armed circular movements of CLF but there are pretty much equivalent techniques that each style has for certain scenarios and I believe they compliment each other very well.



Do you find you're able to keep your habits separate between arts?

I've only taken one class in Aikido thus far, and while my WC does tie in to some components well, I did have some habits showing up that contradicted Aikido. I found that when I took Karate, my WC was making my Karate bad, and my Karate was to a lesser degree affecting my WC.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Argus said:


> Do you find you're able to keep your habits separate between arts?
> 
> I've only taken one class in Aikido thus far, and while my WC does tie in to some components well, I did have some habits showing up that contradicted Aikido. I found that when I took Karate, my WC was making my Karate bad, and my Karate was to a lesser degree affecting my WC.



Its sometimes challenging to separate the individual arts but i do my best to learn each art as an individual art as they are intended to be learned & taught as. Meaning I focus on each arts individual structure stances & strategies and try my best to keep to the arts roots. 

The only issue that I'm having in aikido is my CLF cat stance keeps popping up instead of my aikido stance but that issue has been pretty much nullified. Now i just have to open the aikido stance up a bit since I tend to end up with both of my feet on the same line. 

I'm very detail orientated since I had the opportunity to teach CLF for 3 years and feel I can detail myself out pretty well especially when I have a couple senior students and the sensei there to help me along.


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## Argus

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Its sometimes challenging to separate the individual arts but i do my best to learn each art as an individual art as they are intended to be learned & taught as. Meaning I focus on each arts individual structure stances & strategies and try my best to keep to the arts roots.
> 
> The only issue that I'm having in aikido is my CLF cat stance keeps popping up instead of my aikido stance but that issue has been pretty much nullified. Now i just have to open the aikido stance up a bit since I tend to end up with both of my feet on the same line.
> 
> I'm very detail orientated since I had the opportunity to teach CLF for 3 years and feel I can detail myself out pretty well especially when I have a couple senior students and the sensei there to help me along.



I tend to be the same, but I am very much a creature of habit. I find what tends to get messed up the most for me is my stance -- weight distribution, and pivot points on the foot. I'll be pivoting on my heels in Aikido and on the balls in WC at this rate 

Perhaps it's just a matter of really entering an "aikido" or "wing chun" frame of mind when I start my practice. Practicing them at different times of the day, and starting with the forms or basic footwork should help I think.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Argus said:


> I tend to be the same, but I am very much a creature of habit. I find what tends to get messed up the most for me is my stance -- weight distribution, and pivot points on the foot. I'll be pivoting on my heels in Aikido and on the balls in WC at this rate
> 
> Perhaps it's just a matter of really entering an "aikido" or "wing chun" frame of mind when I start my practice. Practicing them at different times of the day, and starting with the forms or basic footwork should help I think.



I always start with footwork and stance training after I do my stretching and warm ups.  The key thing is just be aware of your stances and weight distribution while you are doing the techniques I alway take the time to correct my final stance after each technique.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Check out this video on YouTube:







Sent from my iPhone

A small video my sensei put together what do you guys think


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## K-man

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Check out this video on YouTube:
> 
> http://youtu.be/M0oBTz55LP8
> 
> A small video my sensei put together what do you guys think


I think it's really good, (unlike some other videos we have been shown recently). The technique is excellent and the receiving is very good. You seem to have found a really good place to train.


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## ST1Doppelganger

Thanks Kman Im really enjoying the new style and do find the way my sensei teaches it to be very applicable.


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## hussaf

Glad you are enjoying it.  Now I just with my phone would load that video!


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## ST1Doppelganger

Just an update on my aikido training and how it's going. 

I have myself a tendon bruise on my left elbow while working on my STI rebuild then did some martial stupidity by going to class and allowing joint locks to be done to it. Its healing up but I will be only allowing people to lock the right arm so I don't inflame the injury. 

I will be purchasing the aikido weapons soon since we will be starting a weapon day at our school which I'm very excited about. 

Otherwise im on track for another rank test that should be in December. The test is nice but im really just going to learn new material which I do every time i go to class. 

Overall aikido is improving my small joint locking techniques, throws and falling techniques so im very happy I found this school and a combative method of aikido.


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## ST1Doppelganger

So I figured I'd update my progression in aikido since it's been about 2 years since starting it. 

I'm at the 4th Kyu rank now so still a noob that's just enjoying the training. 

The footwork has become allot more second nature which has created allot less brain farts. 

My breakfalls and rolls are allot more refined even though my left side still gives me brain farts at times on certain throws.

I'm feeling allot more comfortable with the joint locks and have stopped pulling up on my partners arm during the break fall portion of applying  kotegaeshi. It was a habit I had from judo since we'd pull up on the sleeve to help rotate the uki during the throws. 

I've been picking up some of the finer details of the joint locks as well which has improved my kung fu chin na techniques greatly as well. 

My Sensei also switched dojo locations so we're now training at a dojo that has an established judo and bjj student body. Once my hip flexor injury heals (hiking accident) I will be participating in the grappling where I will be trying to incorporate the aikido wrist locks in to my prior grappling knowledge. I have allot of ideals on where I can possibly apply the locks at and ofcourse I will be using caution when applying them since people might not realize what's going on since allot if grappling schools leave wrist locks on the side burner.  

The boken work is still not my cup of tea since I prefer Chinese weapon work but I see how boken work develops finer details of empty hand techniques. 


Well that sums up where I'm at and I will say I'm actually hooked on aikido now so I'm in it for the long run. 

Two other cool things in my personal training is I might consider starting a small CLF kung fu training group since I've friended a sifu that's a few hours away. He was asking why I don't start a small group and I'm really considering it now.  I also found a lcal tai chi/xing yI/bagua  sifu that I've been having ocasional lessons with. The CMA  sifu has given me some valuable footwork and stance exercise that has helped all of my martial arts greatly. 


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## Juany118

Xue Sheng said:


> This comes from Steven Seagal?




Maybe I heard wrong but I thought the term Tenshin simply applied to the style taught at a specific Dojo in Japan and that Segal simply studied at that Dojo.  I could be wrong but that was my understanding.


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## drop bear

ST1Doppelganger said:


> So I figured I'd update my progression in aikido since it's been about 2 years since starting it.
> 
> I'm at the 4th Kyu rank now so still a noob that's just enjoying the training.
> 
> The footwork has become allot more second nature which has created allot less brain farts.
> 
> My breakfalls and rolls are allot more refined even though my left side still gives me brain farts at times on certain throws.
> 
> I'm feeling allot more comfortable with the joint locks and have stopped pulling up on my partners arm during the break fall portion of applying  kotegaeshi. It was a habit I had from judo since we'd pull up on the sleeve to help rotate the uki during the throws.
> 
> I've been picking up some of the finer details of the joint locks as well which has improved my kung fu chin na techniques greatly as well.
> 
> My Sensei also switched dojo locations so we're now training at a dojo that has an established judo and bjj student body. Once my hip flexor injury heals (hiking accident) I will be participating in the grappling where I will be trying to incorporate the aikido wrist locks in to my prior grappling knowledge. I have allot of ideals on where I can possibly apply the locks at and ofcourse I will be using caution when applying them since people might not realize what's going on since allot if grappling schools leave wrist locks on the side burner.
> 
> The boken work is still not my cup of tea since I prefer Chinese weapon work but I see how boken work develops finer details of empty hand techniques.
> 
> 
> Well that sums up where I'm at and I will say I'm actually hooked on aikido now so I'm in it for the long run.
> 
> Two other cool things in my personal training is I might consider starting a small CLF kung fu training group since I've friended a sifu that's a few hours away. He was asking why I don't start a small group and I'm really considering it now.  I also found a lcal tai chi/xing yI/bagua  sifu that I've been having ocasional lessons with. The CMA  sifu has given me some valuable footwork and stance exercise that has helped all of my martial arts greatly.
> 
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk



Bjj does do wrist locks but they are considered a dirty move.  So don't spring them on people unless you like knee rides and cross faces.


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## ST1Doppelganger

drop bear said:


> Bjj does do wrist locks but they are considered a dirty move.  So don't spring them on people unless you like knee rides and cross faces.


Oh ill warn them that I'll be playing around with the concepts and from what I understand its not really a dirty technique it's just not focused on since I believe blue belt is where you can start using them in tournaments. The shoot fighting I did also used wrist locks to set up arm locks or finish an arm bars when people would grab their own arm. 

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## ST1Doppelganger

Juany118 said:


> Maybe I heard wrong but I thought the term Tenshin simply applied to the style taught at a specific Dojo in Japan and that Segal simply studied at that Dojo.  I could be wrong but that was my understanding.


Osaka Japan and LA California were the two dojos that Steven Seagal taught at. Pretty much tenshin aikido practitioners are studying the method that he taught while teaching at those two locations. It's still just aikido but done with a different flavor and mentality. 

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## Juany118

ST1Doppelganger said:


> Osaka Japan and LA California were the two dojos that Steven Seagal taught at. Pretty much tenshin aikido practitioners are studying the method that he taught while teaching at those two locations. It's still just aikido but done with a different flavor and mentality.
> 
> Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk



I suppose my point was he may have taught it in both but I was under the impression he himself learned it himself at the Osaka Dojo.  I did study Aikido sometime ago and that was the impression I was left with from my Sensei.


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