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The Children's Aikido Program

History of the Program

The Children's Program at the New York Aikikai came about rather informally in 1985 while Mr. Ryuji Sakamoto was visiting uchi deshi (live-in student) at the dojo. The program consisted mostly of games and ukemi, with a little bit of technique. When Mr. Sakamoto returned to Japan in 1986, he turned the program over to Regina Underwood Adraoui, who had been assisting him. Ms. Adraoui went on to standardize the program, creating a booklet with sketches and information about aikido and testing for children. Jaye Austin-Williams came on board as an assistant in 1986. John Ottavino came on board in 1988, and took over the program. When Mr. Ottavino left the program in 1990, Jaye took it over.

Since then, the Children's Program has expanded many fold, with classes sometimes holding as many as 35-40 children at a time, and is now fully standardized, with kyu testing (10th thru 6th) twice a year.