Also, in the week leading up to the seminar, Spirit Pine is hosting training from May 15 – 20. Sensei Jaimie Sheppard Shihan will be the principal instructor and will be available for private lessons in addition to the group training (first come, first served!).
Daily fee for training, food and accommodation (in a tent or the dojo) is US $65. All proceeds will be donated to Spirit Pine to continue reconstruction efforts after the wildfire last year.
Spirit Pine is a magical retreat in the mountains near Santa Barbara. The hosts live off-grid in cobb houses and grow much of their own food. Besides hosting aikido retreats, they also host groups for training in Cobb home construction and permaculture.
For further information, please contact Jaimie Sheppard Sensei or Kevin Love Sensei.
Sensei Sheppard has announced the resumption of classes on Thursday evenings, 7:00 – 8:30, beginning September 19, 2024. This will be an advanced class, with Sensei Sheppard as the principal instructor, and his permission is required to attend. There will be a nominal quarterly fee (TBA) to attend this class to cover the room rental and insurance.
Aikido classes will be cancelled on the following dates either because the Centre is closed or the room is unavailable. More dates may be added; please check here for the latest information.
Monday, February 17, 2025 – Family Day
Saturday, March 1, 2025 – Seedy Saturday
Monday, May 19, 2025 – Victoria Day
Monday, June 21, 2025 – National Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Our End of year break will be from Dec 22 to Jan 1st. Unfortunately there will not be a Christmas party this year. Our last class of 2022 will be Wednesday Dec 21 with Ishihara Sensei and our first class of 2023 will be Monday January 2 with Oaker Sensei.
Our association with Jacques Payet Shihan began quite by chance: Sensei Sheppard, Sensei Chau and Sensei Gruninger were travelling and training in Japan and, as they passed through Kyoto, they decided to train at Payet Shihan’s Mugenjuko dojo.
They loved their time there, and the following years offered further opportunities to connect, either by visits to Aikido Del Mar in San Diego (Kevin Pickard Sensei) or attending numerous clinics, along with many other club members, offered by Payet Shihan as he visited North America.
A grand celebration of the friendship occurred in March of 2019 when more than 15 Aiki Budo Centre members traveled to Kyoto at the invitation of Payet Shihan to participate in the embu kai marking the 10th anniversary of Mugenjuku Aikido.
The two videos below offer some highlights from the journey: Jaimie Sensei’s demonstration at the embu kai and our club’s group demonstration at the same venue.
Aiki Budo Centre was founded more than 25 years ago (1995), and it has been my privilege to witness most of that endeavour. As I reflect upon that journey, I am struct by the deep and varied legacy that has been gifted by our mentors – Kiyoyuki Terada Saikō Komon, Amos Parker Shihan and Jacques Payet Shihan, to name just a few – and the further sharing and extension of those gifts by our founder Jaimie Sheppard Shihan and our principal teachers such as Stephan Chau Sensei and Greg Gruninger Sensei.
As a result, our dojo is deeply connected to the (Yoshinkan) Aikido tradition through many lineages, and it is my intention to illuminate and bring forward the depth of knowledge that we are all connected to as members of ABC.
We begin with a demonstration of Ushiro Ryote Mochi Jiyu Waza by Sheppard Sensei (Matthew Knight Sensei as uke) at the dojo in 2018.