Over the past few months Alison and Danny have been undergoing training to be recognised as national coaches for Aikido by the Australian Government. The training was undertaken through the Australian Jujitsu Federation who are the  Australian Sports commissions representative body for Aikido. Both  are now accredited as NCAS level 2 coaches. Additionally the school has completed all the requirements to be accepted as a full member school of the AJF. 

While on the surface it means business as usual for the dojo,  through the process we have learnt quite a bit more about coaching, biomechancis, physical development, risk management and as a result we have tightened up and formalised a few things in the dojo as a part of the process.  One of these is the formation of the dojo Kun or rules of training (see Dojo Kun (Rules)), these are typically a traditional part of Japanese dojo and a really good idea. From these simple rules the goals of the dojo, how we develop together and the spirit of training naturally emerge. 

Being a part of the AJF means being apart of a wider group of Jujitsu practitioners, who are advocates for the discipline in the national community. As a part of this our gradings are now also recognised by AJF and by association the Australian Government. Big thanks to Australian Jujitsu Federations Roger Quick and Jim Stackpoole and assessing coaches. 

We were joined for the final assessment by Aikido schools Discover AIkido and Bayside Budokai. A host of Jujitsu schools including Sakura Ryu and members of Patrick McCathys Aiki-Kemp Jutsu as well. Which made for an enjoyable day of cross training.