THE FOUNDER
Hal Lehrman Shihan
Senior Aikido Instructor in Brooklyn · 7th Dan Aikikai, Shihan
IN HIS OWN WORDS
It was never my intention to start an Aikido school.
But as I look back at our history, I had only one path.
Aikido is a practice that has nourished me. It is a profound resource for self-exploration and growth, and it has informed all of the other pursuits of my life. Aikido develops both outward and inner courage. It is daring, exuberant, and caring.
Aikido is a very broad path. Each student brings their own spirit to the practice.
"The purpose of Aikido is to give one the courage to live the most creative life possible."
O-SENSEI, THE FOUNDER OF AIKIDO
It is a martial art of creation, not of destruction or of victory over others. It is an art that helps us find and invigorate our Ki, our inner strength.
I began teaching at New York Aikikai in the 1970s. I moved to Brooklyn in 1976, so when the request came to Yamada Sensei, my teacher and the founder of the NYA, to have an instructor teach a weekly Aikido class at a Tae Kwon Do school, Way of Action on 5th Avenue and 7th Street in Brooklyn, he asked me to teach the class.
That school, with Gordon Wormser, Harvey King, and Beth Ullman, the first to join, was the seed that was planted and grew to become Aikido of Park Slope.
Several years later, while playing with my daughter, Olivia, outside my house in Windsor Terrace, a father and his daughter walked past. The two girls became fast friends. The father, with a look of realization, said, I know you. I suggested he might have seen me in a film or on stage. Suddenly it came to him: NY Aikikai. He had seen me teach class.
He said, I own a building and I have commercial space available for rent. It could be a dojo. I want to practice Aikido.
Why not just look? The space was pretty small, but we only had about ten students. Yet the rent he mentioned was surprisingly low. I promised to think about it.
Olivia and I walked back to our house, and the moment we walked in the door, the phone rang. This was before cell phones. It was my friend Butch Chernovsky, Yamada Sensei's right-hand man at the time. We just got a shipment of mats, he said. Yamada Sensei doesn't need them. Do you know of anyone who could use them?
Now, over forty years later, Aikido of Park Slope is thriving. We have grown into an exceptional gathering place for caring, creative, daring, and skillful people. We have relocated four times, all through the efforts of our members. We are fortunate to be part of the ever-growing Aikido world, with an unbroken and close connection to Yamada Sensei and the NY Aikikai.
The US Aikido Federation now has thousands of schools across the country. Our school has grown into a community: a place where friends gather, where couples have met and created families, where children come to play and people grow. The path has led to a dojo where many have found the excitement of this practice, where we can wake up, refresh, and grow. For that, I am very grateful.