Old City Aikido

The community is welcoming and friendly, the space is beautiful and well organized, and the classes are always fun! Ive been training here for several months, and I am consistently impressed with the skill and patience of the instructors. I always leave Old City Aikido feeling better than when I walked in.
Mar 7th, 2024

Old City Aikido is an great dojo and I highly recommend it for anyone looking to explore the art of Aikido. All of the instructors bring years of knowledge and experience that shows a deep understanding and respect for the practice. I always feel like the student community is built on respect and an eagerness to learn. As a beginner, I've felt welcomed in and am grateful for the community's willingness to embrace people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds
Feb 27th, 2024

Ive been training at Old City Aikido for well over a year now, and its been one of the best decisions I've ever made. I came in with almost zero martial arts experience, and the leadership and teaching here has become an object lesson to me in the kind of generosity that encourages people to better themselves and gives them the tools to do so. I love the dojos style of instruction and of aikido itself as well: Sensei Perna takes what could be taught as rote and impractical aikido curriculum material and instead connects our techniques concretely to practical self-defense, other martial arts, and the ancient weapon arts out of which aikido developed. Everything we do is broken down and explored. While theres a lot of variety in the levels our classes are pitched to, Sensei is flexible and attentive and everyone on the mat is met where they are in terms of skill and experience by both him and the senior students. The community in general is very welcoming, and looks out for anyone who shows they care by showing up and working hard. Its also a full-body workout almost every practice, and has drastically improved my strength, flexibility, and stability in ways I couldnt have replicated in a gym and can feel both on and off the mat. I highly recommend OCA to anyone looking to start a martial art or just learn a new way to move.
Feb 24th, 2024

I began practicing a little over a year and half ago with almost no previous martial arts experience. I am thankful every single day since then that I discovered Aikido. More than that I am thankful that I landed at this dojo. Aikido can seem daunting in the beginning, it is physically challenging and the techniques may not seem as straight forward as other martial arts popular in America. That is one reason people place a lot of emphasis on the community here. Everyone at this dojo wants to see you succeed no matter your age, gender, body type, level of athleticism or anything else. At the end of the day Aikido is you vs. yourself. Everyone at this dojo recognizes that they have had challenges to overcome in their training. In turn we respect the challenges other beginners will be faced with. All anyone needs to start training here is the willingness to show respect to the art, the dojo and their peers. Sensei Perna's dedication to Aikido is inspiring. He leads by example and teaches without ego. In some circles Aikido has a reputation for being performative, more art than martial. But here Sensei Perna and all the other instructors make certain that the martial art you are learning will have practical application in today's world if it were ever necessary. To that end some of the techniques have been modified over the years to fit scenarios that are more likely to occur in our time. When O Sensei developed Aikido over a 100 years ago it was an innovation at the time. I think he would be happy to see continued innovation so that Aikido can remain relevant as a martial art in today's world.
Feb 11th, 2024

The place is very clean. Sensei and everyone is very warm and encouraging. It is a great dojo culture.
Jan 25th, 2024