YOON Nak-joon (4th Dan) is the Dojocho of Aikido Ansan dojo and serves as the President of KAU and SUNG Ju-hwan (5th Dan) is the Dojocho of Aikido Samsungdang and serves as the Vice President and Technical Director of KAU.
September 2026 Workshop Theme and Program ※ Theme: Kokyu-nageBreath Throwing / 呼吸投げ Kokyu-nage is not a single fixed technique. Rather, it appears in various forms when the principles of basic kata are working properly. At Samsungdang, regular classes are centered on basic kata. In this workshop, we will practice several forms of kokyu-nage that emerge from basic waza and tai-sabaki, and examine through the body how kokyu-nage takes shape. The focus will not be on deep theore
A viewer with a judo background recently left an interesting question on my previous video about kata. As it happened, I was already preparing a video on the same subject. Kata repeats predetermined attacks and responses. Does that make it less effective than sparring or free practice when it comes to adapting to changing situations? And how should Aikido approach that issue? This video begins with that question. By limiting variables, kata allows us to repeatedly examine pri
Whenever I publish videos about Aikido, several questions come up repeatedly. Why are the attack and response decided in advance? Why does uke repeat the same attack and ukemi? And is uke simply cooperating to make the technique work? These are natural questions for anyone seeing Aikido training for the first time. This video addresses those questions by examining the learning structure of kata and the role of uke. In Aikido training, the attack and response are predetermined
September 2026 Workshop Theme and Program ※ Theme: Kokyu-nageBreath Throwing / 呼吸投げ Kokyu-nage is not a single fixed technique. Rather, it appears in various forms when the principles of basic kata are working properly. At Samsungdang, regular classes are centered on basic kata. In this workshop, we will practice several forms of kokyu-nage that emerge from basic waza and tai-sabaki, and examine through the body how kokyu-nage takes shape. The focus will not be on deep theore
A viewer with a judo background recently left an interesting question on my previous video about kata. As it happened, I was already preparing a video on the same subject. Kata repeats predetermined attacks and responses. Does that make it less effective than sparring or free practice when it comes to adapting to changing situations? And how should Aikido approach that issue? This video begins with that question. By limiting variables, kata allows us to repeatedly examine pri
Whenever I publish videos about Aikido, several questions come up repeatedly. Why are the attack and response decided in advance? Why does uke repeat the same attack and ukemi? And is uke simply cooperating to make the technique work? These are natural questions for anyone seeing Aikido training for the first time. This video addresses those questions by examining the learning structure of kata and the role of uke. In Aikido training, the attack and response are predetermined
