Frequently asked questions

Shoshin Aikido School is based in the Namiryu Dojo, 19 Greenmount Lane, Harolds X, Dublin 6. 

The nearest bus stops are 1344 ( Buses 9,16, 49, 54A ) & 1291 ( Buses 9, 16, 6D, 49, 54A ) both a few minutes walk from the Dojo. The nearest Red Luas stop is Suir Road, Drimnagh, Dublin, a 10 minute cycle or 30 min walk. The nearest Green Luas stop is Charlemont, a 20 minute walk or 7 minute cycle.

There is plenty of street parking available for those who drive.

Aikido is a modern Japanese Martial Art developed by Morihei Ueshiba in the mid 1920s. Aikido focuses on balancing your mind and body to help develop a healthy and responsive attitude to the everyday issues life brings our way as well as maintaining a positive attitude to self defence with all the benefits regular exercise brings. 

Our school is open to everyone who brings a respectful attitude to their fellow students and the club. If you feel you might have any difficulty, for any reason, just let the instructor know and they will help and advice.

Shoshin is a concept in Aikido that means training with a mindset that is always open to learning, that takes a fresh look at everything we do, free from preconceptions, confrontation, judgements & exceptions. 

Yes we run beginners Aikido classes a few times each year & we also train with day one beginners in our general Aikido Classes, we have plenty of trained instructors that can guide you along patiently till you find your feet.

The class will start with the instructor and all students bowing to the centrepiece of the dojo, usually a picture of O’ Sensei - the founder of Aikido - out of respect and then the students bow to the instructor and they bow to the students, a way of saying hello, lets start.

A basic warm up, light movement and stretching of the joints and muscles, follows. this is important to prepare your body for the class ahead. The instructor will then ask the students to sit on the edge of the mat while they call a student up to help demonstrate a technique. All the students then pair up and train helping each other with the movements, the instructors will also help there. That is then repeated with the techniques changing along the theme the instructor has set of the class. You usually swap partners after each move, sitting down at the edge of the mat between techniques. The class ends and we do some cool down exercises and repeat the opening bowing to say thanks for the great time.

Most Aikido students wear a white martial arts suit consisting of white trousers and a jacket top, like a karate suit, called a ‘keikogi’ with a white belt. Some more senior students also wear wide black/blue trousers called Hakama. In our Dojo we also ask you to wear Tabi (special shoes) or a pair of socks, better with some grip on the soles.

If you are new then it’s totally fine to come along wearing loose clothing, like a tracksuit and T-shirt. 

Yes and no. Most of our Aikido classes are mixed and everybody learns together, you will naturally become better at Aikido by regular practice. All students will remain white belts until they achieve the requirements for a blackbelt, including instructor & coaching training qualifications. After the successful completion the student will be awarded 1st dan blackbelt. Then incrementally from there. 

We do have a grading policy that maps out the techniques the student must demonstrate to achieve  each grade up to blackbelt but as classes are not separated this can be difficult to implement. If you feel that you need that, just let one of the instructors know and we’ll help you out.

It really depends on the student, some have taken more then a decade but if a black belt is important to you talk to us after a while of training and we’ll get you on track and help. 

We are founding members of the Irish Aikido Association, members of Irelands Aikido Advisory Board and members of IMAC, the national governing body for Martial Arts in Ireland and as such are fully recognised by both the Government and Sport Ireland. We are fully insured.

All our instructors and coaches are Garda vetted and Coaching Ireland Accredited. They are all qualified coaches through the Sport Ireland coaching program.

You can pay per week or per month, we offer direct bank payments to make things easy. For fees see our Fees page in the top menu