In this session of Diamond Mining Friday, Blaine talks about some more Zen wisdom that was gleaned from his time as an uchi deshi studying Aikido and Zen. This diamond was mined from a realization Blaine had while sitting at Toyoda Sensei's funeral in 200

A Diamond Mining Friday podcast, the first of 2015, goes into detail about the an experience Blaine had while an uchi deshi at Tenshinkan Dojo in Chicago, IL.  This episode touches on the japanese concept of 'ichi go ichi e', or one moment, one opprt

This episode of AikiCast-Diamond Mining Friday is about Toyoda Sensei's vital lesson to me about how to eliminate my fears about teaching Friday night Aikido classes at Tenshinkan Dojo. He gave me some sage advice which was a 2 part formula: 1. Develop my

Blaine pulls some of the top questions from AikiCast Nation members and answers them in the episode. Some of the questions are: What role do the techniques we practice in the dojo play in a self defense situation? How can I debate with somebody who says t

AikiCast brings you a new segment called Diamond Mining Friday which is a shorter podcast with some nuggets of wisdom that Blaine shares from his time with Toyoda Shihan. The Diamond Mining Friday segment will air every friday as Blaine mines his journals

In this episode, Blaine expands the discussion about self defense classes and whats not being taught in them. Topics covered are using intuition and expanded situational awareness to identify and avoid potential dangerous situations, understanding Pre-Inc

Blaine answers the top 5 questions from AikiCast Nation Members and listeners. He also reveals some exciting news at the end of the podcast so listen all the way through!

In this episode, Blaine Feyen talks introduces us to his ideas about self defense training and how most martial artists go about it all wrong. He talks about the concept of awareness as a weapon, recovering from stupidity, and touches on some of the legal

In this podcast episode, Blaine Feyen talks about the art of ukemi, as well as what it means to be a good uke. He explores some deeper concepts of ukemi and takes it beyond simply attacker and defender and also beyond simply the skill of falling. Blaine e

Blaine discusses some of the benefits of training in Aikido. There are many more benefits than are mentioned in this podcast but Blaine outlines 5 very important reasons one might decide to start training in Aikido. The benefits include flexibility, incre