Martial Arts: The Kids of Lia Suzuki's Virtual Dojo - Jackson

“I would like my sensei to know that I love her and she is the greatest teacher of my life for Aikido and that I like stacking pillows.”

• Name: Jackson
• Age: 5
• Dojo: Aikido Kenkyukai Los Angeles, via Zoom
• Home: Seattle

Jackson, who began Aikido at age 4, has been training virtually at Aikido Kenkyukai Los Angeles for a year. He reports that his favorite thing about Aikido is getting to be with his team.

Jackson admits that he was too young to remember his first class: "I don’t remember my first class because I was a lot littler than I am now. I get excited for Aikido because I like meeting the team and my sensei. I feel like Aikido helps me learn self defense and Japanese words."

Another thing that's foggy in his memory is receiving his white belt: "I don’t remember getting my white belt. I DO remember getting my yellow stripe and then my red stripe and I felt great and excited and happy and proud of myself and a little power up and energetic." (Yes, we mailed his certificate and a piece of red duct tape as a belt stripe just last month for our ceremony via Zoom!)

When asked specifically about training on Zoom, Jackson shared, “I like training on Zoom because I get to do it with daddy and he helps me with forward rolls and I wouldn’t get to be with my sensei if I didn’t go on Zoom because she is very far away like 384 miles”.

Jackson's parents see lots of benefits to his Aikido training. They had this to say about it: "We see benefit in the routine of weekly training as it is a grounding point in the week. It centers him and he has pretty good focus for a child his age, sitting seiza and waiting his turn as well as focusing on the sensei and team on screen has helped develop mature skills. We love the Teki Paki principle of doing things quickly and joyfully and this has helped us at home on many occasions. Also Aikido has been a wonderful pairing with foreign language classes and learning different cultures."

He said about his reason for continuing his Aikido training, "Because I’m excited. I feel like it helps me understand how stuff works."

Apart from Aikido training, Jackson enjoys an impressive variety of activities: "I like to dance in ballet and play Tball, I like science and doing experiments and building things and playing in sand and I also like to play soccer, well I don’t know how yet and I’m going to learn this summer."

When asked what his life would be like with no Aikido, Jackson replied, “If I had no Aikido I would be really sad and I wouldn’t like that and I wouldn’t get to see my team or sensei or learn how to defense myself.”