Please join us August 30, 2025, from 9:00 am-12:00 pm Central time to learn more about knife work, featuring instruction by Manuel de Joya Sensei and Matt Lowry Sensei. This event will be held at Great Lakes Aikido, 150 Fairway Drive, Suite 156, Vernon Hills, IL. All affiliations, levels of experience, and styles of martial arts are welcome to attend!
Topics covered in this seminar will include:
· how to handle a knife and develop offensive skills
· situational awareness & soft defensive strategies for avoiding a knife confrontation
· a variety of practical unarmed defense and disarming techniques applied against a knife-wielding opponent at close range
· training drills to help your reflexes if surprised by a knife attack
· practice that utilizes a knife for defensive purposes and helps to facilitate various martial techniques
· mutually armed knife situations
This seminar is open to all martial artists, regardless of style, rank, or experience. If you have a tanto or appropriate knife-facsimile, please bring it with you. Wear a training uniform if you have one, otherwise wear light, loose fitting clothing such as a t-shirt and sweatpants.
Registration for the seminar is US$50. Registration options are:
Use the STORE link above in the header
Use ZELLE to AikidoShimbokukai@gmail.com
In person at the dojo on the day of the event
For those with financial constraints please let us know as we have some scholarship options available.
******We will also be going to a nearby restaurant after the seminar for food and fellowship. You are welcome to join us!
Registration now open! Click on Store in the Header!
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Dream it
Registration now open! Click on Store in the Header! 〰️ Dream it
Instructors
Manuel de Joya Sensei, Aikido of Evanston, United States Aikido Federation
Manuel de Joya Sensei, Sandan, began training in 1989 under Akira Tohei Shihan at the Midwest Aikido Center in Chicago. He is currently an instructor at Evanston Aikido Center, a United States Aikido Federation dojo, under the supervision of Art Wise Shihan, Nanadan. Manuel has also trained in other martial arts, but Aikido is his primary passion. The main lesson he has learned is that one has to be always open to new learnings, and the teacher may not always be who or what you think.
Matt Lowry Sensei, Great Lakes Aikido, Aikido Shimbokukai
Matt Lowry Sensei has studied the martial arts consistently for over 35 years, beginning his studies in 1990 with karate, tae kwon do, and kung fu before turning his practice to Aikido in 1995. During his years of Aikido training, he has studied under Meido Moore Shihan and other instructors in the American Aikido Association, Aikido Schools of Ueshiba, Birankai, and Shimbokukai. He finds the emphasis on tai sabaki (basic body movement), maai (positioning), musubi (blending), and zanshin (balance/awareness) to be fundamental to the study of any martial art. He has taught multiple seminars on knife work & defense as well as practical self-defense. Sensei Lowry currently holds the rank of yondan in Aikido and has been certified as a teacher (Shidoin) and is an instructor at Great Lakes Aikido.