Planning for a Daito Ryu Club.

[Aikijutsu Goshin No Koryu]

Hello, My Name is Thomas Steele. I am a practitioner of Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu. I was last promoted to 2nd Dan some time ago but consider myself a rusty 1st Dan with a good refresh rate :). Given the scarcity of true Daito training halls in San Diego, I am planning to open a training club specifically for Daito study. I have initial materials and a a friend who will be opening a centrally located gym I could use as a site soon. Would anyone be available to offer advice in the requirements for opening a not for profit training club such as this? I originally studied under Denora Sensei's line who instructed my instructor in Texas, Ben Balanay.
Thank you in advance for your time. Please feel free to private message any replies.

Thomas Steele

[pgsmith]

Hey Thomas,
Sorry about the late reply, but I overlooked this one apparently. :)

I am assuming you are opening a study group for Daito ryu with oversight by a qualified instructor?

If so, you will probably want to get their advice on insurance and how they would prefer that your typical classes run. Fair warning, running your own group like that can get expensive as you, being the group leader, will bear the costs associated with the class whenever you don't have enough dedicated people to share said costs.

If not, then I urge you to locate a qualified instructor somewhere within reasonable travel distance (Texas is a bit far to go on a regular basis) that you can approach about forming a study group. At nidan, you are just scratching the surface, and don't possess a deep enough understanding of pretty much any Japanese art to be able to teach it on your own. Having a qualified instructor that you see regularly will help you continue your own training as well as ensure that you are not passing along erroneous information and movements.

Let us know how it works out!