Aikido Eastside

Rude does not equa good teacher

The head master or instructor here is quite rude and unpleasant. Take your time and money elsewhere where you are not yelled at.

In year 2016, when I was looking for a dojo for my kid to start his martial arts training, I searched online for dojos in my area. My initial review of Aikieast was great so I went further by visiting Aikido Eastside’s Facebook page. I did so simply for browsing more pictures and videos and getting better understanding on how they teach and practice. It turned out that the postings on its owner George Ledyard’s Facebook page were extremely disgusting. When viewing his FB page content, I wondered if his guy was doing the job as a martial arts master as he claimed or was solely a cult for some sort of ideologies. All of his posting were about attacking people he didn’t like. He used many four-letter words to express his hatred and dissatisfaction toward American society. He also showed middle finger to express his anger when things didn’t go the way he liked. Some folks echoed his thoughts and clicked “like” on his posts. I checked out their profiles and found that they were either instructors in his dojo or his Aikido friends in other dojos. The most outrageous post I have seen was that he shared an article criticizing Christian, saying that people with Christian beliefs were far more dangerous than radical Islamists. Well, Youtube has lots of videos showing how ISIS tortured innocent people, how they raped women, and how they trained 5 years old kids to kill people. I felt strong discomfort when seeing this guy compared well-behaved Christian to inhuman ISIS and glorified ISIS’s criminal behaviors. Washington is a very liberal state and I am a very liberal people. I don’t mind this guy expressing his strong Pro-Hillary stand points on his FB page. But constantly using foul language to express hatred, and bad mouthing a group of people (Christian and others) are not proper manners a martial art master should hold. In his Aikieast website, he bragged about his propound study on Eastern Zen philosophy and claimed that Aikido teaches you peace in the mind regardless of dynamic changes outside. But his behavior showed the opposite. In a democratic society, political change or change on ruling party is normal, but this guy can’t accept this type of change and this type of change could made him feel like this is the end of the world and further turn him insane. I don’t want my kid to be approached by someone like this so I rejected this dojo immediately. I also would like to call all parents to reject this dojo - A dojo that promotes ISIS killing, violence and hatred.

Aikido Eastside is a top-notch Aikido dojo. There is a good blend of high level Aikido taught. The range can go from very basic to more advance applied techniques. You will find that the assistant instructors are good with new students and they break down the basic techniques in a way that's easily understood. You will be hard pressed to find another school of this caliber.

I have trained at this dojo for about nine years and I would never want to go anywhere else. The training is truly exceptional with many excellent Sensei’s to learn from. The Sensei’s at this dojo are a wealth of information, so much so I don’t think they will ever be able to teach all that they know – they live and breathe a history that will die if it is not passed on. I am so fortunate to be able to grow in my martial arts skills, confidence as a woman, and appreciation of Japanese culture. I’m also so thankful for all of the other students that I get to train with.