The association
Who we are, how we are organised, and who we are affiliated with.
The association
Aikido Musubi (tax ID G-64799554) is a cultural association founded in 2008. It was the first self-managed, non-profit association in Barcelona set up to promote the practice of aikido and the values of Japan's traditional martial arts. Since then we have been a significant presence in the Barcelona metropolitan area, offering a space given over entirely to martial arts and Japanese culture.
Aikido Musubi does not advocate, support or practise unlawful discrimination on the basis of age, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, race, religion, sexual orientation or socioeconomic background.
- Registered name
- Asociación Cultural Musubi Aikido
- Tax ID
- G-64799554
- Founded
- 2008, Badalona
- Affiliation
- Aikido Arashi Group, Aikikai Foundation (Hombu Dojo, Tokyo)
Since 2008
We started with one mat in Badalona and have not missed a season since. Along the way the Sant Adrià de Besòs classes opened, and the ones at the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona; the first dan grades came out of the dojo; and we went from hosting a visiting teacher now and then to running several seminars a year.
We do not keep the count solemnly, but we do keep it: the archive and the seminar log live in Ura, and the log starts in 2020. It is a story better told in photographs than in dates.
How it works
The board is made up of the President, the Secretary and the Treasurer, who also serve as technical director and instructors. They are active founding members with substantial experience in the association, elected by the General Assembly, which is made up of all its members.
The Assembly meets once a year, approves the accounts and decides whatever needs deciding. Any member may attend, speak and vote. Nobody is paid to teach: the fees cover the rent, the upkeep of the mat, insurance, federation licences and the seminars we bring in. What is left stays in the dojo.
The statutes and the accounts are available to any member who asks for them.
Who teaches
Technical direction
Pablo Martín (Badalona, 1977) began practising aikido in Badalona in 1999 with Ricard Coll. He has continued his own practice while teaching at Aikido Musubi. Over the years he has taken part in many courses and seminars with well-known teachers including Yamada Y. Shihan, Sugano S. Shihan, Shibata I. Shihan, M. Flynn Shihan, D. Waite Shihan and P. Bernath Shihan. He has also travelled to Japan to train at aikido's world headquarters, the Hombu Dojo, with Ueshiba Moriteru Doshu, Miyamoto T. Shihan, Yokota Y. Shihan, Osawa Hayato Shihan, Kuribayashi T. Shihan, Kanazawa T. Shihan and Suzuki T. Shihan, among others.
To promote aikido in Barcelona and the surrounding area he established the Asociación Cultural Musubi Aikido in 2008, later taking on the roles of president of the association and technical director.
He currently holds the grade of 4th dan and the title of shidoin (qualified instructor), awarded by Aikido Doshu Ueshiba Moriteru and recognised worldwide by the Aikikai Foundation and the International Aikido Federation.
Instructors in training
Teaching is learned too
On Tuesdays at 20:30 the class is taught by someone who is learning to teach it.
A dojo lasts as long as its teachers do. Teaching aikido does not follow from being able to do it: they are two different things, and the second is learned the way the first is, on the mat and in front of people.
The slot is already in the timetable: Tuesday, 20:30, Instructor in training.
Ask about the programmeThe programme
Every Tuesday from 20:30 to 21:30 the class is led by a yūdansha in training. The technical director is on the mat, practising alongside everyone else.
The feedback comes after class, or periodically depending on where you are in the programme. Never during, and never in front of the students.
It is not a trial class or a stand-in. It is that day's class, with its students and its syllabus.
The two years
The first year is watching and assisting: preparing the session, correcting in pairs, leading the warm-up, sitting on someone else's grading.
The second year is leading. The frequency goes up and the commentary goes down, until the class holds itself.
Two years is not a ceremonial number: it is how long it takes to go through a full year of syllabus, two grading cycles and a summer.
What is asked of you
Yūdansha grade and regular practice, here or at your own dojo.
Steady attendance: teaching on Tuesdays asks that you train the rest of the week.
Prepare each session: know what you will work on and why, before you step on the mat.
How to join
Four places, and you join when one frees up. There are no intakes and no application dates.
The programme costs those taking part nothing.
Write to us and we will talk. If you train at another dojo, come with your own sensei's blessing.