At 3410 Cooper Street in Stone Ridge, a unique approach to martial arts is being practiced. Art of Peace Aikido Dojo, led by Annette Mackrel and Ralph Legnini, is dedicated to mindfulness and self-improvement rather than competition, setting it apart from many other martial arts.

Aikido – meaning love, harmony and energy – is a Japanese martial art centered around fluid movements, joint locks and throws that redirect an attacker while also protecting them from serious injury. Mackrel and Legnini say it also provides good health and stress relief in a chaotic world. This October is a good time to try it out – the Art of Peace Aikido Dojo is celebrating its three-year anniversary and providing a month of free lessons for newcomers.

Mackrel and Legnini had different paths to Aikido. For Mackrel, it began in 1985 while she lived with a Japanese teacher, Asai sensei. Mackrel said she had never done martial arts before but became “hooked,” drawn to the feeling of “competing with yourself” rather than sparring or competing against others.

A friend introduced Legnini to Aikido 35 years ago in Woodstock. Despite having “no interest whatsoever,” the practice won him over and he began going to classes regularly. Legnini, as a musician, compared the learning curve to picking up a new instrument.

“There's no shortcut. You have to put the repetitions in, some muscle memory and movement,” Legnini said. “You could do it for months and not feel like you're getting any better at all. And then all of a sudden, you feel like you hit some plateau.”

“It's pretty cool and it's harder than you think at first, not to confront somebody [who] pushes you. You pull back in Aikido,” Mackrel agreed.

Mackrel and Legnini met at the Woodstock dojo, and their lives have been intertwined ever since. Legnini said he discovered Stone Ridge, and the space that would later become his and Mackrel’s dojo, during COVID in 2020. In the following years, the two worked together to open it up. Today, the space is open and full of sun, lighting up the golden-framed Japanese letters spelling out “Aikido.”

Mackrel and Legnini wanted to avoid what they described as a ‘cult-like,’ overly competitive atmosphere that dominates some other dojos, which they compared to Catholic school and feudal Japan. Art of Peace adheres to some traditions, such as bowing to the black-and-white portrait of Aikido’s founder, Morihei Ueshiba, and to each other at the beginning of lessons, but Mackrel said teaching Aikido virtually during the pandemic exposed her to students from around the world, leading her to take a more modern and “artistic” approach.

“When I teach, I want people to have fun. I'm not a drill sergeant,” Mackrel said. “I don't want to spend hours and hours and hours teaching or training, and then everybody's just depressed when they leave because they think they're not good enough.”

Lessons for All Ages

Art of Peace offers lessons for all ages. Kids can do lessons with their parents Saturday from 9:30 - 10:20 a.m., teens are welcome on Tuesdays from 5 - 5:50 p.m., and adults as old as 75 can drop in Tuesday - Friday from 6 – 7 p.m. and Saturday 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Legnini runs the kids lessons and starts them off with a few minutes to scream and run around. Legnini admits that parents hate the noise, but says he does this to teach the children how to turn their own energy on and off like a switch. Legnini creates a judgment-free space that psychiatrists often recommend for children with disabilities.

“I've had kids over the years who were autistic or [had] Tourette's or cerebral palsy or a whole range of emotional or physical issues, and lots of times the parents in advance are sending a lot of emails,” Legnini said. “I always tell them, ‘I'm not an expert in any of that, but I can tell you that the kids in the class, no matter where they're at, what's going on with them, they're incorporated into the class exactly the same as everyone else.’”

Legnini said the “yin-and-yang” approach has also helped children with attention issues by having them focus on learning a skill, take a short break, and then get back into it.

According to Legnini, children can sometimes be easier to teach than adults, because they lack the stress and rigidity that adults often adopt over time. Compared to exercising at the gym, Legnini said that Aikido requires a level of focus and concentration that connects the mind and body, which he found helpful for his own mental health; that no matter what was going on in his personal life, once he put on the white Aikidoji and tied his black belt around the waist, kneeling on the mat, it disappeared.

“I had other people tell me that no matter what was going on in their life, something at work or a divorce, when they did the Aikido class, it took so much consciousness to focus that it cleaned their brain out for that hour,” Legnini said. “I feel that now. Sometimes we have classes at six o'clock, and in the winter it's cold and it's getting dark and I just don't feel up to it. As soon as I get here, it's a different kind of energy.”

In the studio this week, Mackrel began class with stretches and breathwork to shake out tension in the body, from the feet to the backs of the hands. Moving into demonstrations, Mackrel taught responses with a partner. For example, when an opponent grabs your wrist, the Aikido response involves a step forward and a swing toward the neck, palm facing out.

With her demonstration partner, Mackrel showed that while the knee-jerk response to the grab might be to throw a punch, this move allows you to get the other person off-balance and gives access to other vulnerable parts of their body, such as their chest or neck. Mackrel also showed with her partner (who was a good sport) that after performing this move, it is also possible to throw them to the ground.

“One of our teachers used to always say, ‘You can't change the flow of a river, right? So if somebody wants to punch or hit you or attack you, you cannot really stop that,” Mackrel explained. “You just have to let it go where it goes, and you have to get yourself in a different position.”

This aspect of Aikido, Mackrel said, is empowering for a large group of people, including children in anti-bullying lessons, as well as women and elderly people who wish to learn self-defense. Aikido also teaches how to fall safely, which elderly practitioners find helpful for their own lives.

“People sometimes come and they want to learn martial arts for self-defense, and they want to find this magic bullet, this one [move] that you can do where nobody can attack you,” Mackrel said. “That doesn’t exist anywhere. You can just learn to keep yourself safe. Be aware. Awareness, I think, is really important.”

Mackrel says that these “little things” such as awareness and good posture can be lost for many people in the world of technology, sitting at desks most of the day. Aikido’s core philosophy of neutralizing attacks without seeking to harm the other person and allowing negative energy to go past you, is also grounding in the internet age.

Legnini recalled a party of lawyers who took lessons at the dojo, and remarked to him afterward that they use the same philosophy of “not getting pulled into other people’s energies” in the courtroom.

Legnini and Mackrel said they decided to do a month of free lessons for their third anniversary to bring more people into the dojo and introduce people to this “off the beaten path” martial art, which many in the United States have never heard of. Mackrel especially wants to see more women join. Over the course of the month, Mackrel hopes newcomers will get a better idea of if they want to pursue Aikido, beyond a single class experience.

For newcomers who wish to continue, adult memberships start at $85, teen and parent-kid class memberships start at $65 with additional options to include couples, adults, children and added siblings. For more information, visit artofpeaceaikido.org.