Aikido Kokikai Silicon Valley

Professional and friendly atmosphere. The instructors are fantastic, knowledgable, and humble. They also have wonderful kids classes. Definitely one of the best martial arts studios I’ve been to.

Bottom line: Great place to Learn Aikido.
I love this Dojo. EVERYONE is friendly and willing to help you learn and train. There are a lot of advanced students around every class to help the newbies, and everyone is willing to help, explain, be as patient as needed — and do it all cheerfully. The Male/​Female ratio is also good — a woman training here will not feel out of place and an exception.
The facilities are good — actual dressing rooms for Males and Females, and a bathroom, spacious and clean training area.
Sensei Dennis is a 7^th Dan (7^th level black belt) and his expertise and knowledge shine through — and he’s not just good at Aikido, but also at teaching it. On the days he is not teaching himself he has assistant teachers who are all advanced Black-​belts (including his wife) and I find having several perspectives into techniques helpful.
Note there is a dedicated class for kids, and pretty young ones. While I do not have a child enrolled, my class some days is just following the kids’ class — and they seem to have a blast.
Finally a word about the particular style of Aikido taught here — Kokikai. I have trained in other Aikido styles, and have a background (YEARS ago) in Karate. From what I see, Kokikai has a practical, martial art orientation, unlike some Aikido styles that become almost a dance, with practical application almost a side-​effect.
Bottom line: You’ll like it here. They give a free trial lesson — go and see for yourself.

My 2 kids have been learning Aikido here for years and they really enjoyed their class and learned the technique well, also enjoyed team play/​game. Good team of instructors. Highly recommend this place to any parents who consider sending their kids to learn Aikido.
Tran

I recommend martial arts to everyone. It is good for self defense and overall spiritual growth. My son and I have been practicing Kokikai Aikido for a little over 5 years, and with Dennis Sensei for the past 2 years. Both of us have made great progress in our practice. Aikido is a spiritual practice, like yoga, and the teacher makes a difference. Dennis Sensei is very advanced in his own abilities, is an excellent teacher and possesses a very important quality — the desire to share his knowledge with his students. His mindset is mirrored by all the other instructors at the dojo — Amy, Robert, Jon and Alfred.

I have been practicing Aikido for more than twenty years. Both the welcoming spirit and the quality of instruction have made it worth while for me to make the hundred mile drive.

I have had a great time at Kokikai. All of the instructors are very knowledgeable and the class sizes allow a lot of individual attention. Although, I am not an expert at Aikido I liked the pragmatic approach that Kokikai uses.

Since long time my neighbor Yusuf and I wanted to register our kids for Aikido classes. My son is only 5 years old and my neighbor’s daughter is 4 years old. We both were not sure whether it’s a right age to start.
On first visit, our kids were attending classes with all other kids of higher age. Experience from first class was not very good. I guess because kids were not in proper uniform and also difficult for them to attend class along with bigger kids.
We accepted Dennis’s proposal to have separate class only for our two small kids for next few weeks. Both kids have learned good things in past 4 weeks. But I feel both are still not ready to understand various self-​defense techniques. We decided to take a break and start again after few months.
Dennis, Jonathan and other instructors (I forgot their name) were very careful while teaching/​handling both small kids. I enjoyed all my visits and got to learn few things along with my son.
I would like to thank Dennis and all other instructor for their great work. I will strongly recommend this place for learning Aikido.

Excellent place to learn and practice Aikido. Very experienced instructor (at both Aikido and teaching), great location, friendly atmosphere. Doesn’t matter if you are experienced Aikidoka or if it is your first class — you will learn something new here every class.

Aikido Kokikai in Sunnyvale is a great place to practice. The head instructors are strong and can really throw the biggest of people. This Aikido isn’t s dance. It can really get a strong attacker off guard. The Dojo is spacious and very convenient.