{"id":77,"date":"2010-04-18T19:46:40","date_gmt":"2010-04-19T02:46:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/?page_id=77"},"modified":"2026-04-13T10:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T17:06:29","slug":"about-our-dojo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/?page_id=77","title":{"rendered":"About Our Dojo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft\" style=\"border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px 10px;\" src=\"..\/..\/img\/usaflogo.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"108\" height=\"108\" border=\"1\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Plano Aikido Center is the only dojo in the Plano\/Richardson\/Garland\/Allen area that is a member of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usaikifed.com\/\">United States Aikido Federation<\/a>, and through that membership affiliated with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aikikai.or.jp\/eng\/index.htm\">Hombu Dojo<\/a>, in Japan.<\/p>\n<p>Plano Aikido Center does not discriminate with respect to age, sex, race, religion, or national origin as they apply to admission, tuition, scholarship, promotion in rank, etc. We are a <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">non-profit<\/span> organization.<\/p>\n<p>While maintaining the etiquette proper for practicing aikido, our dojo maintains a safe and relaxed club environment. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Morihei_Ueshiba\">O&#8217;Sensei<\/a> said that &#8220;Training should always be conducted in a pleasant and joyful atmosphere&#8221;, and that is what we do!<\/p>\n<h2>Lead Instructors<\/h2>\n<p>Our dojo has three co- lead instructors, all of whom studied under our founder, Sidney Shiba.<\/p>\n<p>Greg Barton: Nidan and Fukushidoin<br \/>\nBachar Rifai: Nidan and Fukushidoin<br \/>\nBob Loftin: Nidan and Fukushidoin, and Dojo Cho<\/p>\n<h2>Other Instructors<\/h2>\n<p>Wen Lim: Shodan<br \/>\nJulio Pichunguero: Shodan<\/p>\n<h2>Our Founder &#8211; Sidney Shiba<\/h2>\n<p>Our Founder, Sidney Shiba, 6th Dan USAF, lead the dojo until his retirement and relocation to France in May 2026. Shiba Sensei&#8217;s teaching focused on fluid movement, balance, and strong fundamentals. We continue to focus on those elements in our practice and teaching.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plano Aikido Center is the only dojo in the Plano\/Richardson\/Garland\/Allen area that is a member of the United States Aikido Federation, and through that membership affiliated with Hombu Dojo, in Japan. Plano Aikido Center does not discriminate with respect to age, sex, race, religion, or national origin as they apply to admission, tuition, scholarship, promotion &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/?page_id=77\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;About Our Dojo&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-77","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":738,"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/77\/revisions\/738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.planoaikido.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}