Who We Are
Josephine and Adam Pilipshen run the Long Island Aikikai, one of the oldest continuously operating Aikido schools in the continental United States with head instructor Edward Hagihara, 8th Dan Shihan. Adam is pursuing his PhD at the University of Buffalo in Education Data Analysis. He works as an instructional designer at Nassau Community College. Adam currently hold the rank of 5th Dan (Godan) from the Aikikai and has been doing Aikido for over 20 years. Email him at: info@liaikikai.com
Josephine owns investment properties and is also the social media manager for the LIA (14.2k followers), she writes copy, creates marketing material, strategizes and executes customer acquisition, as well as freelance build websites for clients in her spare time. She is an avid gardener and cook and blogs her adventures on her website at: http://dearjuneberry.com/
She is currently one of the moderators of the Aikido subreddit, with over 7.6k members and growing, she runs the Aikido Dojo Network Discord chat server (120+ members), and helps manage the International Community of Martial Artists Discord chat server (500+ members.)
Email her at: jofanx@gmail.com
Our Vision
Aikido, as well as other traditional martial arts are undergoing a difficult time. Due to the changing socioeconomic landscape, the martial arts industry growth rate is shrinking at an alarming rate (read more here). Many dojos and gyms are struggling in both enrollment and retention, and have reached out to us for help and resources. While we are just two people, our community has begun to come together in order to find solutions to these issues, so that we may preserve the arts we love for another generation. A surprising number of dojos from all styles and affiliation wish to come together and provide whatever they have in order to do so, and this is the fruit of all our hard labor. We prefer using data driven strategies and models, rather than anecdotes and assumptions in order to find these solutions.
Our resources are free for anyone to follow and use, and new things will constantly be added as more information becomes available. We love all martial arts and want to see them thrive, which is why we decided to provide these resources without charge. All we ask is that you take a look at our current projects page to see how you can help contribute to our understanding of martial arts as a whole.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.