6th Dan Aikikai Sensei Ivan Novikov is a President of the oldest in Russia Martial Arts club named Lenkai, a Head Coach of the National Council of Aikido in Russia, a Father of FIVE children and a great Aikido teacher.
He started learning Aikido under Sergey Kiselev in 1990. Attended a lot of Naomi Namura, learned a lot from Nobuyoshi Tamura, from which he got his ranks up to the 4th Dan. Currently, Ivan is an official Yoshimitsu Yamada‘s student in Russia where the last one comes on an annual basis.
Novikov has a teaching experience since 1993 and he never stops. When you join Ivan’s class for the first time you are already late! It’s very much intense right from the start.
Sensei gives a lot of Kokyu-related, spinning and complicated techniques. It’s not for you, he’s the one who loves them. For you, it’s the only possible way to learn or polish them and if you were looking for a chance to act – you’re in the right place. Novikov’s moves are sharp and fast. His center is right where it should be no matter how complex his idea is. Add solid confidence, conditioned body and you get a deep feeling that things are going to move his way.
I would clearly call him an open-minded person. He gives it to you right in the face without thinking too much and you get the reason. This makes a learning process easy to understand, making you ready for the next events without overthinking. He is not hiding any technical or psychological secrets. His biggest secret is hard work on long-distance of time. It’s up to you on how much you can take.
You can be sure that you will get his attention no matter how big a group of people is. Well organized mind will help you see things you didn’t before, will find the missing parts in a puzzle you may be trying to solve for a long time.
Being here and there and everywhere is his way, not only on the tatami. Besides activity in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow, he’s a Technical Director of the Aikido Federations in Lithuania, Volgograd, Penza and Khanty-Mansiysk. He’s attending international and running own seminars inside and outside Russia regularly as well as the aikido camps. His long-distance Aikido-training journeys rolled him to France, Spain, Bulgaria, Japan, USA, Australia, Poland, and others.
Ivan gives a feeling that he loves what he does. If you are looking for an aikido teacher or ever have a chance to join his classes, seminars, training camps – grab it without thinking, it will be a great part in your Aikido way.
You can find the videos with Ivan Novikov’s classes on the Instagram page, news in the vk.com group and on the facebook page.
