Dr. Penny holds a 3rd degree black belt (Sandan) in the Japanese martial art of Aikido. He began practicing Aikido in September of 1983 at Hart House within the University of Toronto. His instructor was (and remains) Sensei Takeshi Kimeda, 8th Dan.
Aikido is derived from the older art of Jujitsu, and more specifically aiki-jujitsu, which has roots traceable back to the 13th century. It was developed in its modern form by O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba in the 1920's.
The particular style that Dr. Penny practices is the Yoshinkan style, developed by one of O-Sensei's longest standing (pre-war) pupils, Soke Gozo Shioda. Soke Shioda taught Kimeda Sensei, aided in large part by the senior instructor at the time, Sensei Takashi Kushida.
Aikido literally means "the way of harmony with energy".
Aikido involves learning timing and focus, as realized in hand-to-hand fighting and weapons training (sword, stick, and knife). There is no competition in Aikido, its practitioners rather learning through the repetition of solo and two-person kata (with appropriate resistance thrown in for advanced training), and jiyu-waza, free-style training whereby one or more uke (literally "the one who falls") come at shite (literally "the hero") with predefined attacks, and shite executes appropriate evasions and neutralizations.
Characteristic of all styles of Aikido is the execution of techniques with a smooth, flowing technique, based on either tenkan (turning) or irimi (entering) motions. The Yoshinkan style is characterized by a highly-refined teaching method based on the principle of go-ju-ryu (hard-soft-school). Yoshinkan training starts with basic exercises (there are seven of them) and basic techniques (thousands) executed in the fashion of go: short, choppy, strongly-balanced, and broken down. After many years of training (perhaps 10), the student develops ju, which is a soft, pliant, and flowing technique. After a lifetime of study, the student may develop ryu, whereby the techniques cease to be central and pure timing and focus take over. It is at this stage that a practitioner may legitimately establish a new ryu: a school that teaches a different style or art. Beware of martial arts practitioners who establish new schools before attaining the ryu stage. They confuse training methods with the martial arts themselves, and effectively are developing a new teaching method before learning for themselves what it is that they are trying to teach.