Molly Sacco Hale

Molly Hale began training at Aikido West in Redwood City, California under Shihan Frank Doran in 1984 after a 10-day Lomi School workshop exposed her “fear of sticks” and aroused her curiosity. Her passion for movement and background in dance, tree climbing, yoga, horseback riding, Feldenkrais, anything to do with being in a body of water, Taichi and Continuum supported her Aikido training. Becoming quadriplegic in 1995 with a medical prognosis of no voluntary movement below her shoulders for life, Molly uses the skills of her past and present training as life-giving therapy, enveloped in the Aikido family's buoyant resonance. Molly has opportunities to train and teach in venues across North America and abroad that expose others, both typically-abled and alter-abled, to the adaptations and possibilities of training from a seated position... we all sit. She also moves through the world in partnership with her husband Jeramy showing the documentary film “Moment by Moment: The Healing Journey of Molly Hale”, shaking up the box in the field of spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Molly is the Representative from the United States, sanctioned by the USAF, to the International Aikido Federation’s Disability Working Group set up to offer resources to Aikido teachers and students. Molly was promoted to Godan by Hombu Dojo in January 2020.