The joy of Aikido is just that it is a lot of fun to have a place to go and have a good workout with friendly people. Everyone trains together. There are no beginners' classes. It is thought that training should be a mixture of people with different skill levels. The general flow of a class looks similar from one night to the next.
Classes always begin with a physical warm-up and breathing exercises.
The trainer then chooses a student and demonstrates, briefly, a principle or technique. For instance, the designated attacker might throw a punch to the partner's chest. In response the partner moves in the designated manner shown. After a few attempts at the technique of principle, the partners switch roles, and the previous defender becomes the attacker and receives the throw. Unlike karate, all learning is done with another person.