Tucked away on Cooksboro Road, about 20 minutes outside of downtown Troy, stands Hawks Hill, a third-generation farm on a sprawling 90-acre property. From the outside, Hawks Hill looks like a traditional, historic upstate New York farm. But step inside the imposing barn, and you’ll find a haven dedicated to the Japanese martial art Aikido and the Chinese practice of acupuncture.
How did these Eastern arts find their way to Troy? “I didn’t mean to start practicing Aikido,” says Troy native Justin Coletti, who took over his family’s farm in 2017 and brought his passions with him. He recalls being in his 20s, feeling like he wanted to find a practice that would let him work on himself. He asked a friend who was doing the Chinese martial art Wing Chun if he thought his teacher would take him on, too. While the teacher wasn’t taking on new students, he did recommend an Aikido dojo located just down the street.
Created in the 1920s by Morihei Ueshiba, Aikido is a non-competitive martial art that emphasizes building character, developing courtesy and respect, and training to redirect an attacker’s force rather than opposing it directly. If you were to step into a class, you’d see joint locks, rolls, falls, and partners training together, taking turns giving and receiving force.
That simple recommendation to check out Aikido would ultimately alter Coletti’s life path. “I just kind of dove into it,” he says. When Coletti moved down to Brooklyn for acupuncture school, he continued the practice, finding an Aikido dojo housed in an industrial building in Gowanus. “I trained very, very seriously,” he says, making no understatement; in between going to acupuncture school and raising his son, Coletti made time to train between 25-30 hours a week. “I just made a decision that I’m not going to say no to anything,” he says.
And thus, Coletti received an education in Aikido that’s not easy to come by. He returned home to Troy with the chops he needed to teach what he’d learned to others. But when Coletti took over Hawks Hill, he didn’t just move his Aikido and acupuncture practices in—he himself moved in, too.
Coletti now resides at Hawks Hill with his partner, Lisa; their living quarters share a wall with the martial arts studio. In other words, when you step into the dojo, you are stepping into someone’s home—a fact that creates a palpable air of reverence as soon as you cross the door’s threshold. It feels like a privilege to be there.
That feeling seems to have made a lasting impact on CAPITAL REGION LIVING readers, who this year voted Aikido at Hawks Hill Best Martial Arts Studio, a brand-new Besties category.
“Nobody here even knew about it,” Coletti says of the introduction of the new category. “I’ve had a lot of people come through here and train over the years, so I think it’s a testament to them—the fact that they would think of this place in that way. I feel honored to have left an impression like that.”
Currently, the dojo is open for new adult students. “It’s never too late to start a martial art,” says Coletti, referencing a student who didn’t get his start until he was 50. “The only requirement for starting the practice here is the willingness to put yourself out there and say, ‘I’m just going to do it.’”
Coletti acknowledges that, as with any new practice, the hardest part is walking through the door the very first time. “But if you decide to start that journey,” he says, “I don’t know too many people that regret it.”
