The objectives of Seidokan Aikido are to study the philosophy and the arts of Aikido and further develop them to best suit the modern way of life.

Seidokan Aikido is the study of Aikido as a whole. Old traditions are analyzed and only the good traditions are kept and further developed so that they can be useful in our daily lives. Seidokan Aikido emphasizes the attitude of training. The students and the instructors grow together at Seidokan Aikido dojos. The students learn the fundamentals from the instructors and the instructors gain deeper understanding of Aikido while sharing their knowledge with the students. Through earnest, realistic and sincere training, the students of Seidokan Aikido will learn the true meaning of Aikido.

The motto for Seidokan is "earnest, sincere, and realistic." This is derived from the kanji for "sei" (alternatively pronounced "makoto") means "fundamental truth." Seidokan therefore emphasizes an approach to Aikido which requires continued honest evaluation of both technique and philosophy. In particular, Seidokan follows the line of tradition of O'Sensei which encourages ongoing refinement of the art to accommodate a modern way of life.

Technique as taught by Seidokan Kancho, Roderick T. Kobayashi, tends to utilize movements which are very small and economical. While Kobayashi Sensei encouraged his students to discover an aikido which is truly their own, he nevertheless stressed the importance of doing away with the extraneous and focusing on that which works. Effective technique which manifests the principles of oneness and "loving protection of all things" is the goal of Seidokan practice.

Seidokan Aikido technique is based on the idea of "loving protection for all things." It is characterized by its emphasis on range of effectiveness and getting off the line of attack. A lot of Seidokan technique draws an attacker outside of his range of effectiveness. That is, nage leads uke off uke's one-point and into nage's range of effectiveness (close to nage's hara) where nage is strong and uke is weak. This is important in both tenkan and irimitechniques. Just as important is getting off the line of attack, which both protects nage from the attack and leads uke's ki into nage's range of effectiveness.