Year: 2014

Some Kind of Anniversary

It has been roughly 20 years since I first put my foot on a Tatami. I am thinking about that number, if it actually has any relevance to me. I feel the need to commemorate that key moment where something has started that has accompanied and, undoubtedly, changed most of my life since then, and I choose to do it in English since the beginnings have happened in Reading, UK. To be honest about the maths: I cannot actually claim to be doing Aikido for the entire 20 years. After Reading, I continued in two clubs in Regensburg, a broken shoulder joint and moving to other places then forced me to suspend training. I gave several tries to clubs in other towns and was sometimes discouraged by the immature mentality of people there. Having the right atmosphere among the members was always most important to me. I wouldn’t be able to learn from a teacher who I could not respect because he or she had not developed their personality together with their technical skills. Often I …