MERCIA AIKIDO

Students

Gwilym Christian Williams

What Aikido means to me…

I train at the Kidderminster dojo under Sensei Paul Wilkes, who has been my main teacher of Aikido since around 2011.

Aikido attracts and caters for students from all backgrounds and at all levels. There are those who are complete novices in Martial Arts and even those like one of my colleagues at the dojo, who possess multiple blackbelts in other disciplines. What all Aikidoists have in common is, once they come, they rarely leave. Because Aikido is such a rich and complex art. It is the gift that keeps on giving. It contains many levels of meaning and skill which would take several lifetimes to uncover and unpack.

Aikido is more than a Martial Art, it is a way of life.

The dojo atmosphere is all-inclusive and welcoming to all comers. We are like family. There is none of the competitiveness or ego often found in other places.

My martial journey began at the age of thirteen. Like many people, I was drawn to these arts out of fear. I was of an ethnically mixed background and grew up as a minority. My father’s family is Welsh, but my mother’s family came to this country as immigrants. Therefore, due to my mixed race origins, I stood out.

My different looks attracted the wrong kind of attention. I started where most people first enter this arena, with Japanese arts. I spent about a year learning Judo and then three years in two styles of Karate. From Karate and Judo I moved to Chinese fighting systems. I have been involved in Chinese Boxing for three decades now.

In between my serious study of Chinese Boxing, I also began training in Aikido. Thus, commenced my love affair with Aikido.

I first encountered Aikido in January 1994. I trained for a few years, but made no real progress. I also trained in Japanese Ju-jutsu at around this time, once again, making little progress. I struggle with Japanese arts and always have done because of their innate difficulty, as mentioned above. But that is the fun of them! I am a slow learner and I lack any real ability in these arts. However, I always approach them as a beginner and that stands me in good stead.

I also spent time in Boxing and Muay Thai – to close up the gaps in my understanding of fighting and self-defence. Muay Thai is for ‘real fighting’ and is the quickest route to actual self-defence. But something always brought me back to Aikido.

Time and time again, I would return to this art. It called to me, with a siren song, like no other… eventually bringing me to the Samurai dojo.

Now, all these years later, my need for self-defence or the ability to fight, are no longer my chief concern. I no longer equate Martial Arts with fighting. Now, I see them in their truer form. All Martial Arts are to do with training discipline, self-realisation and humility.

I believe that Aikido trains these aspects better than any other art. It is a non-competitive Martial Art and specifically dissolves the ego through hard work, sharing, and calmness.

Aikido offers a wealth of good relationships that endure over time. It only remains for me to thank my Aikido brothers and sisters, my Aiki-Family. Domo Arigato. Xiexie. Namaste.

Gary

I joined Mercia Aikido / RSK in December 2014.

I have a history of studying other martial arts and have done so for the last 30 years.

I came to RSK as I wanted to improve my knowledge of joint locking and aikido throws of which I had a little knowledge about from studying Ju jitsu.

I was delighted to discover that RSK has three Master grade. instructors who have been involved in aikido in this country since the early days and have studied under Chiba Sensei, a renowned Japanese aikido master. You can read about him in the book – The Sword master’s apprentice, it’s well worth it.

Chiba Sensei put a heavy emphasis on weapons training and as aikido was born from the sword this makes perfect sense. In Sensei Mike Smith we are lucky enough to have a great Weapons master and the other Sensei are none too shoddy either!

From the ” body art” of aikido I have massively improved my footwork and coordination as well as getting better at using my whole body in my techniques rather than just my arms. I have a long way to go still but I am getting there!

Aikido is also the best art, in my view, to learn ” ukemi” – rolling out of techniques applied on you and other self preservation strategies. This alone has massively improved my Ju jitsu.

My aim is to continue studying aikido until I am no longer physically able to do so as it is such a great art and I know of no better place to do this than RSK.

Mr Neil (Sempai)

I have been around longer then I can remember.

I have a background in Martial-Arts training, including Karate and Kenjutsu.

Like Wilkes Sensei, I trained with the late Sensei William Smith (who was like a second father to me) from 1980 onward in Aikido body arts, but these days I focus mainly on Aiki-weaponry which I enjoy the subtlety of….and the Dojo indulges me.

Self-defence is only a secondary consideration to me, as I aspire to more aesthetic training in Za-Zen meditation and sword-drawing, but I do recognize the practical benefits of Aikido, and I can say that on one occasion the skills I learned on the mat, have saved my life.

One of the reasons I continue to train with Aikido-practitioners, is that generally they are an open and warm-hearted people. I think the non-competitive element helps in this regard, as no one has anything to prove, and there is far less ego and more collaboration than in other disciplines.

Aikido was developed to train the spirit as well as the body, and I find the development of Ki or energy-flow is useful to me in my personal development. Enabling me to achieve a better level of mental and physical flexibility combined with martial-focus; make Aikido useful for dealing with what can at times be a hostile world.

To echo the wise words of O Sensei, my goal is “to become neither hard, nor soft, but like running water”.