Time for Aikido

I have now been training at Aikido for 19 years, I started when my twin boys were not yet a year old, and they completed our family of five children. My initial reason for commencing Aikido was that I felt I could no longer commit to a team sport as I was seriously time poor at that stage.

Originally I struggled with balancing having a large family, working full time and making time available for training. The more I trained the easier it became for me to make time available for training as I felt a better person after leaving the mat. Often I would arrive at Aikido and feel absolutely shattered, maybe from being up all night with sick kids, maybe from a bad day at the office, then once I got on the mat, relaxed and had been thrown around for a couple of hours I felt like a new person.

Of course this encouraged my inner self to train more often and priority was no longer on grading, instead my priority was being able to develop from within and sharing this with family and friends. I found myself to be more patient and tolerant, not only at home but also in the work force.

I have had three operations on my right knee, the most major one was a complete knee reconstruction, and one of my biggest achievements was being able to talk a top Surgeon into operating on me, as he did tell me he really only worked on All Blacks and top sports people and thought that I was not a very good option for his reputation.

Mother of five would probably not only have the time but also not understand how to rehabilitate, and therefore this would look bad on his records. Paramount to me was a successful operation as I knew I would never train again if my knee was not rectified. Well I had a few up front words with this Surgeon, and he agreed to operate.

On my arrival I had bad asthma and the Anesthetist refused to give me a general injection and requested the operation be postponed, I proceeded to explain to him I had had 5 children, suggested using an Epidural. I returned to training after 3 months, and was a very happy person.

I believe while training there are three key words to think about; Effort, Process, and Outcome. The most important to me is process, effort the beginning, outcome the end and process the journey.

Well enough about me, I would like to thank my family for allowing me the time to train, thank you all to my Sensei who have taught me over the years, too many to name all, thank you to Riai Sensei Mike and Danny.

I would like to offer a special thanks to Head of Riai; Sensei Henry, who has taken the time to give me extra tuition more recently, revising the syllabus, and pointing out my key weaknesses so that I was able to spend more time on certain techniques to try and reach the next level, while teaching displaying respect, integrity, honesty and encouragement.

Thank you to the people who have trained with me today. In closing, many people ask me “why do you still train at Aikido?”

My answer “E ha te mea nui ki roto taku oranga kua kore ki roto te oranga a te tangata? Te manako marie.”

“I experience something many people never experience in a life time. Peace of Mind.”