Eversince 2012 I have dedicated a number of posts on this blog to aikido. If you haven’t a clue what that is about, you might watch some videos on Youtube and who knows, maybe the name Steven Segal will ring a bell. Would you have even the slighest hunch what those people in these black skirts are up to?
If so you may wonder how a peace-loving person like me ended up on one of those green mats and what I might be looking for among those slashing out and rolling martial artists?
I willl tell you. In 1980 I exchanged my work at a steelplant for a job in healthcare. And in that branch of care that was in those days called the Z-care (Care for the mentally handicapped). One of the changes that came with that career-switch that I sat on my lazy ass considerably more often and longer than before. As the purpose of the job was mainly to get the clients off of their lazy asses and into action and not myself. So I tried to find a form of exercise that suited me. Ball and competition sports were certainly not my cup of tea and thus the most of the common sports activities were off the list. As it happened as a 10-year-old boy I had trained in judo for about half a year in a community center 'De Zandkraai' in Heemskerk, which I had rather enjoyed then. Also, as a 16-year-old or thereabouts, I had participated in some folk dancing in Assendelft of all places which I also had enjoyed. So I went looking for something like dance or movement or the softer martial arts. At the time, as you will be aware, we didn't have the internet or smart phones so we had to get what we were looking for from the newspapers, radio or TV or from the library or an encyclopedia. I had heard of tai chi and aikido before and had read some about it. What I had gathered from that and the so-called philosophy behind it intrigued me greatly. As mentioned, this was just before the internet era and we still did everything through the Yellow Pages and a now outdated telephone.
So I first flipped through the yellow pages to find out that they practiced aikido at Dun Hong in Den Helder. Then I called them with some questions about aikido and an invitation followed to come by next Monday evening with my questions and to participate in the training.
So it happened and the next Monday evening in mid-1981 I drove alone and in my light green duckling (Citroen 2CV) to Den helder and that evening entered an aikido club as amember. Many a Monday evening followed until in early 1984 my Fiat broke down and I decided that I wasn’t going to ride this trip on my bike. Unfortunately, this was the end of three years of rather enthusiastically practicing of aikido for me. During those three years, Piet Gerrits was in charge of aikido at Dun Hong. As he was still active in the navy, he was often not present on the tatami and, if I remember correctly, the brown belts Frans, Charlie and Alex then did the honors and led the trainig. In the Japanese lineage, we mainly followed teachers Tamura and Sugano through seminars.
And thus my martial career took off and suddenly came to a halt after barely three years.
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