NEWS: AKI UK, by Nick Barnett

Purpose

My aikido journey started with AKI in Australia with Steve-sensei and continued in Japan with senseis Murase, Yass, Chris and Otsuka. It was a transformative experience that expanded my self-awareness and opened me up to a new level of trust in myself and others.

The AKI philosophy of developing hara through intensive ukemi practise is an approach that I found enjoyable, inspirational and very beneficial for my well-being and in developing harmonious relationships with others. I loved being able to challenge myself to new levels of endurance with ato keiko!

This is my motivation to start an AKI dojo in Bristol and share these benefits with others here. It’s a big challenge but I feel ready for it having trained with Lia-sensei for the past year and with her as my mentor in the project.

Teaching

I really enjoy teaching and feel my 10 years as an English teacher have given me a good grounding in the art of teaching and how to support students in their learning. It was great working alongside Lia-sensei in Los Angeles last year learning how to instruct different abilities and ages from children through to seniors. It also greatly deepened my understanding of Takeda-shihan’s teachings.

Coaching

I am also a certified life coach and have always been inspired by aikido and coaching as vehicles for personal growth. They share some common principles like taking responsibility and the need to find our own way and I’m excited to research how I can use my coaching skills on the mat to accelerate students personal growth through aikido and also how I can further integrate my aikido learnings into my coaching sessions with clients.

It would be an honour to be able to teach aikido classes for Aikido Kenkyukai and host Lia-sensei and other AKI teachers in the future in Bristol.