A reflection, written by Ivan Melo, September 2024
As we return to training after our short summer break, with great memories and sharpened skills from the Aikido of London summer camp, we can’t help but to also remember it’s been a year since Gyodokan opened its doors.
Also very vivid in my memories of some time in 1997, my dad saying to me “why don’t you try Aikido?”, with my mum reacting to it “you know my friend with the half-Japanese kids? She takes them to Aikido somewhere around here, I can ask her about it if you like?”. Even though I was already very into martial arts and had already trained in other arts by that point, the grumpy, teenaged me only said “I would think about it”.
It wasn’t until after the menace of a robbery (or worse) to our family after a night dining out, a month or so after that, that I decided to give Aikido a go. The small dojo was actually very near, down my street and turning right onto a main road, probably less than a 10 minute walk. The dark corridor that led to the dojo at the back of a house where the mats were, made it all more mysterious. The simple aluminum roof covering the mats were also very noisy when heavy tropical rain was falling, so much so that we couldn’t ever hear ourselves slapping the mats. Suffice to say I didn’t know what I was getting into and the repercussions it would have in my life.
Back to recent times, upon our return from Japan in 2023, Cathy and I decided to begin our own dojo, a plan that had been in our minds for a while. If I’m honest, in the first few months at the university’s sport’s centre where we first started, I thought there would be plenty of nights with just us two training together until there were some students. However, it never happened that way, thanks to some of you who have been with us since the very beginning, to whom we are very grateful for.
In this last year we were also visited many times by our friends from Aikido of London and our teacher Ismail Hasan, whose support was vital for us to make it all happen. He has already come to teach twice in the past year, including our opening classes celebrating our move to St. Matthew’s Church Hall. For many centuries, martial arts were practiced in temples and shrines in Japan, so there is a special feeling to have Gyodokan classes in temple grounds in Ealing, west London.
I have been teaching Aikido since 2004 which, come to think of it, makes this year another important milestone for me in my martial arts journey. However, it was always in dojos set up by my teachers. So now, the process of buying the mats was also a special occasion for me, one of those moments where you feel more grown up and responsible.
Relocating to where we are now was an important step to move towards our vision of practice, where a peaceful and quiet space gives us more room for us to go deeper into ourselves in the midst of intense physical training. Some of you have pointed out to how much you enjoy walking up the path next to the main church building, taking us away from the very busy main road to the dojo, where barely any sounds can be heard, expect for birds and the faint choir practice on Thursday evenings. We also enjoy that walk very much.
We now have added zazen to our schedule, which already has weapons classes and maybe at some point we will be able to add an Iaido class too. For you guys at the start of your journey, we hope you come and train as much as you can, and make Aikido a part of your lives, for that will make your path as rewarding as it has been for us.