Re: Top Three things that inspired you in Aikido
1. My first aikido instructor, Mr. Paul Chang, then a nidan when I was 8. Great guy, small in stature, especially when in comparison to the Midwest redneck guys in the class. I was awestruck at how easily he handled them, moving around them while they did whatever they did and it would almost always end suddenly, uke coming to a full stop and unwilling to move another muscle as something had come to a point where it was going to get very bad very quickly. Tap-tap.
2. You will laugh. Above the Law. No kidding. I had been off in punch-kick for some years by then, and had earned a brown belt in Shotokan variant karate, and had just earned my 1st degree in taekwondo. Saw the movie, and instally remembered #1, above. Brought back memories. Alas, there was no one in the "new" home area with an aikido program. So, off into hapkido and muay thai I went.
3. Now, lotsa years later, I'm freshly amazed at the high dan grades at Windsong Dojo in OKC who work out/train with Nick Lowry. Great people, really good folks. Some freakishly good aikido goes on there, with people usually laughing when someone shows someone else something they'd not seen and saying, "Ain't that just the weirdest dang thing ya ever felt?"
I admit, it isn't the most formal place in the world to train, but it may be one of the best. IMO, of course.
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