Looking in Lubbock.

Been in martial arts for YEARS.....spent three and a half of those years under Grand Master Bong Soo Han studying Hapkido. Been in a few Aikido dojos on and off since then. My last residence (in Missouri) had no Aikido schools, and when I was getting ready to move to Lubbock I did a search on Google and found TWO schools here! YEAAAAH!

Well.....no yeaaah after all. Once I got here found they both were gone.

So far haven't found any advertised, thought I'd ask in here.

Anyone know of one around me?

Thanks in advance.

DD

Texas Tech Aikido Club - http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/aikido/

You should be able to get one of the faculty members to sponsor you for access to the Rec Center.

Mark Powell wrote: Texas Tech Aikido Club - http://www.orgs.ttu.edu/aikido/

+1

read fowler has got great no-nonsense aikido. just saw him at his federation's summer camp a couple weeks ago.

check it out. and give him my regards!!!

Mark & Jerome,
thanks for the input. I will have to see if I can get in touch with them.
However......that was one of the two I had tried contacting prior to my move here. I was informed it was no longer open, and the person who answered the phone really knew nothing about the club.
Are you guys saying they've reformed? Or had never been closed in the first place and I was misinformed?

I will see if I can contact anyone through at website and letcha all know if I have any success.

Thanks.

DDan

The person who answered the phone was probably just a student working at the rec center who had no clue about much of anything, particularly club sports. Also, if you contacted them recently, it may be that the club is temporarily inactive due to being between semesters.

Good luck!

Mark Powell wrote: The person who answered the phone was probably just a student working at the rec center who had no clue about much of anything, particularly club sports. Also, if you contacted them recently, it may be that the club is temporarily inactive due to being between semesters. Good luck!

The website was updated on April of this year so they have to be around there somewhere. Reed is a good guy. Years ago, I was in the same Federation as he and at seminars, I always noticed that he trained with the white belts helping them out. He once came to me and gave me advice on a technique that I still use today.
Best wishes,
Jorge

Daniel,

I'm Read Fowler, the instructor here in Lubbock. I'm the guy those other guys were talking about (greetings Jerry, Mark and Jorge). Jerry contacted me to check this forum.

You can send me a private message or an email to readfowler@aol.com, and we can exchange phone numbers to get in contact.

The outside dojo was closed about 3 years ago, so we only practice at the Rec Center on the TTU campus. Summer is always a slow time for us due to the reduced number of students.

When we talk I can give you all the info re: class times, building access, etc.

Hopefully we can meet and practice soon!

Thanks,

Read Fowler

As promised......

Read kindly responded to my email about the class, and told me he would be at the rec center tonight at 7:00.

Kewl! I'm gonna pop right over there and see what I can see!

So I have to sweet talk my way past the student security guard, who has no clue about an Aikido club, to get to where the class "...should be if there is anything like that...." to wait.

Sitting there with my cycle helmet I'm watching to see if anyone goes into the magical "..should be.." room and transforms it into a dojo. So far no one has shown up.

See a guy walking my direction carrying a helmet, he sees my helmet and we give each other a smile and a nod and he goes down the hall and sits down at a table. Nope.....still no one showing up. Maybe I misunderstood his message. Got home and gave a call to the number Read sent me, leave a message.

Read calls and asks if I was the guy sitting there with the helmet, he was the other one with the helmet.

Had a great conversation with him, great guy.
He told me how it's slow now due to the school schedule, but even then it's not easy to get and keep students. Blame the "want it now" mentality. Face it-Aikido takes time to learn, and you have to WANT to do it, and dedicate a lot of time to the study. I hope to meet any who do WANT.
Set up to meet with Read at his class (for real this time) next Monday, looking forward to it.

Thanks for all your help finally getting me connected.

DDan

Daniel Sutton wrote: Set up to meet with Read at his class (for real this time) next Monday, looking forward to it. Thanks for all your help finally getting me connected. DDan

I've only met Read once, at the first ever seminar held at the Regina Aikido Dojo in 1995. Read and a couple of others from the Lubbock dojo came and attended Rocky's opening of the new dojo with Kawahara and K. Tohei shihans both instructing.

You will enjoy training with Read. He's "been there, done that."
Walter

Walter Martindale wrote: Read and a couple of others from the Lubbock dojo came and attended Rocky's opening of the new dojo with Kawahara and K. Tohei shihans both instructing.

Don't you mean Akira Tohei Shihan?

Robert Cronin wrote: Don't you mean Akira Tohei Shihan?

Oops. Yes...
Thank you for the correction.
W

hey dan

hope everything went well on the first day.

keep us posted