As I have explained before, my martial arts journey started in the mid seventies and I am still currently walking the path, hopefully for many more years to come. This means that my martial arts have been a part of my life for longer than most other things in my life. Schools, Jobs, friends and even wives have come and gone during that time but still the constant of attending the dojo to train has always been there. Unfortunately we all suffered a break in this regularity of martial arts in our lives only a short period ago when the world was gripped by the COVID pandemic, which led to the closing of martial arts clubs and gyms. Many do not realise the heavy effect that was suffered by our martial arts community with the loss of our access to the dojo, I have heard some very sad stories about how people suffered during that period and also had my own battles with this drastic change to my life. Something that helped some of us was developing a form of training via zoom sessions, which obviously couldn't give you the contact levels of proper training but did allow us to keep the spirit of our training going.
Anyway the point of this blog is how I approach a new year as a martial artist, though I will have to return to the lockdown subject at some time as I think there is still much to be reviewed about that time and lessons for us all going forward, which can hopefully stop us suffering in the same way if a shadow was to fall across the world again. It is good to realise that we are still building up from that time and I think we have seen quite good growth over the last twelve months but most of the clubs that I have connections to are still really struggling to rebuild following that long period when everything was put on hold. Obviously I have heard stories of underground fight clubs that existed during the lockdowns that actually allowed physical contact but lets remember the first rule of fight club.
So back to our main subject, Martial Arts New Year. From the early days in my martial arts career I would start planning my achievements for the coming year, initially being that I was simply aiming for my next grade. Later on it would include other achievements such as completing Kata courses and technical course and later I would move onto coaching qualifications. Obviously with my long career in the martial arts I have achieved several of these qualifications on more than one occasion and then allowed it to lapse again. Actually when I first started training at the Tokei about 12 years ago, all my coaching qualifications had lapsed, mainly because I had gone through that period of having young children, which puts martial arts training into that occasionally when you can escape from dad duty place but now the children are young adults and dad isn't as necessary as he used to be. Though dad's taxi service often becomes a requirement again.
So now I have had a chance to concentrate on what I want to achieve in my martial arts again and this year has been quite a successful year with me recently getting my second kyu in Aikido and I have also completed many of my coaching qualifications, and just needing to complete some paperwork to complete my Level 2 coaching award. I have also recently picked up a qualification, which will allow me to do mat side coaching at competitions, another new role for the coming year.
So what is the plan for 2024? For the last couple of years, I've been saying I will do my 4th Dan, actually I was saying it before lockdown so yes, this year I am going to get my 4th Dan in Judo and hopefully my 1st Kyu in Aikido (that will be the first time I will wear a brown belt for 36 years) and I also plan to become an instructor in Shuai Jiao (Chinese wrestling), which is an art with a brilliant rule base for competition and I would love to grow it's popularity in the UK. These are the will happen in 2024 plans but I also have a hopefully will achieve list for 2024. The maybe plans include my Level 3 instructor qualification in Judo and maybe further qualifications in Judo Kata plus I would like to take my self-defence qualifications further. I have to be realistic though as I hopefully want to complete further training around first aid and mental health first aid as well so I will need to use my available time very carefully this year.
Don't go as mad as me but do set yourself some goals with your martial arts because I always find I train better when I am aiming for certain targets. At the same time be realistic with yourself, don't set impossible targets that push you to hard, because there is one very important thing about martial arts training, ENJOY yourself.
Happy Christmas and
HAPPY NEW MARTIAL ARTS YEAR