I’ve been practicing martial arts since high school and I haven’t stopped ever since. It true that I have interrupted going to the dojo for different periods of time for several reasons (mainly due to injuries and being away on travels) but I’ve never stopped being a martial artist.
Even now in my late 30s, I remember going to my first karate practice session in the gym of my old primary school and then moving on to the aikido dojo. Aikido remained my “staple” martial art but I’ve also toured other dojo while living in Romania. I trained with friends in other systems and styles, from taekwondo to judo to kickboxing to wushu and all these styles have left, in a greater or smaller extent, an imprint on my own martial arts style.
After I had moved to Thailand more than a decade ago, I continued my aikido practice although I was no longer interested in moving up in kyu and dan but I was rather more interested in my personal, physical and spiritual growth.
Living in Bangkok, one of the most cosmopolitan capital cities in Asia, gave me the opportunity to expand my martial arts practice to several other styles. Apart from aikido, which I continued practicing regularly, I also tried my hand at muay thai, MMA, Brazlian Ju Jitsu, kyudo plus judo and even a bit of tai chi.
All these exposures have shaped my own martial arts form and philosophy but I have always internalized most of it without taking the step further to develop my own style or to move on to opening my own dojo. This is something that I have considered but not followed up on as I preferred to train as an amateur athlete in archery.
That is why whenever I meet (in real life or online) martial artists who have opened their knowledge and passion to the world by developing and teaching their own system, I feel inspired and energized to keep moving forward in my search for meaning in martial arts. One such martial artists that I’ve recently interviewed is Dedeuc D’Antonoli the founder of Bushin Ryu Aiki Bujutsu, a style of martial arts that combines the fighting systems of samurai and ninja.
I’ve never forgotten or given up my dreams of “becoming” a ninja and even if they’re thousands of miles away from my base in Bangkok (with their headquarters in Phoenix Arizona), I pay attention to their training methods and try to adapt them in my own style.
Watch the video below to get a glimpse of what I’m writing about:
