Hello 2021

Well! Where to begin? Little did any of us know what 2020 would bring and even now many people in the Northern Hemisphere are still locked down at home as their countries deal with the pandemic. I count myself very lucky. New Zealand (thus far) has escaped the worst of it. We have suffered a total of 25 deaths and of the 2,162 people that had cases, 2,082 have recovered. Currently we have no restrictions in place other than our borders being closed. Life goes on as normal for the most part. 

I thought I would look back at my first post of 2020 and see if any of my predictions came true. I started last year's blog discussing the number of aikido students I had (two) and growing this. During 2020 I taught four students regularly so I doubled my numbers! As I have said before I don't advertise, it is just by word of mouth that children end up training with me and four is a good number for now. As it was, Covid restrictions created a fairly strange year and training was on and off as the country moved through different alert levels. 

As for teaching TSYR? Well, the Auckland study group were hit hard by Covid-19. Not only did they go into lockdown when the rest of the country did, later in the year, their region was hit again and although the restrictions the second time around were not as bad, it halted training for that group and people weren't allowed to travel to Auckland unless they were essential workers. So I think I managed two trips to Auckland last year and that was it. My own training continued unabated. We have a core group of about six of us that routinely train at the Hamilton Dojo and the group trains three days a week. I try to make two of those training sessions but sometimes it is only one if family commitments call me away. I also can train by myself at my dojo to make up for this. This evening one of the Auckland guys is driving down to stay the night and then he and I will have the first training session of 2021 at my dojo in the morning. 

As for my hopes for 2021? Well, I am very conservative this time around. I don't see New Zealand opening its borders until the pandemic is under control, this means no visits from Threadgill Sensei. As a group, the Hamilton branch must simply keep training to the best of our ability. Aikido will start up when the school term starts in February and I hope to get enough training in to grade some of the students at the end of the year but again, who knows? All it takes is one person to be irresponsible and Covid could be among us again. So, I will take each week as it comes. 

My post is sounding a bit bleak but to be honest, personally, I have had a very good year. My family has stayed in good health. Professionally, both my wife and I have had a successful year, and our daughters are also achieving very well in their pursuits. So there is plenty to be happy about.

I hope this year brings health and happiness to everyone. Train safe! 

Dean.