I haven't written for a while. There is a reason for this, I have started a podcast. It felt like a natural progression from writing blogs. I still have to put a script together but I can also have conversations with others!
My podcast is called Musha Shugyo: A Warrior's Journey. On this podcast I investigate the mindset of warriors both past and present. This involves me talking about some of my own ideas, having conversations with interesting people and doing the odd book review here or there. I am enjoying the process immensely. The podcast community appears to be a cool group of people as well. I have made contact with other podcast hosts and have shared ideas and conversations about topics that interest us. The podcast has been going since the start of the year and has received over 500 downloads.
So does this mean I stop blogging? No. This space is for my own thoughts on my martial journey with both Aikido and TSYR. Think of it as a martial arts diary. The podcast has a different focus.
Okay, where are things at for me right now? Well, so far, this year has been a strange one. Due to Covid restrictions, my work has been rather stressful. Unfortunately, this impacted my health for some time and I found I couldn't train without problems. It turned out I had some issues with my nervous system which seems to be under control with medication. The good news is that blood work has come back negative for anything nasty. The medication has allowed me to get back on the mat and I am both teaching Aikido and training in TSYR at my full capacity again.
On the up-side, I made contact with my Aikido sensei and he has managed to get my dan certificates organised, these are now up on my wall at my dojo. Its nice to show the parents of my students that I actually have credentials.
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| My shodan and nidan certificates. |
My student numbers dropped over the last two years due to Covid-19 restrictions. It has always been a small group with the biggest class being 5 children. However, my youngest daughter and a boy from the local community keep on training and as of last week a third student is on board. I have found the biggest challenge to keeping students where I live is high school. The kids grow up and go off to high school, find some new opportunities and drop aikido.
Still on aikido, my podcasting took me to the Coromandel where I had the opportunity to interview a pioneer of aikido in New Zealand. David Lynch started the first New Zealand aikido dojo in 1965! It was great to talk to a man in his eighties who still values his aikido training.
So I am keeping busy around work and family. Hopefully, I will still blog but probably not as often as I used to, as podcasting shares some of my time now.
Train safe!
