So, it's 1976 and I live in the desert in northern Los Angeles County, California. My best friend and I decide that it would be cool to study a martial art.
Problem is, which one?
At that time, there weren't many choices. There was the odd Karate school, some Judo and not much else. But, not where we lived.
How to proceed?
My buddy suggests that we buy a well-known martial arts magazine and peruse the articles in order to choose an art. What a brilliant idea! We take a trip to the local bookstore and head right to the magazine section.
There it is! And not only is it the magazine we are looking for but it has articles about the two arts we had both been talking about.
My friend read about Karate and said, "this is it." Meanwhile, I read about Aikido and said, "this is it." Moot point. At that time, there was nothing available close by for either art. Search over for now.
Well, time passes and two years have passed by. I had pretty much made a case for Aikido and it looked like a great idea. Problem was, there was still nothing close by; maybe in Los Angeles or in San Francisco. Both are out of the question.
So, I write a letter to an Aikido organization in Tokyo, Japan asking where we could study Aikido.
About a month later, I got a big surprise. I had pretty much decided that that was that. There would be no way to study Aikido when a letter came in the mail.
It was from Tokyo. An instructor there had taken the time to write to me and told me very directly that there would be an Aikido seminar in Orange County and to "BE THERE!"
The seminar was great. My friend and I met a lot of nice people and made contact with a teacher who would become our first Aikido teacher (actually our first martial arts instructor).
The story goes on from there. But, I would like to tell you that we made the trip from the high desert to a city on the coast which took about two and a half hours one way, three days a week. This lasted about 3 months after which we moved to where the school was located and began a whole new life.
Sometimes you just have to go out of your way to find the best teacher for your needs.
For more information about career opportunities in the martial arts, download my free e-book "9 Tips On How To Open Your Own Martial Arts School By A Teacher Who Has Been There, Done That" http://www.mashihan.com/acma_sq.htm. David Parks-Kennedy is a career martial artist (for more than 30 years with teacher ranking in Aikido) now living his dream in Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment