Mokuyobi Yoru Aikido Club

OK, so after 2 years of training, missing family birthdays, Mothers day and Fathers Day due to Squad training sessions I was selected as Team Captain for the British Aikido Association National Team and made the trip to Vandalia, USA to compete in the 2007 Aikido World Games.

I won Silver medal as part of the Men's Team Tanto Randori and Bronze in the Men's Individual Toshu Randori. The Championships had 200 competitors from six countries (USA, Japan, Australia, Belgium, Great Britain and Brazil) with The British Aikido National Team consisting of 35 people from around the UK, which was the largest team at the Championships.

Thank you again to everyone who supported me and those that contributed to my training costs.

When I returned from the USA, I had received an additional £250 from my local borough Council so with the £350 grant from Hampshire County Council it was a big contributed towards my training, flights accommodation for the championships. At a time when most councils and sporting bodies are focused on Olympic sports in preparation for 2012 it is fantastic to receive this kind of support for a sport, which is in the minority.

 

Video produced by Mick Pratt & Danielle Jones (BAA Squad Managers)

 

Video of me vs Ian King (Team USA) - Tanto Randori Round 1

Diary of Championships

My journey to Dayton was fairly trouble free and even managed to get upgraded to First Class on the trip from Gatwick to Newark (New York) so a big thank you to Continental Airlines for making my journey so enjoyable. It was agony not being able to drink the free wine they kept giving to us since I havent touched a drop of alcohol since Dec 07!!

Day 1 - Tuesday

My first day in Dayton was spent in Cincinatti wandering around Macey's, looking at very big Sharks at an Aquarium and suffering in the 38C heat !! Unfortunately there is not much to do in Cincinatti so we headed back to Vandalia after a few hours.

Day 2 - Wednesday

Spent most of the day at a shooting range which was right next door to our hotel and Gareth Bottomley, Jamie Roberts and myself decided to share a lane, a .45 pistol, a 357 Winchester rifle and 200 rounds (total cost $114 dollars, which, with current exchange rate made it about £20 each!!) Most amount of fun I have had (with my clothes on) ever!! Check out my Facebook page for video http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=5628055819

We also had to organise ourselves with regard to food and water for the competition. The organisers had assured us that there would be "nutritious food" available but give the fact we had found only one place that sold pasta we weren't going to takle any chances so off to Krugers we went.

The evening was spent at the Welcome Party where all the competitors were going to get to meet each other prior to the competition starting. The BAA Team arrived on-mass and as it turned out we were the largest team to enter the competiton with 35 people. It was an impressive sight to see everyone in their red shirts.

Day Three - Start of the Competition!!

Nice easy start to the day and the Team met at 9am for briefing prior to leaving for the competition. Yet again it was an awesome site to see so many red shirts. The mood was very positive and everyone was keen to get started.

The first 2 hours of the day were a Seminar which was being taugfht by Nariyama Shihan. I managed to last about 1 hour before dehydration started to take effect. Temperatures managed to reach over 42C over the next few days and the main hall had no air conditioning - just very large fans which did a pretty good job though.

This was going to have a big effect on everyone over the next few days and drinking plenty of water and keeping salt levels up was going to play a big part in winning as would skill.

To be Continued...