Aikido

Morihei Ueshiba, the founder

Aikido (合気道 ) is a modern Japanese martial art, originating from the traditional fighting techniques of samurais. It is unique as it promotes harmony and non-violence, which may sounds paradoxical. The regular practice brings many benefits… that evolve according to the self-development of each one. Besides the physical training, I am very interested by one aspect: the neutralization of the other's aggressiveness. It very interesting to try to adapt the physical principles of aikido to the behavioural and social sphere. Hence, many tensions could be avoided if all of us controlled better their ego…

There are many good sites introducing or speaking about aikido. Here are some of my favourites:

• The Wikipedia page is well documented
• The homepage from Mathieu Perona (French) is quite insightful, including from an historical perspective 
• The blog from Léo Tamaki (French) provides many interviews of various sensei
• The Takemusu Aiki Intercontinental site (French), sometimes controversial, but with very valuable articles about the Saito sensei style

Tamura sensei

I started this martial art when I was a student. I restarted to practice seriously in 2004, after a long interruption, in the Paris Aikido Club (PAC). It is a very warm and dynamic dojo, located right in the center of Paris, with two great teachers: Arnaud Chiniard and Matthieu Caillat.  Since 2006, one of my sempai joined the teacher team: Mathieu Perona. Agnès Burnet is responsible of the handicapped section since 2007.

Since my arrival in Singapore in the 2010 summer, I practice more or less regularly at the NTU Aikido Club, my university's club. I am impressed by the sense of organization of the students there... and it is funny to see the teacher is a frenchie too: Serge Beraud.

OK, and now if you are curious and not too demanding, you can watch me in action...