On 29th August 2008, Republic Poly Aikido IG attended the first ever Youth Aikido Meet jointly organized by SMU and the Aikido Shinjukai Organization. The event was held at SMU Sports Hall. The purpose of the event is to gather all the Aikido Shinjukai youth members from all the different dojos island--wide and foster stronger bonds. Mass Training and Aikido Youth Demonstration Competition were the two activities organized by SMU.
Mass Training was conducted by the 6th Dan Sensei Phillip Lee. Aikido Youth Members from different dojos and members of the public came together and trained with each other. Aikido Shinjukai welcomes anyone who wishes to try out Aikido first-hand. If anyone is interested to join in the training to have a taste of Aikido, they are welcomed to attend one free training session with the rest of the Aikido members.
During the Mass Training, we made new friends and reunited with old ones. There were laughter and great enthusiasm throughout the training. We learnt to take care of our partner’s body whenever we practiced potentially dangerous moves. For instance, when Phillip Sensei wanted us to practice a particular lock technique with our partner, we had to remember that our partner is human being too! If the technique is done too hard or incorrectly, pain or even injury might occur. This is why it is very important for us to practice doing the intended techniques correctly while at the same time be aware of our partner’s limitations.
After the training, it was time for the Aikido Youth Demonstration Competition. A total of 5 dojos participated in the competition - ACSI dojo, SMU dojo, ITE dojo, Yuhua dojo and Republic Poly Dojo. The competition was held in the traditional ‘1-dojo-demonstrate-their-item-first-then-followed-by-the-next-dojo’ style. Fortunately for us, Republic Poly Dojo was the last dojo to do the demo.
We went all out to put up an impressive show for the judges. We were not held back by the pressure of winning our first competition for RP Aikido IG. We were also not distracted by the judges’ expectation. All we know was that we had a demo to do, we had our nakama with us and we were intending to compete in our first ever competition with a huge BANG!
And that huge BANG gave us our very first gold medals and trophy for RP Aikido IG. It was a dream come true for all of us! We look forward to defending our title in next year’s youth meet. Wish us luck!
We would also like to thank the following people for their contribution to our success:
• SMU
• Aikido Shinjukai
• Phillip Lee Sensei
• Instructor Cheen Cheen (RP’s current chief instructor)
• Instructor Patrick (RP’s current dojo leader)
• Instructor Christopher (RP’s previous chief instructor)
• Eddy Chong ( Former advisor)
• RP OSG
Original Source from: RP OSG
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