Читать книгу The Mushin Way to Peak Performance - Veltri Michael - Страница 8

After boot camp, I was deployed to a base in California, near San Diego. Suddenly I had some free time, and I decided to look for a martial arts school. That's when I stumbled upon aikido.

From the first moment I saw aikido being practiced, I was hooked. It's a beautiful art to watch. It's very fluid – there's no offensive striking or kicking like there is in karate or many other martial arts disciplines. Aikido is a grappling art, like wrestling, in which the practitioner uses throws, joint locks, and other submissions to control a bigger and stronger attacker. The movements are all based on leverage. Something of that elegance communicated itself to me immediately, and I knew this was something I wanted to pursue.

So while I lived in California I settled into a routine. As soon as my shift was over at 4:30 PM, I was gone. I'd hop on my motorcycle and drive up the coast to the dojo where I was starting to learn the beautiful discipline of aikido. I was 19 years old, and I was willing to work as hard as I had to in order to learn.