by Volker Marczona

With great pleasure I recall my first training with Shimizu Sensei in autumn 1983 in Siegen after having just begun my aikido training in spring in Moers at Kurt Geib's. My previous experience with Japanese trainers who took only a little or no care at all of newcomers had made me skeptical.

The course had hardly begun when Shimizu Sensei took some time to correct my shiho-nage. I was very surprised.

Such a behaviour I had never experienced in my karate career. Impressed by Shimizu Sensei's personality and his Aikido I gave up karate from that moment and trained only in Aikido. Through Shimizu Sensei I realized that Aikido was the martial art that T had always been looking for.

Several courses with Shimizu Sensei followed in Germany - from Deggendorf to Hamburg, from Aachen to Berlin - in Belgium, in the Netherlands and up to now five training trips to Japan. On these occasions I got to know many aikidoka from all over the world and made friendships that extended beyond mutual sporting interests.

In this way I would like to thank Shimizu Sensei 'for the many hours of training and gatherings. I think that if I had not met Shimizu Sensei my life would have been a poorer one. For the future I wish to learn a lot more - also beyond the techniques of Aikido - from Shimizu Sensei.