Writing worth the paper.

Essays and notes on Aikido, Bushido, raising confident children, Japanese culture and the quieter side of training.

The most honoured rank in any dojo is beginner's mind — and it is the one rank everyone is trying to get back to.

Not how to win a fight — how to stand in a way that means the fight never starts.

Before a single technique, every student learns to hit the ground and get up unhurt.

Rectitude, courage, benevolence — seven virtues that survive as habits rather than history.

A hall in Morocco, a teacher named Bahaddou, and a lineage that reached Coventry.

Why a martial art turns out to be the most reliable stress relief many of our adults have found.

Try the best way to understand any of this.