I've been a Mapper for about a year and a half now, so thought it was about time I checked in here.... ABOUT ME Hello everybody, My name's Iain McKellan, I'm a 32 year old Scot living in Oxfordshire, England whilst serving in the Royal Air Force. I've been training in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu/Ninjutsu now for just over two years, training three to five nights a week depending on my work schedule and have recently been awarded my Shodan (1st Dan). MY MARTIAL ARTS HISTORY I did judo when I was nine years old but was forced to go for a whole year by my parents and didn't really enjoy it much at all. When I was nineteen I took up TaeKwon-Do after being attacked by two drunken yobs in town one night. I received a good kicking and sported a tennis ball sized lump on my forehead and a couple of very bruised ribs. I did Taekwon-Do about four nights a week for two and a half years until joining the Air Force. It got me the fittest and most flexible and in the best shape I have ever been. Whilst in the Air Force my TKD enthusiasm waned because of a lack of clubs and instructors in my area. Also I didn't drive at the time so it would have been difficult for me to travel any distance to train. Occasionally an instructor would come along and I would train for a few months or so, but I never graded again and I finished my TaeKwon-Do career as a red-tag. I joined Marc Moor's Budo Warrior Schools in September 2002 because I fancied getting back into martial arts. I thought I'd give ninjutsu a try after seeing the classes advertised on a website. As soon as I sat down and watched the first class and the ease with which Marc demonstrated techniques I was impressed. I returned the next week to have a go and after that, I put in my paperwork and signed up. I have attended seminars given by Brin Morgan, John Gardner and Bill Liddle. I attended the last ever European Taikai in Manchester last June. I also visited the Honbu Dojo in April and trained under the guidance of Soke Masaaki Hatsumi and the Japanese Shihan. In March 2005, I attended Master Richard Van Donk's Training Camp/TaiKai in California. WHAT DO I GET OUT OF IT? Mostly I enjoy the friendly relaxed atmosphere that we train in. I love the fact that we get to play with techniques and come up with alternative moves. I have made so many new friends and have a new social life which extends outside of the dojo. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES Strengths: I'm fairly good at unarmed aspects, strikes, pressure points, hand and body escapes. I'm also good at knife, shuriken and kunai stuff. Weaknesses: I need to work more on bokken, naginata and bo-staff techniques. __________________
