Martial Arts at Think Fun

AIKIDO with Norine Longmire

Norine Longmire is a certified 4th degree black belt in Aikido. She has been training since 1990 and now co-teaches at her dojo (training centre) in Mission, BC, where she teaches both adult and youth classes. Her instructors are direct students of TK Chiba Shihan, a student of the founder of Aikido. She travels regularly to the US to train with her instructors and colleagues.

Aikido, as a behavioural discipline, offers an alternative to learning how to kick and punch as a form of defence. Aikido uses movement, rolling and pins to redirect the energy of the attack and transform it into something that can be safe for both partners in practice. Through basic principles of Aikido, we can learn about how we feel pushed or pulled into situations and how we automatically react. We can learn to understand how when we feel taken by surprise that we can change the way we react so that everyone wins.

AIKIDO in Mission, BC

Aikido thus dovetails with the THINK FUN goal of trying to arm campers with the capacity to deal more reasonably with the world as they find it, rather than, e.g., lashing out. And as with Aikido, a win-win situation can indeed materialize if campers can learn to genuinely hear one another’s points of view, regardless of which position turns out to be the more reasonable.

Norine is also a yoga instructor who has been teaching in the Fraser Valley for nearly 20 years. She has developed classes and workshops in Anxiety & Depression, Meditation and Mantra and Chronic Pain and Injury as well as others. She believes that yoga and martial art have a basis in self reflection and understanding.
For more info: www.roomforyoga.net or yogaroom@shaw.ca