calendar dojo facebook instagram language vimeo

Michael Schroden

Aikido instructor, 4th dan aikido

Born in Gerolstein in the Eifel region of Germany in 1975, I moved to Cologne at the age of 16 and began an apprenticeship at a large telecommunications company. Since that time, I have had several career changes and now work as a key account manager.

I started doing karate at the age of 15. After moving to Cologne, I did several years of kickboxing and a few years of Wing Chun. In 2006, I came across a brochure in which the aikido style of Dirk Kropp was described. Inspired by this, I came for a trial lesson and have been training at his dojo ever since.

For several years now, I have been thinking of becoming an aikido teacher and I have now decided to turn this wish into reality. One major challenge will be combining family life, training and work.

What fascinates me about aikido is the possibility of practising it well into old age – taking one's health into consideration – and the permanent and profound development, both on the physical and mental level. Moreover, I also regard the peace I experience during training as something special: it helps me to gain first-hand experience without distraction and constant improvements and thus to develop a sound empirical improvement of the technique and perception independently and at my own pace. The all-encompassing effect of the way of the budos impresses me and I want to go down this path in great detail. After five years of training, I would like to share my experiences.