Japanese masters of the martial art Aikido admitted that it is Vietnam that brings more humanity and fame to the art after witnessing disabled people training in Ho Chi Minh City.

“This is a true fairy tale that we have never imagined of,” one of the masters from Japan, the home nation of the martial art, said about the special training classes run and guided by Vietnamese couple Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan and Dang Van Phat, both 66 years old.

Loan is head of the Aikido department of the HCMC Association for Disabled Martial Arts and also the second Vietnamese woman to hold an international Shodan title, or aikikai, which is black belt. Unlike other martial arts, Aikido -- commonly defined as ‘the way of harmonious spirit’ -- is an art that practitioners could use to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury, by blending the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force rather than opposing it head-on.

Not only do the trainees struggle with physical challenges, many also suffer from intellectual disabilities including Down Syndrome.

It’s a common scene in the class when a certain trainee in an Aikido uniform may fall down to the training mat and wait for the instructor to entreat before standing up to resume training.

Compassion of a female instructor

Loan said she and other instructors from the association initially only agreed to receive trainees lacking visual and hearing perception to give them a chance for integration into the community and avoidance of risks in life.

“Things started on a rainy evening in 2005 when I was in my class. A woman and her son, who was suffering from Down syndrome, was waiting at the entrance and could only come to me at the end of my class.

“She wanted to enroll her disabled son in my class.

“I had sympathy with the young mother but refused then as there was no precedent for such a trainee,” Loan admitted.

“But I couldn’t sleep that night, remembering the imploring eyes moist with tears of the poor boy.

“I was obsessed with it for many days later,” she recalled. “Being a mother, I can feel the disappointment of parents of disabled children. I asked myself many questions. I had no place to run classes for children with different kinds of disabilities.”

Loan added, “But my husband and other Aikido instructors supported me and I began receiving some for testing with the condition that they must be accompanied by parents during the class.”

So, the Ho Xuan Huong Sports Club in District 3 became the first place where mentally disabled children could train in Aikido.

“I was unable to hold back my feelings and I received them. But I worried much then as I could understand the hardship of training people with visual and hearing defects. It’s worse with mentally deficient people,” Loan admitted honestly.

“Seeing the poor children hitting their parents in their anger, I encouraged myself that I could use martial arts and love to help and share difficulties with their parents. It’s strange that I believed strongly that I could do it to help them regain their humanity.”

Each lesson plan for each student

With the increase of trainees with mental disabilities, Loan and her husband asked for help from the HCMC Martial Arts Association to assign them a place to offer free courses. They received a training room at the Phu Tho training center.

Loan began compiling different lesson plans for different students.

On a lesson plan for Nguyen Van T., 35, she said, “Easy to cry. Prefer wheedling. Less and less rude. Having awareness to help his mother after a year of training.”

Her husband, Phat, said, “I have to work another job to give my wife the chance to help disadvantaged people with these free classes. Besides teaching Aikido, I also work as a truck driver to get income.”

“My wife and I have more confidence in seeing disabled trainees progress, though it’s slow. As a martial arts teacher for 40 years, I share the feelings of my wife.

“We vow that we will get along with the underprivileged people whatever the difficulties in life.”

And their seeds of love have sprouted. One of their practitioners has followed them in opening another Aikido class for disabled people in Thu Duc District. The class is named “Aikido – the loving world”.