To Whom It May Concern
My name is Gary Swift and I am a student and instructor Wado Karate.
I started Martial-arts in 1966 and Wado Karate in 1974. My Wado has been, and always will be the spark of my existence. I make my Wado `politically free' as much as it can be, as I will not allow the politics to fall into the Dojo environment. Obviously we need to be involved in politics in some `small' degree, such as involvement with the relevant National Governing Body, etc., but we shall never be tainted by its negative influences or embroiled within its negative network. My own groups British Wadokai and the Alliance of International Wado-ryu have also been run, and very successfully I feel, on a politically free platform since 1982. We no longer have committees or a voting executive, we teach and train in Wado Karate so have no use for them; we just have people who are willing to work for the greater good of the organisation. Each Association in membership to us runs efficiently on their own, and each club that is a member of the Association runs their own affairs without political interference (unless detriment to the smooth running of the Group as a whole).
I value honesty and integrity in Martial-arts, and have no time for egos or unscrupulous Chief Instructors who run dishonest practices.
Over the years I have become un-confrontational, giving and forgiving. I feel that some people need to be listened to and in many cases ideas I have heard are taken onboard and have influenced certain directions within my own group, I don't like to stop a good idea from manifesting itself. In one case I found that something a white-belt had said to me, many years ago, actually made sense to implement. At the end of the day, as instructors, we are attempting to make our students better than ourselves.
I experience well... If I find something that works, I will keep it. If there is something in life that does not work it gets put to one-side without complaint or incrimination – I learn from both good and bad experiences and just walk away from the bad ones.
I don't have many friends, as I choose my friends very carefully. However, the friends I do have possess integrity, honesty, intelligence, humour, and have no ego or agenda to complicate the relationship with. My friends are my entire equal, even if they are from the Dojo environment or a Member of Parliament they are still my equal friend. A friend to me is a friend for life, so I value all my friends at the highest level and I will support & defend them to my last breath.
At this precise moment I have a very dear good friend who is being treated not in the way I would like to see her being treated. She has decided that corruption and dishonesty is something that should not be inherent in today's Wado Karate and is confronting these issues head on. Lesser people, me included, have walked away from the fight – but she has not. She has been taking abuse, threats, and legal challenges left, right, and centre; but the fight she continues in order to help eradicate the injustice within our Wado.
Wado is, or should be, as the purest direction for us all – to me it is my life. Wado should be for the `Way' of Peace... however, we do not have peace in our Wado at the moment, and we must all find our way back to this again.
I will support my friend. And I shall support her to the end until this injustice has been eradicated forever.
If anyone in the Wado world wants justice for Wado, then I ask that we all give our voices of support, not just to my friend, but to all our friends in the Wado world who are fighting these injustices, because this is our Wado and this is the time that they need our support the most. Let's all help to make Wado the `Way of Peace' that our founder would have been proud of.
Gary E Swift (7th Dan) Kyoshi.
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