HISTORICAL PREREQUISITES OF DEVELOPMENT OF AIKIDO IN KHERSON

Abstract

The presented article considers the historical prerequisites for the development of aikido in Kherson. Despite the lack of research in this area, we were able to find out the date of the first section on aikido in Kherson, it is the 1996th year.
 Speaking about the development of sports and the work of sports sections in Kherson in the 1990s, one must note that was a difficult period in the life of all the Ukrainian cities. As the collapse of the USSR and the beginning of the formation of Ukrainian statehood were associated with a huge shortage of basic livelihoods of common people. However, in contrast to the lack of material goods, there was an increase of interest in sports life, especially among children and youth. The sections on boxing, wrestling, judo, sambo wrestling, hand-to-hand combat, kickboxing, as well as martial arts, in particular karate, wushu, ninjutsu, taekwondo, etc., were especially popular.
 This interest was further reinforced by the influx of films, magazines and television programs that broadcast pro- Western trends in the information space. According to the participants of these processes, there was a great desire among young men and women to study martial arts on a professional level, but there were no masters in Kherson or even in Ukraine. Foreign educational publications came to the rescue, which were self-translated, repeatedly copied by hand and studied; techniques were tested in practice, which was often accompanied by high injuries. Gradually, the flow of knowledge became more accessible and the understanding of techniques deeper, and even excellent masters, representatives of various schools started to come to Ukraine, and it became possible for our compatriots to learn directly from masters.
 That is how in the second half of the 90s a group of like-minded people appeared in Kherson, who began their first steps in a completely new form of Japanese martial arts for this region – aikido. Often their interest and devotion to aikido was a real test, because they all developed and promoted aikido in Kherson exclusively at their own expense and often at the cost of their own health, but today we can talk about Kherson aikido thanks to the first masters who laid the foundations of the first dojos in Kherson.
 Today almost all types of traditional martial arts are practiced, among which the disciplines of Budo and, in particular, aikido, occupy an important place in Kherson. This article discusses how the process of development and formation of lasting interest in this type of Japanese martial arts in Kherson took place, and what figures and masters are behind this process.