Rod Nixon-Smith
Instructor, Griffith Aikido
After spending thirty-seven years with airlines in New Zealand, England and Australia, the last twenty-nine of those with QANTAS , Rod is now retired and restricts most of his flying to the Aikido mat.
For many years Rod’s main interest was Athletics where his pet event was the 800 metres, reaching international competition standard. Realising that he was losing speed and that running away from bad situations was no longer an option, Rod turned to Aikido as a means of self-defence, recommeded to him by one of his Judo instructors ( Rod was a serious Judo student in a former life too) Rod still loves sports, especially Athletics, Rugby Union, Rugby League and Cricket and gets to the occasional meet or game besides watching on TV.
With regard to Aikido, Rod is fascinated to find that the longer his practice continues, the more he learns about the art. Having made many mistakes over the years he enjoys passing on the benefit of his experience to newer students to save them all a lot of time. Rod Sensei holds dan grades in the Ki Society as well as Aikido Yuishinkai, is an aikido seminar regular at home and overseas.
Rod currently teaches at the Everton Hills (Hills District PCYC) on Monday evenings as well as our beginners at the Nathan dojo.
