Brian Beggs may be a music teacher, helping Davidson Middle School choristers turn questionable vocals into melodious tones, but on the Aikido mat, Brian is a full-on student, always practicing “beginner’s mind” on his journey up the black belt ranks.
Castro Valley-born Brian, a 2nd-degree black belt, has taught music for 20 years. He tried Aikido in both high school and college at Humboldt State, but for a variety of reasons “it didn’t really stick.” It wasn’t until he moved to San Rafael and found the Bay Marin community in 2011 that he finally felt at home. “I was always interested, but I never found a place I liked to be for an
extended period…At Bay Marin everybody is very nice. Sensei is great and very supportive.” And “So many people are at a high level,” he notes, so he feels like he’s getting excellent
training.
But most of all, Aikido is fun. As fun as playing steel drums and ukelele? Definitely! “It’s a fun physical activity where you can throw people around, receive and attack, fall,” he says. For children, it’s a martial art that “doesn’t involve hurting other people. It can teach you lots of different things about how to manage negative situations without fighting or getting angry. It can help you come up with ways of dealing with conflict, so you don’t get overwhelmed.”
And, physical size doesn’t really matter in Aikido, he adds. Anybody can do it if they want to, which might not be the case in some school sports, like football.
Brian states that children today often have to deal with a lot of negativities, such as anger. “Aikido can show you a mindset of how to deal with negative things in a positive way.” He hesitates to call it self-defense because the more you practice Aikido, he says, the chances of fighting in the first place diminish. “You are either aware enough to leave the situation and not have it escalate or de-escalate it in a way that’s not violent, not aggressive,” says Brian.
All that pertains to adults, too. Aside from being a good workout, you can’t beat the Bay Marin community, which Brian maintains is one of the top reasons he attends classes. “Most people that do Aikido are relatively positive, nice people,” he says. It lets you “be around a lot of different people with different perspectives from all walks of life, interact with them in a way you might not otherwise.” And the Aikido mindset translates outside of the dojo into everyday life. You learn to be aware, proactive and confident in the face of tricky situations, he says, helping
to deflect aggression or negativity and turn it to your advantage.
Aikido is “an amazing thing,” says Brian, enthusiastically. “I’d recommend it to anybody to give it a try.” He plans to get as good as he can and continue practicing for as long as possible. But at 47, he has plenty of practice years ahead. After all, Bay Marin’s most senior student is 90 years old!