Hi there!
Lovely to see you on my page! Whether you want to satiate your knowledge about adoption, or are curious about my thoughts on the topic in regards to martial arts please feel free to peruse the far corners of this blog.
If you want to know more about me, I’ll be delighted to tell you a little about myself on this page here.
Meet Gitta, the IT consultant who’s part tech wizard, part people whisperer! Whether it’s migrating data with the grace of a martial artist, building SharePoint intranets that even your grandma could navigate, or turning Microsoft Teams into a well-oiled communication machine, I like do it all. And when it comes to governance and purview, I try to be the Sherlock Holmes of compliance, ensuring everything is in tip-top shape. With a knack for making the complex simple and the mundane fun, I am your go-to weirdo for a lot of things IT! But that wouldn’t be all, would it?
I’ve loved martial arts ever since I was a kid, but started out “late” at 18 as I moved to another city with my parents and fate found it fitting to have put me in a place with a dojo around the corner. The style of karate I perform is Shotokan Karate.
Most people associate martial arts with violence and other nasty stuff, but in the dojo of Funakoshi, under the guidance of Johan Doesburg and Siegfried Schorea, I was greeted with so much balance, kindness, guidance and mutual respect, that I could no other than just show the same. And so ever since I started, it was on!
This feeling of letting your body do the work, keeping your mind clear probably isn’t unique to martial arts.
It probably applies to a lot of sports. But for me, it’s not running, not hitting the gym, but just being there on the tatami with my bare feet trying to let my muscles flow through a kata or just let my body react to my spar partners movements.
After some years of enthusiastic training and getting around the karate world, I was fortunate enough to try out the starting Kobujutsu class of Johan Bult and this…this sparked another joy in me. Honestly I can’t even explain properly why I was attracted to the many weapons (maybe I can blame hours of playing Soul Caliber haha) but it just clicked.
Even when love crossed my path and made me move away from my dojo’s, I’ve kept the love for these two martial arts. For years I’m still crazy enough to drive an hour to Funakoshi and then back home again, just because I love this club to pieces. In the meantime I have found the guidance of Steve Nieuwenhuizen at the Sports Acadamy in Den Haag to keep up my Ryu Kyu Kobujutsu skills. There I train in the great ambiance of one of the oldest dojo’s in the Netherlands, surrounded by bamboo and the weapons I’ve come to love and (one day) master. And as I found myself traveling around the country in the role of IT-consultant I figured I might try and find a centrally located dojo on top of the other ones, just to try and get some extra practice hours in and I was welcomed as well at Yume Ken under the guidance of Ahlam El Yaakoubi. Yes, I often wish that instead of being on the road, stuck in yet another traffic jam, I could study more under these great sensei. But when work gets in the way, I at least try to practice a bit at home.
I still have ways to go. But that right there is one great similarities between IT and Martial Arts, that I love: There’s always something to keep up with, to improve yourself upon.
And so I write this “about me” page with great gratitude to all the truly wonderful people that I’ve met and the sensei that have guided, and are still guiding me along these paths.
About my dojo’s
Funakoshi Alkmaar
The place where my love of karate started. Still training there as much as possible with fun and dedication.
Find out more: Funakoshi website
Sportacademie Den Haag
With 80+ years one of the oldest dojo’s in the Netherlands. I’m still going strong with weekly Kobujutsu training here.
Find out more: Sportacademie Nieuwenhuizen
Yume Ken Utrecht
My latest addition to my “collection of dojo’s”. Centrally located in the Netherlands, I (sometimes in vain) hope to catch some extra training while on the road for my job.
Find out more: Yume Ken website
ASK Alkmaar
This is where my love for Kobujutsu was sparked. With fond memories I think about this start of the journey, so it deserves a place among the other.
Find out more: ASK website
