Instructor Profile:

Red McAvoy, San-Dan

Born in England Red joined the Merchant Navy at the age of 16 and subsequently spent many years travelling all over the world. After leaving the Navy he lived for a time in South Africa and New Zealand before finally moving to Australia where he initially lived in Sydney.

Red has a fiery nature consistent with what is expected from Merchant Seamen wherever they are, but a chance meeting with Peter McNally in Sydney in 1979 introduced him to Aikido.

Red saw Aikido with its philosophy of harmonising and blending to control aggression especially that which one found within oneself, as a way of controlling his wild streak, and pursued it with immediate enthusiasm.

He only trained for a month in Sydney before moving to Brisbane. There was no Aikido in Brisbane at that time so it was not until 1988 that Red had another opportunity to begin studying Aikido again. He studied with Brian Powers for two and a half years until Brian left. After that Red commenced to practice at the Gold Coast dojo.

When Morris Sensei asked him if he wanted to take the Tuesday evening class he happily accepted this opportunity and has been teaching this class for over ten years now.

Tuesday’s class is focussed on practical applications of Aikido principles, and is a popular class amongst the younger and more active students.