Andrew Hay hurls through the air after being tossed by a 62-year-old women one-third his size.

All 280 pounds of him hits the ground with a thud.

It’s 7 a.m. This is Hay’s wake-up call.

For the last two years the 6’7” North Vancouver resident starts his mornings with aikido.

Although the Japanese martial art practice teaches combat moves and the potential to kill, what draws Hay is something unexpected.

Yes, there’s the athleticism. Hay has lost 80 pounds since he started, but what he revels in is the practice’s non-competitive ideology.

After children reach 12, there are no colour belts — everybody wears white and the instructors wear black. And there are no competitions, just seminars.

The practice centres on one’s personal journey, rather than beating competitors, Hay says.

“I used to play rugby,” he says, but the sport’s competitive side often created divides rather then bringing a team together.

In a society that basis itself on competition it’s hard to explain to people how a martial art exists without it, explains Eric Armstrong, who’s practiced aikido for a year and a half.

The grade school teacher sees first hand how children are pushed to get the best grades, fastest times and higher scores.

“A lot of the time the most competitive people are the parents,” he says.

Some children thrive on such an intense atmosphere, but a lot are paralyzed by the fear of failure, Armstrong says.

“People are getting more and more competitive,” he says. “The children that are a little afraid, they don’t even bother to join in.”

Those children often end up at North Shore Aikido’s doors, says its founder Joel Posluns.

Posluns started the practice 36 years ago. It’s become a way of life for the instructor. In 1991, Posluns relocated from Toronto to San Francisco to take a senior marketing position within a financial institution, but decided to leave corporate life to follow aikido. In 2003 Posluns moved to North Vancouver and, after instructing at dojos around Vancouver, he opened up his current dojo on Lonsdale in 2007.

“The competition (in aikido) is victory over oneself, competition to be a better person,” he says. “Guys come in here to finds some kind of peace.”

In 1945, the practice was developed by Morihei Ueshiba who forged his martial studies, philosophy and religious beliefs together. One of the core ideas in the practice is to transfer attackers energy without injuring them.

Ueshiba was disenchanted with other martial arts that focused on a winner and a loser, instead of harmonizing of powers, Posluns says, adding it’s a concept relevant in today’s world.

“Aikido is really a lifestyle choice,” he says.

raldous@northshoreoutlook.com