Almost every outstanding martial artist strives to create his own school, and if possible, a new style. Lyubomir Vracharevich became the founder of real Aikido, which, according to the creator, was to become a martial art. Unlike the classical style, it can be used for self-defense in everyday life.
Acquaintance with Aikido
Lubomir Vracharevich was born on May 6, 1947 in the small Croatian town of Varazdin. From childhood, he was engaged in various sports, almost everywhere achieving good results. The boy got a place at the gate of the junior football team โHajdukโ from the city of Split, won the Serbian swimming championship, also tried himself in water polo and javelin in the famous Partizan team. But he achieved particular success in martial arts, having reached the master level in judo.
In 1968, when he, along with several friends, kept order at a youth disco, a group of hooligans started a fight. In the ensuing dump one of them managed to injure Lyubomir. That evening, the guy decided that he would not let anyone hit himself again. Together with fellow judokas, he began to study aikido on his own. Lubomyr Vracharevich also practiced ju-jutsu for some time.
Mastery
In the first year of training, he was very lucky, one of the greatest aikido masters of that time Hiroshi Tada came to Italy. Vracharevich managed to raise money for a trip to Rome, where a fifteen-day seminar was to be held for fans of this martial art. Sensei training was a tremendous impression on the beginner Aikido adherent. He carefully memorized all the techniques that the master demonstrated.
Returning home, in 1969, Lubomir organized his first club โParvi Vraฤarโ in the center of martial arts in Belgrade. He looked forward to the next Hiroshi Tada workshop, after which he invited the great aikido masters Hiroshi Tada and Toshio Nemota to come to Yugoslavia. Japanese coaches gladly came to the first Yugoslav aikido club. The seminars began to be held regularly in the next three years. Hard training yielded results, in 1971 Lyubomir Vracharevich received a black belt, passing the exam for 1 dan aikido.
Style development
Lubomir traveled a lot around the country, promoting a new kind of martial arts. By 1972, he had organized more than two dozen clubs across the country. He was the first in Yugoslavia to receive the diploma of an Aikido instructor. Since 1974, he began to organize clubs abroad, including in Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Romania. The following years in the biography of Lyubomir Vracharevich were devoted to the development and promotion of martial arts in Europe.
He continued to train with Japanese masters, in one of his visits he even studied for some time with Kissemaru Ueshiba, the son of the founder of Aikido. In 1989, at the initiative of the master, the Aikido Union of Yugoslavia was founded, with Kenyu Shimitsu (8 dan) as the chief instructor. The Japanese master held seminars in Belgrade every year for ten years. Lubomir himself received the 5th dan by this time.
Style creation
The unusual technique of Lyubomir Vracharevich attracted the attention of the Japanese. He not only used classical tricks, but also used in it many of his original ideas. During a long trip to Tokyo, Lubomir attended the Yoshinkan School. The seminar diploma was handed to him personally by its founder, Gozo Shioda, who was already seriously ill. In addition, he was invited to visit the Imperial Palace. Such an honor is rarely awarded to Europeans. During the visit, he talked with the head of the imperial guard and trained with bodyguards.
At the same time, the master began to be involved in the training of specialists from the army and the police. The first years he trained the bodyguards of the Yugoslav ambassadors, then the president of Zimbabwe. And in 1982-1985 he lived in the Libyan Jamahiriya, where he trained special forces units and personal guard of the country's leader Muammar Gaddafi.
In 1993, he organized the World Real Aikido Center (WCRA), which now operates in 26 countries, including more than 190 clubs. In the new style, the master included a number of techniques from classical aikido, removed elements of Japanese traditions and philosophy. In real aikido, Lyubomir Vracharevich modified some techniques and added techniques from other martial arts.
Vracharevich died in 2013 at the age of 67 after a long illness.