Who we are.

No airy-fairy stuff and no tough talk. Instead: moving, working together, challenging each other and above all: having fun together.

Our workshops are an original form of team building. You briefly step out of your familiar surroundings and get to know your colleagues from a completely different side. Martial arts are a wonderful basis for this. You learn to listen, respond, trust and deal with resistance, and in the meantime you simply enjoy a few active and fun hours.

On the mat, you’re never alone.

Our name refers to the ginkgo leaf. It consists of two lobes, and yet it is one leaf.

That suits us. We are two people who found each other, each with our own background and experience, and together we are building towards one goal.

It also suits what we do. A good team works the same way: different people, talents and personalities that together form one whole. So the ginkgo leaf stands not only for us as a duo, but also for what we want to achieve in every workshop.

That remarkable shape also inspired Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In 1815 he wrote the poem Gingo biloba for Marianne von Willemer. In it, he wonders whether the leaf is one whole that has divided itself in two, or two parts that have found each other.

Ist es Ein lebendig Wesen,
Das sich in sich selbst getrennt?
Sind es zwei, die sich erlesen,
Daß man sie als Eines kennt?

Is it one living being
that has divided itself in two?
Or are they two, who chose each other,
so that they are known as one?

A fine image for two people building something together. And for a group that discovers during a workshop what it can do together. Not wanting to be the strongest, but growing stronger together: that’s what it’s all about.

No partner, no technique. Stronger together.

The ginkgo is one of the oldest tree species in the world. It’s not for nothing that it’s called a living fossil.

The tree is also known for its resilience. In Hiroshima, several ginkgos survived the atomic bomb of 1945. They were badly damaged, but sprouted again.

To us, that is resilience. In martial arts, too, it’s not about being invulnerable. It’s about learning to deal with resistance, staying calm when things don’t go as expected, adapting and trying again. And about building trust, in yourself and in the people around you. That is exactly what we want to strengthen in a team as well.

Fall seven times, stand up eight.

We bring our passion for martial arts to companies, organisations and groups.

Our workshops are not a classic sports lesson and not a competition. Everyone can take part, regardless of experience or fitness.

We use elements mainly from Japanese and Okinawan martial arts. This way you experience, in an accessible way, what cooperation, trust, communication and resilience mean. Sometimes you practise a technique together. Sometimes you literally throw each other off balance. And sometimes you just laugh your head off, because something goes completely differently than planned.

Good team building doesn’t have to be complicated. And you don’t have to be a martial artist to enjoy it.

Everyone starts with a white belt.

We have both been practising Japanese and Okinawan martial arts for years:

• Hakko-ryu jujutsu
• Okinawa Goju-ryu karate
• Matayoshi kobudo
• Iaido

We love sharing that passion.

We are also both lecturers in cybersecurity at a university of applied sciences. Our workshops are not about cybersecurity, but that job does say something about who we are: we love sharing knowledge, guiding groups and making complicated things clear and practical. We bring that approach to the mat.

We have great respect for the traditions and values behind the martial arts, but we present them in a modern, accessible and down-to-earth way. Solid, and without fuss.

Campine down-to-earthness, with a Japanese twist.