So for the last 6 some months, one of my friends has been harassing me about trying out Aikido. When I was in middle school, I took Tae kwon do for 3 years, so martial arts aren’t a new concept to me. I was going to get around to trying out Aikido eventually (this friend is very persuasive), but I had plenty of excuses. The most important being our ongoing project at work which is coming to a conclusion here shortly (I hope, I pray, I beg). Anyways, the friend circumvented my excuses and bought me (for Christmas) a “sampler” package which had a time limit on it. So I’ve started attending. Last night was my second night of class and I thought I’d share.
What I’ve been attending is the “Basics Sampler” which roughly translates to “newbies-r-us”. It has been very pleasant so far, in the fact that the sensei hasn’t kept us locked into the absolute basics. She has made a point of showing us slightly more advanced moves, and real world implications of the moves we are doing. It really has been a “sampler”. This is a nice change from most intros to a martial art you get, where you are stuck doing the lowliest move over and over for weeks on end. Yes, I’m going to have to do that eventually (if I continue), but this way gives a nice feel for what the art form is about and some of the things you have to look forward to when you don’t suck terribly.
Last night, we did yet more new moves including a wrist based pin. Fascinating stuff. It was interesting to see how easily someone could fairly gently “push” me over if they were in the right position, as compared to my wild ass flailing about. Of course the senior students I worked with were very helpful and make sure to go extra, extra, extra slow for me so I got the idea of what was going on, and could have some semblance of a “decent” execution (for certain values of “decent”).
Directly after, my wrists (from the pins) hurt. Not a lot, as they definitely weren’t out to hurt me, but I was not used to that kinda stuff. My knees were also making angry noises at me, as I’m not used to kneeling that much. We don’t have to kneel the entire time, but I think it is a good thing for me to try to do as much as I can (at least for the first half of class, till I tucker out). After class, as the night wore on and into the next morning, everything else took its turn speaking up to complain about unfair working conditions (aka, I’m sore and stuff).
Overall, fun and enjoyable. Will go back next week. I’ve got 4 classes total, then we’ll see if I want to continue.