Hi guys, I'm thinking about (maybe) taking up Aikido. I'm new to martial arts (excepting a short journey to yellow belt in TKD when I was 10 or so, but then the studio moved, and my parents were not able to drive me to the new location). I've looked around my area, and there are a whole bunch of martial arts schools (I live in the subburbs of Boston). Just from a cursory search, I've found: William Gleason's Shobu Aikido. He appears to be rather well known. I think he teaches Aikikai style Aikido? http://www.shobu.org/sensei.htm A place taught by a bunch of students of Mitsunari Kanai Shihan (a couple 6th dans, a 5 dan, 2 4th dans): http://aikidotjboston.org/index.php/about-atjb http://www.neaikikai.com/ -- the place where Mitsunari Kanai taught until he passed away, according to their website. (Though I can't find any information on the current instructors...) A place which teaches Yoshinkan Aikido: http://www.goshinkan-aikido.org/Goshinkan_Aikido/Instructor.html A cheaper Aikido club: http://www.needhamaikido.com/ One thing I noticed is that some of the dojos have 1 hour classes, while others meet for 1.5 to 2 hours. I assume that longer classes would be better, if I have the time to commit to it? So, any advice? (Aside from go try them? I do plan to do that--but it is going to be several months at least before my work schedule allows me to make the normal class times at any of these places, so I'm doing some research up front now.)
What are your goals? I know it's not an answer, but our responses will depend on what your goal/want/purpose for taking Aikido is.
With Aikido you have to watch it a bit ... there are tons of schools out there that are very hippy dippy. They talk a good philosophical game but that's about it. If you can get access to Yoshinkan style Aikido then I'd give it a go. I only ever trained it for a short span of time in addition to other styles of Aikido that I'd done and it was to me a much more martial style. More angular and very direct in terms of strikes and takedowns. I was always quite happy with that particular style. I only stopped training it because our sensei moved to NYC to teach. Largely it's just going to be a matter of getting out there and training. Anytime you can train with people who cross train and can talk about and experiment with practical application of the art over just faffing about philosophically (a seeming large part of the Aikido crowd) you will be better off.
Well, in terms of self defense, I'm divided. On the one hand, I don't think I'd be in a situation often at all where I'd need to defend myself. (I'm 30 now, and haven't been in a physical confrontation since I was in high school, or maybe college, though I don't recall any confrontations in college.) But that said, knowing how to defend myself would be nice. And that is part of the appeal to me I think. But if I was really serious about wanting to learn self defense, I could just go learn Krav Maga or something, right? I'm interested in: - Learning to control my body better. - Increasing my physical conditioning. A few months ago I started working with a personal trainer--I am 280lbs and 6' tall, and was in horrible physical shape. I am now 270lb, my diet is a lot better (and I'm dropping weight slowly now), I've gained a lot more endurance & strength, but I think I want to study a martial art to supplement this with more physical activity (even if it isn't insanely strenuous), more I think. - Learning something to do with my body that is fun & cool. Martial arts has some sort of appeal in this area to me, I think. - More self discipline would be good for me. - And, as said above, knowing how to defend myself would be nice, but not a top priority.
I'm with Slip then, Yoshinkan Aikido would be my personal pick. I'm sure you are aware of this, but don't just limit your options to Aikido. There are many great and fun styles and schools out there
One concern I have with the Yoshinkan place is that they only meet twice a week. While that is probably a good amount to start out, if I did want to devote more time to it, I would not be able to do so. While Shobu (Gleason's dojo), for instance, has 4 Aikido classes per week, a beginners class each week, a yoga class each week, and a separate internal power/sword class each week. So if I did want to devote more time/practice, I would be able to do so. I guess the reason for my concern is this: from what I've read it takes a LOT of practice in Aikido (compared to most martial arts) to become good at it. If I found it to be something I really liked (which I imagine would take me more than a free class at each of the dojo's to discover), my concern is that I wouldn't be able to attend more than those 2 classes each week. But I guess I'm getting ahead of myself, and I should attend the free class at as many of the area dojos as I can find first.
You're already looking for reasons not to train there and you haven't even started. Just go train. Seriously. You can second guess till you're blue in the face and it won't get you anywhere. Stop over thinking it it and just do it.
Yes. I've done both, and I always thought 1 hour is too short. Every time. You can't go wrong with any of those schools. Visit them, try them, and pick the one that seems best for you.
You might check and see if any (or all) will let you come in and do a few free lessons. That way, you can see how the training goes and what the atmosphere is and pick from there.
Cross that bridge when you come to it. After a while you will know whether you want to spend some time each week...lifting weights to get stronger, running sprint intervals to boost your endurance, or maybe travelling further to your teacher's teacher. And that's without even thinking of cross-training with another art. Boxing? BJJ? There are lots of things you could add to round out your fighting or cover more self defence aspects. Best of luck. Now go read everything Koyo ever posted on here...
The number of times you can train a week is important, but not as important as what you enjoy and what meets your needs. Find what you like and go there. I will say that Yoshinkan is generally considered more athletic than most styles of aikido, and so it seems likely that Yoshinkan would give you a better workout. But I know some guys who have trained with Gleason Sensei, and they speak very highly of him. I'm not sure there's a wrong way to go here.
My advice would be to visit all of them and choose the one that you like best, it's really the only way. My personal opinion would be to go with Bill Gleason - you absolutely won't go wrong. Best, Chris Aikido Sangenkai
