Their is a Yoshinkan Aikido school located in my area. Though I have tried a class once many years ago, I cannot find enough reason to see if its worth the try. I digress Aikido HIGHLY interests me, but I feel I will lose heart, because of the utter difficulty and slow progression had in most Aikido schools. I am at a current loss as how to proceed and would like your opinions on whether or not Yoshinkan Aikido is worth it. Nothing more nothing less, not "it depends on you". I just want a pure biased Aikidoka's opinion.
Yes Aikido will take time. That is what martial arts is all about; hard work and patience. But just cause it's difficult are you gonna shun it away??? If you are, then you probably should go to a McDojo in which a black belt can be had in 6 months, and where everything is faster, bigger, more expensive..etc. etc..
yoshinkan is one of the harder styles of aikido, the reason behind this is that when Morehei taught his first batch of pupils is that his teaching were mainly based on daitoryu aikijujitsu thus in terms of combat effectiveness it's pretty efficient. and yoshinkan closely resembles daitoryu although not in it's entirety but rather in some aspects. i would take up aikido if i had the time... yoshinkan for that matter
A biased opinion... Aikido is a bit of a slow start for most people (me included) due to it's nature of being almost wholly defense based. Without any real complications I've been told it'll take 4 years to get to black belt, I've been going a year with about 2 months missed due to other commitments and I'm grading to orange belt/4th kyu (hopefully) at the end of this month. Is that slow progress? Don't know, but it feels right to me as I can feel my body reactions changing over time from the stillted stiffness they were when I started (with the unavoidable and sore and badly executed breakfalls - a nutcracker being a perfect example...), into the fluid machine I am now (Aikido is also helping me with my ego/modesty issues... ). Black belt seems an age away and from the other black belts I've talked to (who make it all look so easy), it's then that the real work begins - I can understand that as 4th kyu seems a bit daunting at the moment... Aikido has a good few drills to learn that teach the basic ideas of footwork avoidance and blocking and it's only from doing these regularily do you eventually get an idea of what it's all about. Like anything it'll take work, but give yourself a limit of a few months, going at least once or twice a week before you have a real think about wanting to carry it on - it may sound like a long time but it takes a while for your body to remember things (i.e. make your movements instinctive) before you can apply techniques and avoidance without actually thinking first. It's a very subtle art underneath the techniques with slight changes in posture or footwork meaning a technique is either easy or hard to apply to uke and it's this that takes the years of practice. The enjoyment I get from aikido (I do Shodokan) comes from both the attacking and defending side - there's nothing like applying a technique that throws your uke and all you feel afterwards is how easy it felt (total buzz the first time it happened - the guy was 16 stone and flew like a bird ) - then from uke's side and having a well applied technique applied to you that literally makes you fly - superb fun The above also ultimately applies if the Sensei and you fit together as people too, there is the odd post on MAP about one or two Senseis being difficult to get on with, if that's the case find another dojo or work round the personaility difference - on the whole though the people I've come across in Aikido are diverse, but also good people who I've learnt a lot from both on and off the mat. If you do stick at it let us know what you think after a few months of going - it'll be interesting for me at least. Good luck on the quest! Tim
