I am so freaking buzzed right now lol. As the hours closed to when I had to leave for my first aikido class in about five years, my anxiety increased. This is the class I left because there was too little focus, there was someone there who was really difficult to train with whose attitude wasn't exactly ideal (but then, mine sucked too, which is another reason I quit.) I was sheepish about going back after being away for so long, but was comforted too - maybe the teacher wouldn't recognise me after so long. I show up, I put my stuff down and look around nervously. No student comes to greet me, and I worry for not knowing how best to introduce myself to the class. I see the teacher at the far side, who calls me over, shakes my hand, and tells me it's good to see me again. He even remembers my name, which flatters me. Class starts. We do some tai sabaki, faster and faster. My out of the habit body almost topples, but I get a grip and feel more confidence as I get used to it. Then we start running around the room, and my shins start to ache really stupidly badly, to the extent I have to sit out for 15 minutes while the class goes through tenchinage, I think it was. Eventually I join back in, we play around, and I'm completely lost lol. A friend once described a mutal friend's martial arts ability to me. He said this guy doesn't know the names of techniques, he barely knows the terminology, but if you show him something, he'll do it, and with perfect timing and distancing. I always felt incredibly jealous because I knew the terminology, the theory, the principles, but my distancing was unreliable, my timing was average, and I sucked at understanding. Tonight I was that guy. I had no idea what moves we were doing, what they were called, but I could do everything I was shown, a higher grade told me I was better than he was, and the teacher complimented my timing. Later I smack the higher grade who complimented me in the mouth while going for a throw and we become friends, naturally xD Encouragingly, there's a hakama wearer there who's rocking a wicked beard that makes me miss mine. I think that's about it. Told you I'd post about the first time back. It was a lot of fun and in some ways a better workout than karate. My blood sugars dropped twice as much as karate makes it drop too. Will hopefully be able to make it twice a week, as well as karate twice a week, and see how I get on. Oh, one more cool thing! I told the teacher I do karate now (he asked if I'm still training when I arrived) for just over a year, and fair play to him, he used some karate ideas to explain how to do things, and included more atemi than I remember him including when I trained years ago. SuhWEET! So hopefully Koyo's not gonna haunt me for being an aikibunny lol I think I'm gonna do pretty well there
Awesome. That's one of the great things about aikido, I have seen students welcomed back onto the mats, regardless of the reason for their abscence, and in some cases the reasons were hostilities between the sensei and student (which went both ways), and still the same sensei would welcome them back. I'm glad to hear you decided to go back, and how enthusiastic your approach to rediscovering and continuing aikido is.
Most annoyingly my cold was too bad last night to go along Gonna see how I go over the weekend and try to make it to the class on Monday, but I woke up an hour and a half ago and the cold is onto my chest now, which I was hoping wouldn't happen, I tend to be laid up for up to a fortnight once it hits my lungs since they're so weak, courtesy of childhood asthma. Still looking forward to it though, will be sure to update the thread with whether last week's class was a fluke or if I really am awesome xD
Hey Hatamoto Have you had a chance to train again? Would be interested to read your thoughts (not in a Professor X way)
Well it's taken me a freaking month but I made it back tonight, and I've seldom felt so lost in a class lol the last time I think was when I first did kyokushin and had to follow along as the class did a kata. Totally different tonight. When I went back last month it was more slow, easy paced, but well paced, I could do everything I was shown. That was like the start of Die Hard 3, the establishing shots of the city. Tonight's class was what happens 45 seconds in (for those who haven't seen it, a building blows up, a bus gets blown across the street, and there's chaos ) There was a seminar on Saturday so tonight they blitzed through a bunch of stuff that was shown then, and I was kinda swept along for the ride. I still have no idea what order if any there is when in a group of three, which led to some awkwardness, and there's a very real chance that my knee went through the floor with a botched ukemi. They spent five or ten minutes on each technique and I never seemed to get my footing, though I did try some new stuff, like having my wrists grabbed from behind which I've never done before, and walking as normal while doing a technique which threw me completely lol Paid my insurance and will hopefully now make it for Monday and Thursday every week. I've also decided I enjoy aikido infinitely more than karate so have quit the latter to dedicate my energy (and money ) to aikido. It feels so good to be so excited about training again. Also I was training tonight with a guy who is a clone of Ian McKellen, made all the awesomer for wearing prescription goggles Also my blood sugars went from somewhere in the 20s down to 5.6. That's good, but a bit of a problem, aikido annihilates my blood sugars. Will take some working. Now that the high has worn off and my body's cooled down though, I'm starting to feel really sore already. It took I think two months for me to get used to ninjutsu, never really did get used to karate. Wonder how long it'll take to get conditioned for aikido.
