2x4's and Pregnant Water Buffalo's

So after the first week being back at the dojo I've come to the (sometimes painful) conclusion that I've become about as flexible as a 2x4.  I guess I can blame the past nine years of sitting at a desk or on an airplane as part of the problem.  Thankfully I know that this will improve with time but it will be a long, slow process.

I've also realized that I'm about as graceful as a pregnant water buffalo when on the mat.  My mind knows what it wants to do but my body just can't seem to put the right combination's together.  I guess my muscle memory has grown a bit senile over the years.  I've been told that I will it will come to me more quickly than it did the first time that I tried to learn all of these moves.  Looks like I'll get to learn some lessons in patience during this process as well (never one of my strong points).  I still try to use muscle strength to get through the techniques rather than using my center to unbalance uke.  This is something that I will need to continue to work on and it seems that learning to relax will really help with this.  I know it will certainly help my ukemi which will be a huge benefit in itself.  After getting tired in class my ukemi technique started to get a bit sloppy and I ended class with some sore muscles that lasted for a couple of days.  Ah the joys of getting older.

Arrow Pride Sensei (2nd Dan) taught the first two lessons that I attended and Alex Nakamura Sensei (5th Dan) taught the most recent class.  They are both great guys and I enjoyed each of their classes.  Nakamura Sensei especially gives me hope.  I'm not sure of his exact age but he's certainly older than I am and moves so much better than I do.  I'm looking forward to the point when I can be more relaxed, more flexible, and be a bit more graceful.

Aikido? Isn't that some kind of dog?

So what is Aikido?  As I mentioned before it is a style of Japanese martial arts, not to be confused with an Akita (see above).  You may be a bit more familiar with Aikido from the movies if you've ever watched a Steven Seagal movie.  Believe it or not, he used to teach Aikido and was pretty highly ranked (7th degree black belt, also called 7th Dan) prior to starting his film career.  Although his action films weren't "pure" Aikido it's still probably the most familiar the average person is going to be with this art.

Morihei Ueshiba (O Sensei) Founder of Aikido

1883 - 1969

Let me try to summarize this as simply as possible.  Aikido (合気道, aikidō) is a fairly new martial art as far as Japanese martial arts go.  It was founded by Morihei Ueshiba (often referred to by his title 'O Sensei' or 'Great Teacher') sometime around the 1920's to 1930's.  Aikido was primarily derived from a style of Jujutsu called Diato-ryu Jujutsu which is a style of armed and unarmed techniques dating back to the samurai days.  Ueshiba also trained extensively in several other varieties of jujitsu, as well as sword (boken) and spear (jo) fighting.  Aikido also incorporates armed and unarmed techniques and utilizes joint locks and throws to control an attacker.  Aikido is often described as a "soft" art as it uses the attackers strength and energy against the attacker them rather than using hard blocks and strikes as you would see in arts like Karate.  The great advantage of this type of art is that when being attacked, the Aikidoka (person who practices Aikido) can decide how much damage to deal to the attacker depending on the situation.  An attacker may simply be pinned or tossed aside, or the attacker may be thrown to the ground (landing head or neck first on the ground with a lot of energy is never a good idea) or be incapacitated by having a limb broken.  The basic philosophy behind Aikido is for a person to be able to defend themselves from attack while also protecting their attacker from injury.  In fact, Aikido can literally be translated as the Way of Spiritual Harmony.

This is a very brief and basic description of the art.  Aikido is a dynamic and active art and can better be understood by seeing it in action rather than trying to describe it in writing or talking about it.  Check out a demonstration or class at any Aikido dojo to see it in action.  To get an even better understanding about what's going on, get on the mat and take a free lesson.  Once you feel what you are seeing you'll get a better idea of the great potential of this art.

What this is all about...

So after about 8 years off from my initial Aikido training I've decided to resume it again at age 38.  After about 1-2 years of initial training my work schedule changed and I began to travel every week.  I was always out of town on the nights of class and had to let it go.  I've been had a great desire to get back into training but until something changed with my work schedule that just wasn't going to happen.  Why pay for classes that I would never be able to attend?  Thankfully my work schedule is finally changing and will allow me to travel only rarely.  I decided to start this blog as a way for me to record my thoughts and experiences of training again after all this time. Am I too old to start this again after the past 8 years of constant travel piloting a desk?

I initially trained in Shin Shin Toitsu Aikido at the Midland Ki Society under Vic Montgomery Sensei (3rd Dan) while I lived in Kansas City.  Training opportunities are a lot more limited in Kansas City than they are in Seattle.  Although the dojo was a small one, the people who trained there were great people and I really enjoyed spending several nights a week in their company.  I was only 5th kyu at the time that I left the dojo but I was really enjoying the training and the people there. 

In August of this year I moved from KC to Seattle and had been considering resuming training again knowing that there were several of the top instructers in the US located in and around the area.  After much consideration I have chosen to resume my training at Aikido Eastside  in Bellevue, WA under the much esteemed George Ledyard Sensei (6th Dan).  I first became familiar with Ledyard Sensei back in 2000 from his posts on various Aikido websites and forums and learned how highly respected he is within the Aikido community.  Aikido Eastside is a member of the Aikido Schools of Ueshiba (ASU) founded by Mitsugi Saotome Sensei which is a different school of Aikido than the Ki Society.  I'll explain the philosophy of each of the schools in a later post.

For those people who are unfamiliar or are curious about Aikido, I'll go into a brief history and explination of it in a future post as well.  For now, the main thing to understand at this point is that Aikido is a modern Japanese martial art that is performed by blending with the motion of the attacker and redirecting the force of the attack rather than opposing it head-on.

This blog is basically for my own personal use and to record my personal thoughts and experiences as I begin training again.  I don't claim to represent the views of anyone other than myself with any of my postings.  Hell, Randy Couture is in his 40's and still fights in the UFC.  I'm just doing a little lite training compared to that right?