A Newbie’s Look at Aikido
Martial arts childrens' classes
I find myself in the same situation that I would imagine most parents have at some point. With the world in the state that it is I feel the need to make sure my son grows up knowing how to look after himself and that if the worst happens he can at least have a good chance of defending himself. My son is five now and I think it’s about time for him to begin to learn so that by the time he is going off down the town with his friends he will have some self-defense skills. As well as the benefits of a bit of discipline, the sporty activities can’t be anything but good for him.
How I chose the martial arts club and style
Of course some people may already have decided which martial arts discipline they want to learn, like Judo or Karate for instance. I didn’t have any preconceptions so I was open to anything. I’ll confess that I was a little driven by locality, since a club too far away would just lead to me not attending all the time. So I picked up the Yellow Pages, just kidding! I popped open a browser and Googled for Martial Arts in my area. I was flooded with a good few Karate, Judo and Boxing clubs and also an Aikido club. My first step was to hop onto each of the clubs websites and take a look around.
Once I had filtered the list down a few I decided to send an email enquiring about myself and my son going along to take a look. Then I waited for some responses.
The first response was from a local karate club, the response was cool to say the least. I was refered to an online document which upon reading was more like a Bible than any actual help. ‘Thou must only inhale on odd seconds on the clock’. The Sensei seemed to have a Hitler complex, and I was immediately put off. I couldn’t see a five year old responding well to military-like discipline – or me for that matter – so that club was crossed off my list.
The other karate clubs seemed to be quite stern as well so they went the journey too. I had decided that boxing was a bit too brutal a sport for a little kid and I didn’t think that the wife would like his cute little face being all smashed up.
The Judo club was quite a long way away, and the fact that they didn’t reply to my email was enough to cross them off the list. That left me with Aikido.
I have to confess that I had never heard of Aikido but one of the Sensei’s responded to my email in quick time and was very friendly and approachable so I thought I would go along to one of the meetings and take a little look.
The website mentioned the fact that I could come along and dress in some tracksuit type clothing and even take part on the first night. So off I went very purposefully dressed in jeans and a shirt, I didn’t want to get dragged in on the first night and get my arms and legs pulled off.
The training hall (or Dojo to use the proper terminology) was in a school literally 500 yards from my house. I promise I didn’t know and I didn’t just pick the closest.
When I walked in the door one of the guys came over to me to say hello. I explained that I was thinking about joining along with my son and the guy was very receptive although there were no other kids at this time the Sensei was happy to make some ‘mat space’ for us. I was very reassured when the Sensei discussed having my son do the moves on other people but they would not be doing moves on him until he is quite a bit bigger.
Explaining that I wasn’t really ready to have a go just now I sat down to watch.
Week one
The next Monday I got myself and my lad all togged up in our tracksuits and set off on the long walk to the Dojo. Nearly three minutes later we arrived. When we walked in we slipped off our shoes and went to join the class. Everyone there was very friendly and we were quickly forgiven for bowing at the wrong times to the wrong people.
After some stretching exercises, we did a couple of gambols whilst the other did these really cool-looking tumbles. I’m sure the black belts don’t even touch the floor.
And now I was introduced to pain, just a little but it was great to see and perform some moves that actually work, effortlessly.
We left the session very sweaty (it is summer after all) and arrived home and promptly set about the wife showing her all the cool things we had learned. I’m sure she was very impressed if a little sore.
One thing that was mentioned to me was the fact that it will hurt a bit. Apparently we don’t know if we have perfected the hold or throw if there isn’t a little pain to go along with it. I must confess to having very little skin left on my wrists. Anyone remember Chinese burns at school? It is just like that.
We are now in week four and loving it. My lad is excused from the heavy stuff but taught a lot as well. I’m learning tons and looking forward to getting rid of the white belt.
I have spent a lot of time reading various posts, articles and comments on websites, and a load of them seem to suggest that Aikido is some kind of trickery and doesn’t really work. As one who has tasted a good amount of mat, I can wholeheartedly say now that although the techniques don’t look like you are trying hard they certainly do work.
By L. Barras, Staffordshire. UK.
