Seems my sudden surge of activity (riding my new rocketbicycle, inline skating, Aikido, and generally walking everywhere and avoiding my car) has resulted in extreme muscle aches, a painfully sore right knee, sore right elbow, and non-weight-supporting stabbing-pain right shoulder.

Time to take it easy!

Still went to Aikido, but was very relaxed. We practiced posture, unbendable arm, and some more static techniques that don’t require a lot of motion. But I can’t find any pictures or videos of the related activities.

Perhaps I should take some time off and, oh, I dunno, watch batman or something. I still haven’t even gotten around to seeing Ironman yet. :/

Day three of Aikido started out with my first “breathing excercises,” AKA Meditation. I was interested in doing some meditationy stuff but never really got around to it before, so it was nice to be force-fed it. I have some issues kneeling for long periods though, and it’s hard for me to stay relaxed while sitting cross-legged, but it gives me something to work on.

Besides that though, meditating didn’t work at all. The particular excercise we were doing was imagining a grape-sized sphere in the middle of your being, and with every exhale it doubles in size. I started getting self conscious that my ‘being’ was starting to touch other peoples beings; then I started wondering how big doubling it would be (if it’s the size of Victoria, would doubling it take it to Saltspring or Galiano?), and finally I started thinking about how fast it would have to be expanding to cross half the country in a single exhale, and I found myself slowing my breathing as I didn’t want to break the laws of physics.

Yeah that’s a relaxing excercise. “Tear the universe apart at the seams! Now breath calmly in through your nose…” Right.

One of the students has a blackbelt from a different brand of Aikido, and Sensei allowed him to show two or three different throws that he had learned. They were geared for a large attacker to be taken down by a small/light defender, and since I’m a big guy… well… heh.

I found one particular throw really, really effective:

That’s a much more flourishey version with lots of spinning around - my basic variant did the same particular motions but with a taste of minimalism.

I found it really interesting as the attacker, as your leading leg is like a solid tree trunk nailed to the ground - if the defender tried to push you back it just wouldn’t work. So the defender first pulls you a bit off balance, does a half step to yank your head down (which makes your leading leg buckle), and once your leading leg is gone a tiny shove backwards makes you topple. It was really cool.

After that we did more Jo training. I think the word is - kata? Which means single-person doing a routine with a Jo. I did 3 steps last time, and this day got up to 13 steps. It feels really neat to swing that piece of wood around in a controlled fashion (and having it effective as well).

Went to my second day of Kokikai Aikido today, I was so excited: I got to do shoulder rolls! Wooooo

For my safety I’m pretty much ordered to take it slow - I don’t actually get thrown with any force (I’m not too stable anyway so it doesn’t take much), and I don’t really know how joint locks or bending motions work and I can cause some damage to other people if I don’t defend slowly as well. It’s making it somewhat frustrating, but still a lot of fun. Last class I went to, I’d get to a certain point (as an attacker) and the defender would just let go; let me naturally stumble backwards so I can fall on my own time.

Today’s class was somewhat opposite. A quite interesting throw was put into the mix; using my own forward momentum and twisting my arm so I end up carrying myself heavily to the ground. The whole key to the move is the forward energy I have, so it was really difficult to “do it right” for me as a beginner.

As defender it feels so right to do it quickly - you move as fast as the person is moving at you, and a little twist and light pull and whomp, they are on the ground. It takes a lot of effort to slow down the motion, and if you go too slow the momentum isn’t there and the attack is left standing with an elbow in your face.

So I got thrown properly for the first time today - quite by accident, but it was nice to see how you can actually fall over so easily as the victim.

End of class today we broke out the Jo (short staffish thing) and practiced some neat moves with that too. That was a lot of fun.

So I’ve decided to take up Aikido!

I’ve often been interested in doing more than just watching Martial Arts movies, but getting up motivation to go or even selecting a brand of Aikido is difficult. I got a yellow belt in Karate when I was 9 or so but the Sensei there was very angry and shouted a lot. Then some chick called me a pussy for not doing what I want so here I am in a dojo.

I’ve settled on Kokikai Aikido.

Why Aikido? Well, Aikido’s main focus is making sure nobody comes to harm, not even the attacker. It is a Martial Art that is nearly entirely defense, and usually ends in a throw or a grapple, with the attacker on the ground. Being a peace-loving well-wisher this really rings true to me - all duels should be fought with rubber bullets, and causing unnecessary harm is a horrible thing to do.

Why Kokikai? Kokikai is a minimalist variant of Aikido. It focuses on using as little energy as possible, and making smooth, fluid movements to accomplish your task. It also focuses on relaxation, balance, and control of the body. In a way, it’s kind of like Parkour, except with no running away [heh]. I’d label it as “Lazy Aikido” but lazy has all these negative connotations to it, so I won’t. :P

Of course, I like to think I’m an honorable kind of guy, and this is a totally honourable, nice way of fighting. Badguys usually aren’t so honorable. Though I hope to refine the art to a true real-life self-defense state, I have some doubts on it’s actual application in modern times. Maybe though, I’m still new!

Day one of my training was really nice. It is a small class (Sensei, a black belt student, and 3 normal students including myself) and was a really relaxing atmosphere. Sensei is a friendly approachable guy with a sense of humour, maybe in his 30s. He welcomed me in and took me aside and showed me how to fall down on my back without hurting myself, then proceeded to teach as per normal.

We start with some light stretching and warmup before moving on to the lesson. One of the warmups was shoulder rolls, which I was really jealous of, because I’m not allowed to do them yet (maybe next time) so I just practiced flopping on my back some more.

I learned how to grab, punch, and chop (in a half-assed way) so that I could take part in the excercises. It is usually Sensei demonstrating what an attacker wishes to do, a counter for it, the reasoning behind it, and some slow-motion examples. Then we pair off and practice, practice one throw on left side, one on right side, then switch back and forth. I learned 4 or 5 throws and it was really cool - like magic even!

I had to fight a lot of my instincts to move my body in certain ways, or to apply force, or to shove/pull… But it’s really such a relaxed art. I’m simply amazed how a tiny turn of my wrist can make someone fall over. A lot of moves that I would think would twist my arms into pretzels actually sort themselves out with a little turn of the hips and ends with someone slamming onto the mat.

And all of this, and not even breaking a sweat! I swear the defending is incredibly easy. Where I do get my workout is standing up from falling down so many times; it’s really telling that I’m absolutely exhausted at the end of the day as an attacker, but as a defender it’s easy peas.

I’m super suprised at how fluid it all is too. Once you get into the initial position (getting your hands in the right place), you simply “go with the flow”, twist as your body feels natural, and the attacker seems to go sailing by. It’s really cool, I’m so happy I started.