Today's my first aikido lesson. It's a trial class to be exact. Called one of the guys up and he say can go for trial class. Since mom dun wan to fetch me there coz the traffic is horrible, I took a bus there.
Waited so long for the bus to come. By the time the bus came I tot going to be late liao. As soon as I reached Giant I quickly crossed the road and climbed all my way to 3rd floor to the dojo. Mana tau not yet open. Aiks 7.30 only... Wat to do oh... Class start at 8. Went all the way to the end of the shop lots to get some buns. LOL 2 bread shops side by side. Bought one from each store. Den I walked and ate the buns back to the dojo, trying to walk as slow as possible. Not coz got leng lui or something, but there's really nothing to do there. Waited for a while one of the students arrived. I asked whether can go or not, he say can.
Went to the dojo. Hrmm... Simple only. The floor is matted. Walls got aikido related pictures and that's all. After a moment the rest of the class arrived liao, with the sensei. A while later the class started. It started with everyone bowing to the o-sensei. Den bow to the sensei. Den started some stretching. After stretching, sensei taught some new stuff to the students.
As a noob, I know nothing about aikido. Na da. So it was hard for me to do whatever everybody else is doing. Was trying to understand what are they doing. Never got it. My partner told me that the key to it is observation. Damn la... My partner can do it, but I can never get the concept. This is something like golf. You can never learn it without proper guidance...
So sensei came to me and taught me some basic stuff. And when they say basic stuff, it means rolling and breaking to prevent injury. Quite cool also actually. Doing wut as seen on tv. So my first proper thing to learn is front roll (not to be confused with california roll). The key to aikido is really body coordination. The front roll is ok for me, and that's only the right front roll. For the left side coordination, I'm totally out. Damn... A while later sensei came to me and asked me how was I doing. I said I'm doing ok, but I'm having probs with my left side. He said the key to learning is applying. Wut he taught me for the right side, I have to apply to the left side. This is more of a self learning thing, he told me.
Aduh... And this is front roll for the lowest position. He then taught me the medium position. Walau this one right side also ok, but left side like org cacat like that... Golek macam terencat... Dudes call this 左手废材, inability to the left side. Much like basketball... As i struggled through the left rolls, he came and taught me back roll. This one ok la, again left side tak boleh. He call this 'kissing the floor without injuring myself'.
Sensei took some time to come and teach me the basics, and went back to teach the others. I observed that aikido doesn't utilise the arm muscle that much. It's more of a hip work, and it does do a lot of damage.
Around 10 the class ended. Sensei and other seniors came and talked to me for a while la. Said that aikido needs commitment and stuff. Well he did say that to get used to the techniques take around 3 months, and perfecting it takes another year or so. Getting to shodan takes around 5 years.
Hrmm... So, to continue or not? It's not that hard, I juz need to understand the key element, which is obvious that I haven't. Hrmm... Maybe I'll be officially enrolling into the club la. Learn something better than nothing.
Hardest part is sitting with your legs folded the japanese way though... Even with cushion, it still hurts where the bones are!
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