[Martial Arts] Aikido is all sorts of awesome... errrr, I think

Was thinking where I should I blog about this and decided to do it here... since this is where I write about most of the crazy shiz I get myself into that doesn't have anything to do with work. Actually, most of the things I do are crazy shiz coz I hardly do work... even when I'm at work. Okay, Aikido is not crazy, or shizzy. That's just a figure of speech *hides from angry Aikido practitioners*

Just had my first class tonight and the experience of seeing people being thrown about like rag dolls right in front of my eyes, as opposed to in youtube clips. My face responds very fast to my surrounding and I think I made so many weird faces at class today when sensei started sparring with the other students... and a lot of hitori-goto too.. haha. Hope I'll control myself better once I get used to the idea that one day the rag doll will be me.

Today, I spent too much time learning to tie the uniform and hakama... geh. I'm hopeless (I'll do better next class, I promise!). Then, sensei just taught me and another new student (who has learnt Aikido before.. so I'm the only total newbie there) just a few basic stuff and told us to practice them at home at least 10 times a day:

- Ukemi

- Mae Ukemi (at least I think this is what it's called coz he just called it 'rolling' in class)
- Hidari-Hanmi
- Migi-Hanmi
- Irimi Tenkan (I think this is it, but I have to confirm the name again coz I forgot): link

Mae Ukemi is the toughest mental challenge ever for me. To actually let my body fall forward from pure will is... SO HARD!!! I have to really practice this one. The others are pretty okay. Sensei said these are just warm-ups, not even like... real techniques yet... eeep. Anyway, I just stumbled on this clip and suddenly all was made clear to me. I was an idiot! I understood the whole rolling thing wrong!! *facepalm* ...no wonder I couldn't do it. Just tried it in my living room, and I could do this thing... albeit blunderingly, but at least I could do it. As opposed to not at all when I was in class. Meh. Anyway, Waite Sensei doing Aikido reminded me of Capoeira... so graceful, na. And I like the whole rasta hairstyle thing. Cool.

I think Aikido is very suitable to women and children coz we're naturally physically weaker than grown-up men (usually our potential attackers are from that species). However, I'm learning this mostly for self-improvement... hopefully I'll never ever get attacked.. yikes! So yeah. I'll be going to class once a week... plenty of time to update in the blog. My next post may not be as longass as this one, hopefully.

Another clip on Waite Sensei: