the idea behind this non-aggressive japanese martial art is that practitioners could use aikido to defend themselves while also protecting their attacker from injury.
when a friend from the hiking club mentioned it to me i wanted to know more. i'm still interested in learning a martial arts and in learning some self-defense techniques especially since my choice to run away from that guy who grabbed me in the market last November got me hit by a truck. anyway, i arrived not expecting anything ... until the class got started ...
and then i realized that i had arrived with expectations and that it was nothing that i had expected it to be!
upon start of the class each student entered the mat, bowed to the picture of some aikido guru and then took their place. the teacher entered last but before he did he came over to me and said quietly, "i'm happy to answer any questions you might have ... after class". haha, okay, point well made sir!
and then the silence began.
the entire class was conducted in near silence - nothing that you would typically expect from a martial arts class.
after the formalities of the class bowing and greeting each other with some japanese expressions, the activities began.
they first did a 10 minute meditation slash warm up slash stretch that looked very much like a swan dance. then the teacher just pointed to a student (no words spoken) who then came up and sat opposing the teacher. a few words were whispered and a mock attack and defense struggle began. and then again. first slow and steady motions. then faster and with more force. then the left-right orientation was switched. then the roles were swapped and the attack / defense struggle was repeated again. arms were twisted, wrists were bents, bodies were thrown to the floor, faces were smushed and pressure was applied until the individual tapped the mat, i'm assuming as an indication of having met a pain threshold. yet it was still strangely peaceful and quiet and i wondered when the teaching would begin ... or had it begun already?
after that demonstration the teacher broke down each move and identified it by its name. then he made a motion and the students (3 guys, 2 girls, all wearing white belts but an easily observable variation of skill level existed between the guys and girls) immediately paired up to practice what they just observed. from the sideline i imagined how lost i would have been out there on that mat. mimicking yoga in real-time with two mirrored walls is one thing. mimicking these highly technical moves between two people without any verbal instruction and on memory alone seemed nearly impossible and i watched intently to see how the students, especially the junior ones, approached the task. eventually the teacher, calmly observing from his own sideline, would correct his students' form and technique with verbal instruction but delivered in such a soft voice that even i couldn't hear every word from where i sat.
in the end i'm not really sure aikido is right for me. the teacher explained (after class) that the teaching philosophy - teaching through demonstration and observation - was designed to allow the body to learn the techniques. he gave another perfectly logical and convincing reason for the unorthodox approach for teaching but frankly, it didn't stick in my mind. besides not being sure about aikido because of the teaching philosophy (just not sure it's an effective teaching style for me as a student), i was also considering how much stress was placed on the wrist, elbow and shoulder joints with the repeated practices and i couldn't help but wonder why i'd want to take a class that leaves my joints feeling over worked and in pain. in fact, one of the student's suffered an injury to his knee during the teacher / student demonstration lesson and he had to sit out the rest of the class and limped out after class.
so i'm not sure that i'll join. i clearly have no budget for it and if i do join i've got to be passionate about it, which presently, i'm just not. everyone seemed to give off an attitude of hope when we were saying our goodbyes ~ it does not escape me that a new member would nicely round out, to a perfect pairing number, their class of five.
whatever i decide to do wrt to aikido, i'm happy that i made the effort to learn about a new opportunity for exercising my health by going to a class.
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