First night of Aikido

I've been thinking about taking up Aikido for some additional exercise for quite some time. About 10 years, I think.

I didn't get up the gumption to figure out which of 3 local dojos were right for me until about 2 weeks ago. It didn't take long to figure out that only one dojo met the openings in my schedule: Monday and Wednesday nights. Tuesday is reserved for volleyball, Thursday is reserved for Canine Agility and Friday/Saturday/Sunday are too volatile to schedule anything on a regular basis. So, Clear Lake Aikido was the chosen dojo.

I went and watched a couple of nights before deciding that it looked they had a comfortable atmosphere.

Last night was my first night. I'm not too sore. How sore I am is a result of somersaulting instead of rolling. It's going to take me a while to learn how to roll properly.

I think I'm doing ok on back falls for having only done one night.

The walk (the 88 movement routine that encompasses most of the moves needed for aikido) went ok. I was told to just work on the footwork for the moment. The accompanying hand/arm movements will come in time.

We also discussed the physics behind the movements and the foot positioning. Mainly the foot positioning. The physics I understand, mentally. Incorporating that into body knowledge is the long-term goal.

One nice thing about the dojo: the classes that I've seen so far are small. Last night there were four of us. One red/white belt, and brown and two whites. The other white belt is just a white belt in aikido, he has other, more advanced belts in other disciplines. It certainly appears that most folks have belts in other disciplines from what I've seen.

I hope to make it to the dojo twice a week and on the occasional Saturday that Kim has to work.