Had my first aikido lesson/experience today.

[ST1Doppelganger]

First off ive always been interested in aikido and also always wondered how applicable it actually is in a self defense scenario.

Since I've given up on finding a Kung fu school after I relocated residence i figured id look for a judo school since I love judo.

I was lucky enough to find an affordable judo school that also has a separate aikido instructor that teaches there. So I did my first aikido lesson today.

I will say It was beneficial because I learned a new method of doing some stretches that I already knew and also picked up a new joint lock even after knowing quite a bit about joint locking.

The school im attending teaches aikido with a bit more of a linear approach then most other aikido schools which I'm fine with because it seems pretty applicable this way.

Overall it was a great experience an i look forward to doing some more aikido.

 

[jezr74]

Good to hear, so you are doing both?

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[Instructor]

Cool! Keep us posted.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Awesome, glad to hear it went well

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Good to hear, so you are doing both?

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Yes I will be doing both with the occasional rolling with their BJJ and MMA people as well as sparring their kick boxers in the near future after my work schedule settles down and I get all my wisdom teeth yanked and dental work done.

I'm going to concentrate on the aikido for a couple of months to come to my own conclusion if I like it and want to go forward with it. The judo would be the other art i study just to hone in my previous judo skills but I think it will be on the side if the aikido.

I'm trying to figure out how to fit in my MA with my work and wife schedule.

As it stands I think I will be doing the Tuesday & Thursday aikido class and do the open mat on every other Sunday so I get my judo randori & BJJ rolling around. I have to ofcourse fit in time for a weekly wing Chun meet up with my wing Chun training partner I have acquired as well so its a pretty full schedule.

 

[Instructor]

Sounds pretty ambitious.... Do you worry about any of these styles conflicting?

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Sounds pretty ambitious.... Do you worry about any of these styles conflicting?

Nope because I make sure i learn each as an individual art then i apply it to my own strategy during free spar or self Defense training.

I already have the grappling and judo background so thats not a new style and I look forward to having some live training again in that. I then have my CLF (i practice late night when wife is asleep) as my main stand up so the open sparring won't be bad for me and I look forward to live training again and seeing what my CLF can do (I sparred MMA for a year as first style).

The only new style is aikido and of course I'm still working on honing my previous WC training and learning more about it everyday i practice it. But in reality the only new material will be the aikido and WC and I feel that all the styles i trained in have filled gaps that and or offered an important fighting strategy, concepts or structure to my own training.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Good Luck with your study of Aikido, I hope you enjoy it. Balancing work, MA studies and a wife is sometime hard so I wish you the best.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Good Luck with your study of Aikido, I hope you enjoy it. Balancing work, MA studies and a wife is sometime hard so I wish you the best.

Thanks and yes when I was working 50 hours a week at my job that payed the bills and teaching at the Kung fu studio and other 20-30 hours a week while juggling the GF almost cost me my relationship so I had to prioritize and quit teaching.

I believe I made the correct decision the GF is now my wifey and I have a 3 year old daughter and 11 month old son now because of my very hard to make decision.

 

[scottcatchot]

The Judo and aikido will blend well, I started with Aikido and then Judo. Enjoy your training

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

The Judo and aikido will blend well, I started with Aikido and then Judo. Enjoy your training

Thats what I figured and I already have a judo background that i comfortable with.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Well I did my second lesson yesterday and will definitely be continuing my aikido lessons.

I'm realy enjoy the methods of deflection and melding with your opponent to get the joint lock and throws.

Like i said this school (tenshin) is allot more direct and less circular compared to most of the aikido I've seen but it seems to be very applicable in the throwing and joint locking concepts which is what I'm enjoying.

I also joined at the rite time since the dojo will be hosting a seminar with John Araujo Sensei and he will be there teaching the two nightly classes before the 4 hour seminar as well.

This should be an awesome learning experience for me and give me the ability to really see if this art if something for me (which I already think it is)

 

[Xue Sheng]

Like i said this school (tenshin) is allot more direct and less circular compared to most of the aikido I've seen but it seems to be very applicable in the throwing and joint locking concepts which is what I'm enjoying.

This comes from Steven Seagal?

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

This comes from Steven Seagal?

Realy Xue why did you have to mention that? (I will admit I was a bit a bit discouraged when I I found out about the origins.)

Yes it's affiliated with him. So far I've enjoyed what I've been taught and am keeping an open mind. The sensei at the dojo is good and what he teaches is applicable and those are the two things that are important to me.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Realy Xue why did you have to mention that? (I will admit I was a bit a bit discouraged when I I found out about the origins.)

Yes it's affiliated with him. So far I've enjoyed what I've been taught and am keeping an open mind. The sensei at the dojo is good and what he teaches is applicable and those are the two things that are important to me.

No reason to be discouraged, Seagal is the real deal as it applies to Aikido and he was (and/or is) pretty good at it, so an Aikido from him is likely pretty good. However as a human he leaves a lot to be desired.....and you are not studying his philosophy on life, just his Aikido.

Frankly I would be very interested in looking at it and comparing it to what my daughter is learning that comes from Yamada Shihan

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

No reason to be discouraged, Seagal is the real deal as it applies to Aikido and he was (and/or is) pretty good at it, so an Aikido from him is likely pretty good. However as a human he leaves a lot to be desired.....and you are not studying his philosophy on life, just his Aikido.

Frankly I would be very interested in looking at it and comparing it to what my daughter is learning that comes from Yamada Shihan

Yep when I found out it was his lineage I did some research and found it to be pretty legit. I will say its quite odd that I made the switch from Kung Fu to aikido but I feel its one of the more legit schools where I'm locate at and I've always been interested in it due to me always loving my little bit of bagua studies.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Ok so I thought of update this thread a bit.

I've been doing the Tenshin method of aikido for a bit over two months now and even had a chance to attend a seminar with my sensei's sensei which was pretty awesome.

My sensei's sensei taught both classes 2hour sessions each day and did a 6 hour seminar on the seminar day for us.

The classes and seminar was an awesome learning experience for me and gave me a crash course in what aikido has to offer.

As it stands I've already had my first belt test and look forward to training this style to at least the brown belt level since I'm enjoying it and learning a new style that compliments my prior arts I've studied.

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

I forgot two other details.

I'm very happy to have my sensei's instruction since he is a very good instructor that is application based while teaching in a very positive manner.

The second thing is I've grown to enjoy the small group of us training this art and realize that all of them are goo training partners with out egos which is what I look for in a school.

 

[hussaf]

Isn't Tenshin Seagal's school?

 

[ST1Doppelganger]

Isn't Tenshin Seagal's school?

Yes its the Dojo he use to teach at but has become more of a method of aikido now.

Think of aikido done with a more straight forward approach. Rather then the big circular aikido movements that most aikido schools do this method is a bit more linear but still has all the same techniques and throws as the traditional aikido schools.

I actually find it quite effective and am glad i found this method of aikido for my first aikido school.