First, actually go to a class. They may only advertise one class a week and actually meet up more frequently. I only advertise one FMA class a week and its hard enough to get people to regularly show up for that. Ideally I have a group class once a week and do private lessons throughout the week. Once you get to know some of the guys in the class you may meet a friend who will train more often. If you want fast progress you've picked the wrong art. Even most aikido guys will say it takes years (up to 10!) before you can apply the stuff you've learned to reality. I think aikido has its place but it really is an advanced martial art and one should have a solid grappling foundation first in judo,wrestling, jujutsu, or even BJJ before trying to grasp the more esoteric concepts taught in aikido.
OK. I read the thread 5 mins before I had to leave for my Aikido class and didn't have time to respond. I agree with almost all
Mephisto has written. I was going to suggest that there might be an opportunity for private classes. I would delay training with a friend until you have a sound grasp of the concepts of Aikido. The technical term is
'the blind leading the blind' unless your partner is quite experienced in which case he probably won't be too interested in training with a newbie. But Aikido does take time. You can learn a technique in 5 minutes. It took me over seven years to get ikkyo (number one technique) to work against really full on resistance without a strike. I know guys who have trained for 20 years and their stuff doesn't work.
Mephisto called it an
advanced martial art. I agree totally but think of it more as the
martial artist's martial art. So yes, it is not easy to learn and even more difficult to use in real situations but you do get to that point if you persevere, but it does require a really good instructor.
I'm not sure that prior training is of much use when it comes to Aikido. Jujutsu possibly, but BJJ, Judo and Wrestling have totally different principles. You would have to unlearn too much. I came from a hard Karate background to Aikido. I had to
unlearn a lot before I could make anything work. It took me 14 months of training (4 hours a week) before my first technique (kote gaeshi) started to work for me.
So back to the OP.
I'm a newbie to Aikido that hasn't even started his first class yet so this may sound premature and naive but it's something that I've been thinking about ever since I made contact with the dojo.... They train once a week for 2 hours. Now I'm a very patient person but at the same time I think there is such a thing as being too over cautious and slow. 8 hours a month really doesn't seem like a lot of time to me considering it can take thousands of repetitions of a single technique to even feel comfortable with it.
Given that Aikido is 99% defensive it seems like many aspects of it are completely impossible to practice alone. When I did kickboxing many years ago we had 3 classes per week (2 adults + a childrens course) and I would also attend the children course because it allowed me to practice a little maintenance on my lower level stuff. In addition to this (being a striking martial art) I could practice a lot of my techniques at home away from the club. Given that I was training for 6 hours a week with other people + the fact I could train alone at home, I learned and increased my knowledge and proficiency very quickly.
I'm not looking for any "It's not about belts lectures" because I honestly don't care about that, I partly find ranks childish anyway but I feel such a small amount of time per week would be almost be counter productive to learning such a difficult and intricate style. Am I alone in thinking this?
Training two hours a week is a bit light on. Wait until you get started to get a better idea and talk to your instructor about your training and what you want to achieve. Now having said that there is a reasonable amount of training you can do at home that establishes the right principles. One of the fundamental concepts of Aikido is to
relax completely. That is a lot harder than it sounds, especially when someone is threatening to knock your head off. Another principle is to
keep weight underside. Again, easy to say but something that can take a long time to achieve. In class you train it with a compliant partner or else everyone would be just standing around doing nothing. But the exercise that helps you with that concept can be practised at home without a partner. It is called
ikkyo undo. You can find it on Youtube but in most instances it is being demonstrated incorrectly.
The following videos I am posting for
Mighty.Panda. For non Aikidoka watch at your peril. You will probably find them boring. What I am pointing out that it is easy to find stuff on YouTube that purports to be authentic but really is not quite right and the difference between right and not quite right is the difference between success and failure. So even when you are practising at home, you must be practising it correctly to get any benefit.
For example, I would suggest that few people could make this work and to me it goes against basic Aikido concepts.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oRSwmu03D3w
In this demonstration weight is topside meaning the technique will rely on using strength. Against a non compliant partner there will be a physical clash. What he did get right was the broken timing.
And another ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PyVwydZGn-w
Totally wrong in principle. No sign of relaxed arms, no broken timing and IMHO not worth the effort.
Here's one that is closer.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_uHdOPNuANg
Arms are relaxed on the upward movement and he allows his arms to fall naturally. Still however NQR. There are reasons why the hands should be higher but I'll leave that for now. The major problem here is, just watch the back foot of his student. It should remain totally on the ground as the teacher demonstrates. Why would you put something so blatantly wrong on the net?
I can't find an example of it being practised the way I was taught but this is the closest ...
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sIRj1A0GExA
We practise this every class and even after years of training many students still don't have it spot on. It looks like a total waste of time but it gives you a fundamental that makes Aikido techniques work.
We we can look at other exercises later if you would like.
Just one small piece of advice. There will be a number of people who know nothing about Aikido offering their opinion. Some of them will be giving good objective advice and others know absolutely zero. Just be careful to separate the wheat from the chaff.
