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After years of wanting to learn a martial art and with a very little understanding of Aikido, I finally started last month.
This blog is for me to look back and see how my journey began and to record my thoughts.
Well tonight's session was great. The rolls are coming much more naturally now although I still watch Sensei to see how he makes them look so graceful and smooth. Even the noise his rolls make sounds right, just a swoosh of cloth.
I correctly remembered the meaning of yokomenuchi as opposed to shomenuchi.
Then something interesting happened.
During ikkyo with myself as uke I felt that if I went to the floor it was because I knew I should, not because the technique was working correctly. Instead of dropping neatly at the right time I simply continued round in the circle. At which point Nage increased speed and energy and virtually spun me off my feet onto the mat, I banged my knee in the process and it's still stiff now.
I'm still assimilating what happened. I apologised to Sensei after the session, as I felt responsible for forcing Nage to increase the efficiency of his attack. Now I'm not sure though, maybe it was more a 50/50 split of responsibility. I thought I was helping Nage by encouraging him to use correct techniqe, but I think he was being careful of me due to my inexperience.
Maybe I created a situation where he was forced to use more powerful technique than I was ready to handle.
I don't know, but it is something to think about. There is a lesson there, at least one.