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This past month or so has been an amazingly varied, intense, and joyful period of Aikido for me. I've had a great time, and learned tons. I would not have said a few weeks ago that I was on a plateau. I wasn't feeling frustrated or stalled out in any way. But in the last few weeks I have felt a sort of acceleration kick in. Zero to 60 is one thing. But when you've already been doing 60... Wow.
I'm not sure why it's been like this, but I'm enjoying the heck out of it, and waking up excited about each day. In my experience, as a native San Diegan, this time of year is one of beginnings. It's blazing hot for months, and then things start to cool off. Rain comes, and the hills start to go from gold to green. I associate the changing light and weather with the start of start of the school year, so it just feels like a time for learning new things. Also, I've been writing a lot here (not just the posts you've seen, but drafts for future posts, or just private reflections), plus putting my thoughts down on paper after class in a notebook I carry with me in my dojo bag. Writing helps me digest information, see patterns, and remember. I've been writing because I've been inspired by everything I'm experiencing and learning, but the writing also deepens the experience and solidifies the learning.
Actually, this all really started around the beginning of August. Sensei did some really revealing and inspired work with us on embodying qualities in our Aikido. We had several classes
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This is sort of a sister post to My Aikido Timeline. Here I'll try to keep track of all the teachers I've had the privilege of training under. They are listed starting at the beginning, with most recent additions at the bottom, in order by the first time I trained with each. I will be adding to this post over time. Putting this list together just reminds me of how extraordinarily fortunate I am to have had this breadth of experience.
Dave Goldberg Sensei
Chief Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May 5, 2009 - My first day of Aikido training
To Present - Hundreds of training days, many workshops, and seminars.
Mike Coit
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May 9, 2009 - My second day of training, and many classes since.
Karen Kustejo
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Present - Many classes.
Jay Palm
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Present - Many classes.
Megan Palm
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Present - Many classes.
Andy
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May - December 2009 - Various classes (mostly weapons).
Cyril Poissonnet
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Present - Many classes.
Jason Lim
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Present - Many classes (mostly weapons).
Michael Hancock
Instructor, Aikido of San Diego
May, 2009 to Pre
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Boy, what a contrast... If you've been keeping up (not that I would expect anyone to), you know that I injured my shoulder a while back. Through the miracle of PT, massage, ice, exercise, rest, ice, stretching, ice, and time, it is better. I got the OK on Monday of last week to go back to rolling/falling, with the admonition to not land on the top of my shoulder ever again.
Last Tuesday my brain was not ready to roll at all. I couldn't even picture what a decent roll would look like. Stupid brain.
So this Tuesday I figure I'd manage to start back to rolling, which I was doing reasonably well before my injury (thank goodness for that, so I had some good mental point of reference). Alas, Tuesday's class comes around, and I really couldn't bring myself to get to do it. I also couldn't seem to do anything else right in class. Very frustrating. And everyone I worked with was trying to be very helpful. And usually they are helpful. (I'm regularly amazed at how good everyone is at teaching, even 6th/5th kyu people.) But on Tuesday I couldn't make heads nor tails of many of the techniques, so repeating them was just annoying, because I was repeating the wrong thing, or doing it differently each time. I was so disappointed with myself that I went home and by gosh practiced re-learning how to roll (very gently and slowly) in the living room floor.
That finally seemed to remind my brain a little that "See,
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I've been a bit slow putting together enough connected thoughts about it to make a proper blog post. Now I'm just giving up and blurting out some unconnected things.
First, I got a surprise at my PT appt on Monday. My PT was very happy, told me to cancel my upcoming appointment, and gave me the go-ahead to roll, fall, and whatever else I want to do. "But if you land on that shoulder again, don't come crying to me."
Class was on Tuesday. I figured it would be best to start with rolling practice (solo only, I mean), and just do back rocking-falls (not all the way over) as uke. I wasn't quite confident enough to do forward rolls out of techniques. That seemed like a conservative and rational plan.
Strange though, how our brains are not rational. I say "easy, soft rolls that I was doing quite happily and with confidence before I got injured, so no problem." Brain, on the other hand, says "Uh, no way. We're gonna die." So I was thinking too much, and being too cautious and tense, and nothing worked well (except the sitting-backwards-and-rocking-back kinds of falls). I couldn't do a simple slow back roll to save my life. Have you seen that Garfield (the cat) cartoon where John (the owner) asks Garfield how he manages all 4 feet when he walks, and Garfield gets to thinking about it, and then can't walk because he's so confused? It felt like that.
Well, OK, I did *one* back roll very nicely after class, but when
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One of the things I want to do with this blog, for my own reference, is to keep track of my training, challenges, goals, etc. I'll title these "Training Diary, YYYY-MM-DD" so they will be easy to ignore if you want to. I don't know yet where the blog Categories appear, but I'll put them all under my "Training Diary" category.
This is another "getting caught up" post (from a little notebook I've kept), since I'm several weeks in already. Future "Training Diary" posts will cover about one class or one week at a time.
Physical Info - Starting Point
Health: Coming off 2 weeks or a horrendous cold. Feeling better.
Weight: 189 lbs., goal of 160 lbs. (And then "We'll see.")
Fitness: Sedentary work, semi-active fun (cleaning horse pen, gardening...). Few PT exercises for shoulder. No working out or stretching for many years.
Vertigo: Much better over past couple of months. Encouraged, but concerned that rolling and breakfalls could set it off again.
Activities
Tuesday evening, May 5, 2009
Class #1
Really fun, awesome people, great time, very excited about Aikido.
Very sore, tired quads later. Did lots of walking and stretching.
Started walking around park several times during the day at work.
Saturday morning, May 9, 2009
Class #2
An hour before class something "went out" a little in my hip. Figured it would loosen up with work. Ha! Wrong. On very first attempt at rolling hip went into spasm.
Lim
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09-30-2012 02:23 PM 
I got the OK on Monday of last week to go back to rolling/falling, with the admonition to not land on the top of my shoulder ever again. 
I was so disappointed with myself that I went home and by gosh practiced re-learning how to roll (very gently and slowly) in the living room floor. 
I don't know yet where the blog Categories appear, but I'll put them all under my "Training Diary" category.