Salutations!

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[oiwad]

I've decided to have a go at Aikido recently, and found these forums during my quest for information.

I have a free first lesson booked for this week and am very much looking forward to it. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

Evidently being short might work in my favour. There aren't many activities to which I can attribute this, so I plan to make the most of it :D

[lifeafter2am]

Welcome to the forums! I hope you like your first lesson, let us know how it goes!!!

[Bryan Sproles]

One of the most important things to remember as a beginner - ukemi (breakfalls) is your friend :D

Go slowly and make every move deliberate - slow and smooth beats fast and jerky.

Have a great class, and welcome to Aikido :)

-Bryan

[akiy]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to AikiWeb. I hope you enjoy your introduction to aikido.

-- Jun

[oiwad]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I had the lesson tonight. Learned some basic stances, locks and defensive moves (not to mention paying respect to O Sensei). Everyone at the dojo seemed nice, it was a relaxed atmosphere and it wasn't difficult to get into a receptive state of mind.

The warm ups took a bit out of me, the stretches were a reminder of how limber I used to be and the easy-going ukemi I learned is going to take some learning to get right, but I wasn't as wiped out as I expected to be - actually, I'm feeling pretty good!

The idea of keeping forearms relaxed and focusing pressure through the fingers is quite characteristic of drumming, so this should come along more naturally for me. The stances are similar to those in sabre fencing as well, which helped!

Needless to say, I'm going to be booking my first month of lessons pretty soon.

[lifeafter2am]

Thanks for the warm welcome!

I had the lesson tonight. Learned some basic stances, locks and defensive moves (not to mention paying respect to O Sensei). Everyone at the dojo seemed nice, it was a relaxed atmosphere and it wasn't difficult to get into a receptive state of mind.

The warm ups took a bit out of me, the stretches were a reminder of how limber I used to be and the easy-going ukemi I learned is going to take some learning to get right, but I wasn't as wiped out as I expected to be - actually, I'm feeling pretty good!

The idea of keeping forearms relaxed and focusing pressure through the fingers is quite characteristic of drumming, so this should come along more naturally for me. The stances are similar to those in sabre fencing as well, which helped!

Needless to say, I'm going to be booking my first month of lessons pretty soon.

Awesome, glad to hear you had a good time!!

[Bryan Sproles]

When I first started doing the forward rolls on the ground many years ago, I was going all over the place, rolling in all kinds of different directions until I got a great tip from one of the brown belts:

The main thing to remember is to keep your arm extended in a circle, and don't let it collapse (this is a really important principle, not only for safe rolling but for the "circularity" of Aikido in general.)

Also remember that whatever direction your elbow is facing, that's the direction you'll be rolling - sounds simple and logical, but I've seen *many* beginners who (like me when I started out) end up rolling all over the place because they aren't always shown the proper way to do it.

Good luck with your Aikido training, let us know how it's going and be sure to ask questions - that's the way to learn :)

-Bryan