Man, No more Aikido till my grades go up ><

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[Phillip Armel]

Can you believe this stuff? My mom doesn't give a hoot about my grades but when it's report card time watch out! >< I got an F in Language(I had A's and B's the first 3 9-weeks) and a F in gym -.- I Just got my orange like the 5 of may! Well since I might be out for a week or three...HOw do I keep training and not forget all the good stuff? Help!!!

[Neil Mick]

Sign on my old (Redwood City) dojo-office: "Before enlightenment: chop wood and carry water.

After enlightenment: chop wood and carry water."

Aikido will still be there, when you come back. Until then: irimi, tenkan, irimi,,,

[Mallory Wikoff]

when you come back. Until then: irimi, tenkan, irimi,,,
and rolls ;)

[taras]

Phillip,

I sympathise with your situation. When I first started Aikido I was at school. My mum paid for my lessons while I obviousely didn't have my own income. Then one day, after a year she said I was not going to do any more Aikido as she could not afford paying for it. There was nothing I could do at the time and wasn't untill 4 years later that I could start again.

What I am saying is it could be a lot worse, at least you have a chance to get back to Aikido soon. I understand where you mum is coming from; she probably thinks that your Aikido takes up the time you need for school studies and she wants you to dedicate more time to school. If you think you can do anything at all to show her that you are making efforts at school and change her mind, maybe you should do that.

Meanwhile you can do some bits of training on your own. Do the warmup, rolls and breakfalls, shadow moves (imagine uke). You could also invite one of your mates from your dojo to practice with you.

Good luck

[Gerjan]

Ukemi around the house, practice breakfalls in the kitchen, kokyu nage the plants, and mawashi geri on your curtains...see how long it takes before you get booted back to Aikido ;)

[SeiserL]

One the one hand, my compliments to your parents for caring enough about your grades. Sounds like you let them slip. Hope this motivates you in the future.

On the other hand, Aikido may be part of the solution, not necessarily the problem. Is there some other reason your grades have slipped that needs addressing?

Phyiscally practicing the tenkan with proper alignment can be a great at home exercise. Add to it mental rehearsal of the technqiues. Do some reading from the library, and you it for extra credit book reports.

[TheFallGuy]

"On the one hand, my compliments to your parents for caring enough about your grades. Sounds like you let them slip. Hope this motivates you in the future."

I agree! You may not think school is important now, but you may come to realize it's importance in the future.

Some people ask my sensei. 'How often do you really practice Aikido?' and his response is 'Everyday.' This I've seen. He basically does a continuous randori (I don't think he'd have it any other way). This all comes from trying to balance everything. Aikido, family, school, (he's an interim Dept head, Director for the Water Lab) and God-only-knows how many committees and meetings. Not only is he happy, but he excels!

As for practicing Aikido, you can do it everyday. Take a different look at life. Remember the incoming energy that they sometimes talk about. Well, you can see it as this: Language homework? Energy. How do I 'roll' with this? Gym problems? Energy. How do I get around this? Multiple Exams? Energy. How do I maintain my balance and 'one-point'. Get into an Aikido mindset! And then you will be able to do Aikido everyday.

If there's other issues, maybe you need to talk to someone. I know that when I have troubles with my engineering, and my grades are not what I would like them to be. I can always approach my sensei, or I can even approach some of these professors (some don't like to help students, but most do (crazy mechanical engineers!!!)).

Get your grades up soon! It's much easier to keep your GPA up than to bring it up from a low grade! (Personal Experience)

Best of luck!