chillzATL

I am.

I enjoy it. It's neat to use your body that way and feel what's going on in my body on that level, both on and off the mat. I can't see myself ever going back to using my body the old way again. For one, it's practically fixed back problems that I've had since I was a teenager.

It's increased the depth and understanding of what I'm doing aikido-wise tremendously. I'm definitely more stable, harder to move, more connected and stronger when doing aikido than before, for whatever that's worth. It's made me, at times, desire a greater level of active resistance, just to see how well I can hold it together, but I accept that this level is not what aikido is about. On the other side it's almost completely ruined by view of techniques or at least the endless repetition of techniques and the whole "your hand goes here, your foot goes there" way of doing them, if that makes sense.