Diana Frese

I'm an old mat rat who isn't training now but I know I could. Right now we have to concentrate on work, finances and doing what it takes to preserve our home, which has enough land to train on our own as basis for visiting others in the future. Right now, no transpo, but hubby car pools with friends for carpentry and drives a limo on days off.

Injuries? He broke a part of the side prong of a vertebra in his neck when someone in the judo club his friends belong to did a shoulder throw too hard and my husband is real tall.

For him,weight training with a metal bar and old tires behind a tree in our yard helped build back correctly after some physical therapy.As for me, I got sciatica from possibly age related lower back vertebra problems and after physical therapy was told to do gardening! My hobby. So that's a way to safely get the necessary bending and stretching.

This is just another example of how others deal with the physical problems and manage to train again.
Hope the additional encouragement helps, so here is one more. I had taught Aikido at our local YMCA. I met my husband there, helped him with his work and looked after the cooking and errands at the same time as another dojo was building up in a loft in a nearby town. When I tried some stretches when we went to visit my parents -- the weather was so nice, the lawn was spring green --
rip rip plantar fascitis on both heels. And then my knee got weird, possibly as a result.

A couple of years later, I had another dojo. And people to practice with. No ukemi, the little room off the loft woodshop we had was too small, the wall of old windows was too scary and besides I had five students most of whom had some injury or other reason they fitted in best with my classes rather than going elsewhere!

Then all kinds of factors dispersed the dojo, all kept in touch, at least for a while, and it was a valuable experience because we learned that there is always some way to practice Aikido, with people willing to adapt. We and our partners can find some mutual adjustment, if we are motivated and open minded. I hope your healing from the injury goes well, and that you find understanding Aikido people to work with. Could be the people you started with!