*ROFL* at "Still needs work"
I've been training in Aikido, after doing no other martial art ever, and no physical exercise at all in about the last 6 years
I started on the 10th April and have been training three times a week, so roughly 5/6 hours of training a week.
The techniques listed above seem to be along the same lines as those I have learned, I have a month before my first test (29th June), my rolls are coming along nicely (as the secondary instructor commented, at nearly 400lbs, and I'm rolling.. imagine how storming ahead I'd be if I were of a smaller size!
), and breakfalls are simply a hysterical way to hit the floor
Received no formal training with them just yet, but I have a go nonetheless. I usually start with attempts at breakfalls towards the end of class when I'm getting too tired to want to roll out of techniques
When I began training I found that for a good few weeks everything said went in one ear and out of the other, and I regarded this as some form of preparation, just a grounding in what your body was about to be put through, then quite literally, Blam! Blam! Blam! It ALL starts coming together, you begin to remember techniques, associate those awkward Japanese names with the techniques, and then even begin doing them correctly
I haven't stopped aching since my first session, and have no intentions of stopping aching anytime soon.
Good luck!
-Daniel.