Conrad Gus

When you start doing aikido the movements feel unnatural. It takes 6 months to a year to get over it. There are so many techniques that trying to "remember" them is a chore. Aikido is not techniques, it is a way of movement. We learn the way of movement by practicing a LOT of techniques.

When I started, I asked my sensei about a book (it was "dynamic sphere"). He made a funny face and told me that the book was written by a 2 dan and a 3 dan (not very experienced). His advice: skip the books and come to the dojo. It needs to go into your body, not your brain, and it's going to take a while.

I am a total book lover and have always read books, but I still find that aikido books and videos are not very helpful. After all this time my aikido "library" is just a small handful of books, but training is still great. If you have a good teacher, just train. Youtube can be inspiring, but might not be that practically helpful and might actually make things more confusing.

I know many people love learning from multimedia, but it's my experience that it can be a bit of a red herring. Just relax, train, and enjoy the process. It will be a great feeling when things start to "click" eventually!