Thread: Hi there...
View Single Post
Old 10-10-2003, 06:20 PM   #2
Tim Griffiths
Dojo: Nes Ziona Aikikai
Location: Suzhou, China
Join Date: Aug 2001
Posts: 188
China
Offline
Hi James,

Welcome to aikido and aikiweb.

About your knees: Do you know if they hurt from kneeling a while in seiza, or from the rolls, or the stances? If its from sitting (this is the usual one) then time and practice will improve it. One nice method I heard here was this: When you're watching TV, sit in seiza during the adverts. Since you're in the US, and get a lot of adverts, this should help within a couple of weeks. If in the end you can sit for 15 minutes comfortably, that's enough for normal aikido practice.

Another common source of knee pain is when doing shikko, or knee-walking. This is just a question of doing it right.

When you try somthing new, there'll always
be some pains as the body adjusts, using muscle groups its not used to, or holding itself in a different way.

So the short answer is no - there's nothing inherent in aikido which is bad for the knees. Having said this, many aikidoka (especially older ones) did judo before moving to aikido, and have bad knees from that. Also, doing aikido badly can strain your knees, particularly bad rolls (where you let the knees hit the floor) and bad tenkans (turning 180 with you foot glued to the floor, so you torque the knee).
Many people didn't find out that they were making these mistakes until they already had knee problems.

Hope all that helps,

Tim

Last edited by Tim Griffiths : 10-10-2003 at 06:23 PM.

If one makes a distinction between the dojo and the battlefield, or being in your bedroom or in public, then when the time comes there will be no opportunity to make amends. (Hagakure)
  Reply With Quote