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Old 04-19-2007, 05:44 AM   #1
Karol Kowalczyk
 
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Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 16
Poland
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If you could buy just ONE book about Aikido techniques, what would it be?

Hi everyone!

I have only been training for 2 weeks so far, but the summer holidays are coming, and my dojo is going to be closed for about 2 months during that this period, because it is located in a school gym hall. As, by that time, I will only have trained for 3 months, I'm a little concerned that I will forget most or all the things I have (and will have) learned by the time it opens again. I'm especially worried that I will lose all the physical benefits training has given me so far (I'm 37 in a couple of weeks, and the first week of training was a KILLER believe me )

I thought that it would be a good time to do some training on my own, so that I don't go out of shape, and maybe even by concentrating on some 'basics,' I may even have got better at them when the dojo opens again in September!

The kinds of things I'm interested in are things I can work on alone, such as stretches, tenkans, (seiza, yes, it still hurts like hell over 30 seconds!) the different names of the techniques, but I think most importantly, ukemi. As an 'oldie' they are the hardest part of it all, because my dojo doesn't have a seperate beginners class, and we do techniques for 6th and 5th kyu which require some 'head over heels' action, and I kind of go into a cold sweat just thinking about them.. . Also, any book that has good picture/explanations of detailed hand movements would be good because I wear glasses, and taking them off before training means I sometimes don't get a good look at the specific positions of hands during demonstrations.

I'm aware that there is a 'book reviews' section on this site, and I can also go through the (literally) hundreds of reviews on sites such as Amazon, but I really wanted to hear what book(s)has/have helped the people on this forum the most, because some books have very few reviews, but high ratings, and also it's hard to tell how much experience some of the reviewers have on other sites.

So, my question to you all is: "If you could buy just ONE book about Aikido techniques, what would it be?"

(I'm limiting myself to one book because of financial considerations, as well as for ease of carrying in a rucksack (I'm going to visit mummy during the summer!), but if you think there is more than one indispensable book, then please tell me.)

Thank you all for any help you can give.

Edit: Oops, I forgot, maybe I should mention that I train in the Aikikai style!

Last edited by Karol Kowalczyk : 04-19-2007 at 05:47 AM.
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