Visiting a Mission Viejo Dojo on Holiday

I had the pleasure of visiting Mission Aikido during a visit to Mission Viejo Calif. for my daughters mountain bike racing/training camp. The Sensei and students were welcoming and I had two great practices.

It is always interesting to visit other dojos as teaching styles and techniques allow me to view and question my practice.

Mission Viejo, in my understanding, is a new dojo (opened last August) and are starting to build up their student base which was different from our dojo which is celebrating our 30th Anniversary in August.

On the two occasions I was there the Sensei was teaching techniques that were the same but different than they way we practice and I know that I had to focus more that usual to "learn" their techniques. In the past I would have avoided this as it might have confused me and also it is a hassle to travel with all my holiday gear and gi, hakama and old/bad knee protectors, especially when I have all my cycling gear with me.

My point here is that I would like to hear of others experiences of dojo visits and what you learned from these experiences.

Thanks Sensei Dale Eisenberg for your warm welcome.

I have only visited one dojo and that was in Seattle. Things weren't done too differently, but the dynamics of the dojo were. For one, there were lots of females and in my dojo they are an endangered species. The way techniques were demonstrated and described were also differenent. I was surprised to see just how much I rely on our dojo's warm up routine as a way to sort of relax and get myself in the correct mind frame. I wasn't able to do relax as much because it was a totally different warm up routine.

In the end, I think it was a great experience. I was outside of my comfort zone, working with different people in a different dojo and it was just neat to learn from a new person who used a different teaching method all together. I am a fan of training outside of your own dojo.