Are there any young aikisokas out there?

Hi! my name is Daniella Lindberg, I live in Sweden Stockholm and train in Iyasaka Dojo. I started to train when I was 12 years old, now I am 17.I have first kyu and in april (only three weeks to go)I will try on shodan.
I study in English scool south, the natural science programe, pretty hard. I trained younger children before but now I have not got the time but I will continue with that in a few years. I love aikido and the people that train with me. I sometimes feel like I am to small, both age and size. Are there any people that have the same problem as I so send me a message. I want to go to Japan and train but I have to wait until I am a little bit older.

Bye Daniella

daniellla@everyday.com

I guess is tough if you´re the only teen in an adult group, is that your case Daniella? And yet the sooner you start, the better (the top instructors in my association began as 10 year old kids!). Good luck to you in your shodan test and all your other endeavours (you´ll love Japan!)

Hi Daniella,

I would not worry too much about being small in size, it seems to help in Aikido. I am 19 and I really enjoy Aikido, I have been doing it for about a year now. I train in the adults class. Nearly all of them except my brother and a couple of others are at least twice my age. I think you have to remember what ever age/rank you are you can learn somthing off anyone.

But we do actually have someone in the adults class and he is about 15 I think and much smaller thany anyone else. He still trains he has no real problems with training apart from he is new so the rolls, breakfalls and confidence he is still working on.

Jeremy