defeating myself!

bless you ... but its my uke ing skills that are letting me down! ... sigh

Emma, don't worry everyone has trouble with ukeing at some point. I still do, ask nick and steve . As they often say to me all it takes is time, I am sure if you put in the practise and the effort then you will progress. Some people just pick things up quicker then others but it will happen. Remember when u first started and u started taking ukemi some people picked it up after a couple of classes and others look a while longer, its the same thing some people are natual ukes some need to work on it, so don't worry, just keep training and see what happens.

And steve, beating me up eh? Aye its true Oh well its what i train with you for.

Hang in there Emma - you don't strike me as a timid type! Try reading Lynn's article Creating Internal Resources - it is a good place to start. Keep in mind we are all timid, scared at some point! Just use your mind to overcome the fear and practice to control your movements so they just naturally flow. (without you thinking about them!)

im still going. thanks for all the advise guys!

Surprisingly, I found that I felt less scared after I got hurt a few times. After all, it doesn't hurt forever. Now I just remind myself of that before they start attacking me.

Keep training. I remember a new girl years ago who was very very skinny and nervous. She used to just cover her head with her hands when attacked and crouch over. After a while she learned to stand upright and extend with her arms, as well as moving off centre line effectively. Lots of simple bokken cutting with moving off centre line (to develop confidence and power in raising your arms and quick reactions). Also, gradually get people to attack you harder and faster until you get used to the fact that you can move easily with the slightest of motions and completely avoid the attack - once you get used to that the power of the attack is irrelevant because you're not there!

Hope this helps

Ian

P.S. that new girl developed into one of the most powerful aikidoka I've seen.