Hi there all. I'm a new aikido student, just finished my first month of training with a fantastic dojo and I think I'm addicted.
Warning, TL;DR....
Having lost a lot of weight controlling my diet, I decided late last year to take it up a notch and get in good shape as well. I have always been interested in the martial arts since I feel the need for exercise with purpose, direction, and a sense of accountability. Since I was much put off by very poor experiences with overly aggressive sales tactics in the past, I was very selective this time.
I chose aikido because of the deemphasis on competition and sparring, and because I've always been terrified of falling and figured I should fix that. I liked Yoshinkan because it seemed to be more practical and applied. Our group is pretty interesting, the older fellows are mostly LEOs and Sensei also teaches takedown/control, firearms, and judicious use of force to police departments in the area. We do about an hour of PT before we start training. Never done so many push-ups in my life.
I'm glad to meet everyone here, and hope you'll put up with my excitement at finally finding a niche.
New Yoshinkan Aikidoka
