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Old 01-27-2007, 03:52 PM   #1
Roman Kremianski
Dojo: Toronto Aikikai
Location: Toronto, Canada
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 404
Canada
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Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Hi

Did many of you here practice Aikido while attending school? Preferably, while living on your own? How did you guys cope? How often were you able to make it?

Doing Aikido through my high school years was carefree, but since I've graduated, there might be a chance I'll have to move out once college starts in September. Something tells me I won't be able to keep up the 6 days a week schedule I've been holding ever since I stepped on the cursed addicting mat!

Thanks for any advice or stories shared.

(Have a Sempai who slept in the dojo changing room for a few months while attending school and being short on budget)

-Roman
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Old 01-27-2007, 04:00 PM   #2
Freerefill
 
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Location: In my dojo. Where else?
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I'm in college at the moment and going to class 4 days a week. Since it's a small dojo (there are days when there are only 4 or 5 people on the mat) there aren't a lot of training days, a slim 4 days a week, 2 hours per session. It doesn't really conflict with my schedule, since 3 of the 4 days are Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 4th day being Wednesday.

But something tells me our situations are quite different. I don't have a job and the dojo is right in my schools gym, so it's just a short walk away. If I were to offer advice, I'd remind you want you're going to college for: an education. Aikido is a hell of a time and very addicting, but your education must take precidence. Just keep your chin up and your eyes and ears open and you'll manage. Ganbatte!

Adults are just outdated children, and the hell with them. - Dr. Suess

It's senpai's fault. - Andy-senpai
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Old 01-27-2007, 06:02 PM   #3
Michael Varin
Dojo: Aikido of Fresno
Join Date: May 2005
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Roman,

I started aikido while in college; at the time I was living on my own. First, I trained in a PE class through the school, then at the instructor's dojo. The class was twice per week. When I started going to the dojo it increased to 3 or 4 times per week. The following semester I structured my class schedule to fit the dojo schedule; I was training 11 time per week. After about a year, I decided to put college on hold, became an uchi deshi, and moved into the dojo. That lasted for a year, then I went back to college and finished my degree.
Quote:
Mark Mercier wrote:
If I were to offer advice, I'd remind you want you're going to college for: an education. Aikido is a hell of a time and very addicting, but your education must take precidence.
In reality, this is a personal decision. It's absurd to limit education to formal schooling. A person learns, in one form or another, from every activity he participates in. Life is education. Formal schooling is only a tiny fraction of it.

You have to decide what you want out of life. Is aikido a hobby, or is it more? If you choose this one thing, what do you have to give up? If you search your mind, you'll find plenty of answers.

Michael
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Old 01-27-2007, 07:30 PM   #4
Lyle Bogin
Dojo: Shin Budo Kai
Location: Manhattan
Join Date: Feb 2002
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I trained constantly while in college, and switched from a pre-med to an east asian studies major. I used to party all night and then just go to practice in the morning.

Ah, when I was young....

Depends on how good you play the "game" of college, what kind of coursework you have etc. Near the end I took almost an entire semester off from training so that I could graduate on time.
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Old 01-29-2007, 06:54 AM   #5
Amanda
Dojo: Exeter Ki Aikido
Location: Devon
Join Date: Dec 2004
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I took up Aikido as Physics postgrad and I make it to the dojo three days a week (which is all the classes there are). I find it is a very good antidote to a stressful/long day in the lab and definitely better for me than going out and getting drunk three days a week. Not to mention cheaper too

I've missed class on occasion because my experiments / meetings were running late it nagged a little at the time but there was no real decision to make. I'm at Uni to get my PhD, everything else has to come after that.

As to travel, I don't drive so I rely on the buses.Admittedly my dojo is in a convenient location Student price weekly tickets are a godsend
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Old 01-29-2007, 10:55 AM   #6
Rod Yabut
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 62
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Hi Roman,
I started Aikido literally the first day after I graduated college. My interest was peaked when I took a philosphy of asian martial arts class (I needed an easy A) in my last semester. To my dismay, everyone that took it had a martial art background except me! Since we had to do a show and tell, and I had nothing to show, the professor told me to do a book report on Aikido.

Looking back, if I got into earlier like you and your sempai, I probably would've gone to a college that's close to a dojo with uchideshi programs and slept there. Cheaper than a dorm!
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Old 01-30-2007, 09:14 AM   #7
Beard of Chuck Norris
Dojo: Aberdeen Aikido Yuishinkai
Join Date: Apr 2006
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United Kingdom
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I started Aikido in my final honours year of uni. I had a job too and my own flat so at the time i could only go once a week, That was enough to learn the yellow belt syllabus and the orange too but i wanted more!
So.... logically I dropped the hours at work and took up another day of aikifying. Then we opened up a town club so 2 days a week became 3 which was tres cool. Also, kendo 1-2 times per week made for some pretty hectic study sessions! Still in uni doing a masters and i try not to allow my work to interfere with my budo... wait should that be the other way around?
Hell no!

peace and love budoka

jo
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Old 01-30-2007, 03:50 PM   #8
Trish Greene
Dojo: Aikido-Kajukenbo Self Defense Center
Location: Boise
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 98
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I am starting to think that no matter what stage of life you are in, there is alway something there to keep you busy. I wish I was in college and trying to find time practice! As it is, working fulltime and a mom with active teenage kids tend to keep me to the dojo only once a week. When I was in college, I was newly married, working and had two kids both under 5 yo. I LONG for that kind of energy now!!!

I guess what I am trying to say is, life keeps you busy. Make what ever it is in your life that monopolizes your time fun and enjoyable!
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Old 01-30-2007, 06:07 PM   #9
aikidjoe
Dojo: Tenzan Aikido / Boulder Aikikai
Location: Boulder, CO
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

For me the hardest part is balancing the three parts of my life: school, martial arts, and friends. Each demands some time, many times at the same time, and it's hard to choose which is more important when they conflict. Martial arts will always be there after you graduate from college; the college life will not. In any case, you eventually figure out how to organize yourself to train as often as you like, have time for school, and hang out with your friends (who eventually will understand that when you say you have to go to Aikido practice, that is FINAL!) So party hard, work hard, and train hard.
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Old 01-31-2007, 03:14 AM   #10
Ecosamurai
 
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Quote:
Jo Duncan wrote:
I started Aikido in my final honours year of uni. I had a job too and my own flat so at the time i could only go once a week, That was enough to learn the yellow belt syllabus and the orange too but i wanted more!
And we're damn glad to have you with us

I started aikido in 1997 at the beginning of my first year of undergraduate studies, we had up to 8hrs a week of training available to us back then. For the first few weeks I went on Mondays and Wednesdays (4hrs tot), then I started going on Saturdays too and I've hardly stopped since

For the original poster of the thread, 6 days a week of aikido is a lot more than most people get, I only get three, plus one or two of kendo and that absorbs a huge amount of my time. I can do this only because I'm:

1) Still a student (well only for another 6 months or so while I finish the PhD) which means I have very flexible working hours.
2)My girlfriend also does aikido (but not kendo), so she spends time with me while we train. If she didn't then it'd be an entirely different situation

I think that most people have to practice less than 5 or 6 days per week if they have a regular job plus family or girlfriend/boyfriend responsibilities.

Regards

Mike

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King Jr
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Old 01-31-2007, 03:32 AM   #11
Peter Goldsbury
 
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Quote:
Roman Kremianski wrote:
Hi

Did many of you here practice Aikido while attending school? Preferably, while living on your own? How did you guys cope? How often were you able to make it?

Thanks for any advice or stories shared.

(Have a Sempai who slept in the dojo changing room for a few months while attending school and being short on budget)

-Roman
I started aikido while I was at university and continued training all through my passage through academia until I came to live in Japan, and then continued training at the same university where I am now a professor. All through this period training varied between three and seven times per week (sometimes twiceon the same day). So it is really thanks to the college system that I encountered the art to begin with and have been able to train for so long.

However, practising aikido meant that it took far longer to finish my Ph.D. than it should have done. Nevertheless, as someone who is quite a way further down life's path than you are, let me emphasize that you cannot turn back the clock. You just need to remember that the choices you make now will have consequences later on.

P A Goldsbury
_______________________
Kokusai Dojo,
Hiroshima,
Japan
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Old 01-31-2007, 04:43 AM   #12
Ecosamurai
 
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Quote:
Peter A Goldsbury wrote:
However, practising aikido meant that it took far longer to finish my Ph.D. than it should have done.
I know the feeling well

Mike Haft

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men."
-Martin Luther King Jr
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Old 01-31-2007, 01:38 PM   #13
Roman Kremianski
Dojo: Toronto Aikikai
Location: Toronto, Canada
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Thanks for sharing everybody!
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Old 02-01-2007, 05:56 AM   #14
kokyu
Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 283
Hong Kong
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

I started Aikido at university. It was a well run, friendly university club. Because most of the practitioners were university students, there would always be new faces, as people graduated and moved on in life. As such, the average level of Aikido was not as high as a permanant dojo off-campus, where one would expect to see a relatively large group of yudansha. However, I have to thank my friend for introducing me to the club... otherwise I would never have 'stepped into a larger world'

After working for a while, I went to a different school for postgraduate studies. I practiced at an off-campus dojo, about 70 minutes by train. Because the ride was over an hour, I would make it a point to attend double sessions (2 hours) 3 days a week... of course, one of the senior students told me that 3 days a week wasn't enough

Vacation periods were the best, as I could attend as many times as my body could take (the dojo had classes every day of the week, in the morning, afternoon and evening on weekdays)... which is why I am surprised you could train 6 days a week... I found out that my maximum was 4 days a week.... beyond which the aches and strains would never go away...

Anyway, training during university days is really the best... as you are only responsible for yourself... so time is less of an issue... it's so much harder when you are working and everyone stares at you for leaving the office a bit earlier than usual to attend practice
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Old 02-01-2007, 09:16 AM   #15
Beard of Chuck Norris
Dojo: Aberdeen Aikido Yuishinkai
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Re: Doing Aikido while in college/uni

Quote:
Mike Haft wrote:
And we're damn glad to have you with us

Such kind words Sensei.

I shall remember them when i hit you with my shinai!!

peace and love

jo
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