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Old 08-11-2008, 12:09 PM   #1
akiy
 
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First Aikido Memory

Hi folks,

So, what is your first memory of your aikido training?

How does thinking about this memory make you feel now?

-- Jun

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Old 08-11-2008, 01:00 PM   #2
Demetrio Cereijo
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Quote:
Jun Akiyama wrote: View Post
Hi folks,

So, what is your first memory of your aikido training?
Tori: Grab my wrist.
Uke (me) grabs wrist.
Tori: So.... you're a white collar, isn't it?.

Quote:
How does thinking about this memory make you feel now?
It makes me smile.
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Old 08-11-2008, 03:37 PM   #3
James Davis
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

My first aikido memory is that of a skinny-as-a-rail 12 year old girl putting me on my 20 year old duff with a kote gaeshi.

Today, this memory makes me aware of what the kids I teach are capable of. Hopefully, I can help them learn the skills to humble guys like the one I used to be.

"The only difference between Congress and drunken sailors is that drunken sailors spend their own money." -Tom Feeney, representative from Florida
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Old 08-11-2008, 05:32 PM   #4
Stefan Stenudd
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

It was in 1971, when I was 17. A friend of mine, a couple of years older, had practiced aikido quite intensely - but although he was a teenager, he never bragged about it. I had to drag it out of him, and that intrigued me. It must be something really special, when he was so reluctant to impress me with it.

Aikido was done by very few at that time, and almost nobody knew about it. I sure did not, so I insisted that he showed me something of it. Finally, he accepted, and said to me: "Grab my wrist."
A swift nikyo followed. I fell to the floor, and the pain was distinct, to say the least, but at the same time I was amazed by how easy it had been to him - like magic.
I decided right then and there, on the floor, massaging my wrist, that I had to learn it.

My sentiment is quite the same. I still want to learn it

Stefan Stenudd
My aikido website: https://www.stenudd.com/aikido/
My YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Aikidostenudd
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Old 08-11-2008, 05:37 PM   #5
Angela Dunn
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Re: First Aikido Memory

walking into the hall, being handed a gi and getting told to go get changed into that. Finally managed to wrestle self into it walked back in to have to be shown how to do the belt properly .

After that a feeling of utter confusion as I struggled to get my head around what was happening, a fair few giggles and the feeling of this is so cool whens the next class.
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Old 08-11-2008, 05:42 PM   #6
crbateman
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

My most vivid one was coming in, still in my bull-in-a-china-shop, do-unto-others-and-then-do-unto-them-some-more TKD mindset, and having Sensei insist I use him exclusively as uke, because he was concerned that I was gonna rip off some arms and beat people with them... (I've mellowed, if only slightly, since those days... )
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Old 08-11-2008, 05:47 PM   #7
shadowedge
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Oh wow...

Yeah.. it was an awesome sunny day at the park. A bit hot and windy but just right... I remeber eating the grass lots of times.

A very moving memory...hahaha.
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Old 08-11-2008, 10:07 PM   #8
xuzen
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Quote:
Jun Akiyama wrote: View Post
Hi folks,

So, what is your first memory of your aikido training?

How does thinking about this memory make you feel now?

-- Jun
Wow, dose are pwetty skirt.... me like skirt... me like men in skirt. Me join.

Boon.

SHOMEN-ATE (TM), the solution to 90% of aikido and life's problems.
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Old 08-11-2008, 10:25 PM   #9
Mark Uttech
Dojo: Yoshin-ji Aikido of Marshall
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Re: First Aikido Memory

My first view of aikido was watching a class of 21 students practicing udefuri-choyaku undo ( two step exercise). I felt like I was watching waves on a lake. I knew that moment that I was going to jump in the water and do aikido for the rest of my life.

In gassho,

Mark

- Right combination works wonders -
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Old 08-12-2008, 12:32 AM   #10
eyrie
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

It was in the early 1980s, when I was still a young'un. A classmate of mine who had done TKD with me, had by then dropped out of TKD, having found something "better". Being young, naive and a bit gung-ho, I did the dumbest thing possible... I said "Show me something"...

But unlike Stefan, there was no pain... and as he gently cradled my wrist which was grabbing his shirt, try as I might, I could not do anything... couldn't move, couldn't stand, couldn't release my grip....

I thnk the following Sunday I showed up at the Y where he trained, and after the TKD class, we did some basic ukemi on these really fat and really bouncy gym mats.

Last edited by eyrie : 08-12-2008 at 12:39 AM.

Ignatius
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Old 08-12-2008, 01:42 AM   #11
Nafis Zahir
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Mine is from when I first sat and watched an Aikido class before I joined. I thought to myself, "This is going to be easy. No punches, no kicks. I just have to learn how to roll and the rest will be easy." Of course, I was very wrong!

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Old 08-12-2008, 11:52 AM   #12
Bryan Sproles
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Re: First Aikido Memory

My first experience was in JuJitsu (hey, at least most of the techniques are the same ) - a classmate of mine at college said I should come and check it out for myself.

I did a few days later and met my (soon to be) sensei who asked me to grab his wrist so he could "show me what we do here."

I, like Stefan, was the recipient of a nikkajo (so called in his system, nikkyo for the rest of us), and I didn't even have time to think about it. I grabbed, and I was on my knee, hitting the ground with my hand several times before the pain stopped

I said, "Wow, I have *GOT* to learn how to do this stuff!" and I was in class the next week for 3.5 years of JuJitsu training.

Now as of about 3 weeks ago, I'm finally back in the martial arts, now in Aikido. It's still basically the same, but somehow different -- and still loads of fun

-Bryan
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Old 08-12-2008, 12:11 PM   #13
mari
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Re: First Aikido Memory

I can’t even remember when I first saw Aikido but I definitely remember what made me decide to switch martial arts. We used to share a dojo with Aikido, so I’ve seen a lot and I was impressed but not nearly as impressed as when I saw the dojo one day with no mats and a guy doing ushiro tobi ukemi on the wooden floors. I kid you not
It’s been quite a few years now and I still haven’t tried any breakfalls on wood. But I am thinking about it!

The first memory of actually training – hour and a half of foot work, step to the front, step to the back, step to the side, step to the other side
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Old 08-12-2008, 12:11 PM   #14
Larry Cuvin
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

My two daughters and I went in on a Thursday night for a Ki Aikido introduction. My memorable experience was not in the form of an aikido technique but on ki extension. When I was not able to bend my then 12yr old daughters arm, I was amazed, but when asked to lift her not even 90lb body and I couldn't, I was speechless, I could not rationalize what just happened. I was hooked form that point on.

Plus Ki
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Old 08-12-2008, 05:14 PM   #15
Ryokan
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Re: First Aikido Memory

I picked up a copy of George Leonard's The Ultimate Athlete at a garage sale when I was a teenager.

When I got to the part about the guy who fended off muggers just by centering, I was hooked.
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Old 08-13-2008, 09:17 AM   #16
James Edwards
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Re: First Aikido Memory

I did Aikido as a child for a few months, years before I started training properly.

I remember one of the very first techniques I learnt was simplified nikyo. I had some trouble with it of course but I was still quite amazed how I made my uke go down and I myself felt it as uke. Then there was also a simplified ikkyo and rokkyo. Was hooked while young...

Then in the large gap in between when I didn't do aikido I still read a bit about it and there was one incidence when my friend tried to punch me in the stomach (boys will be boys). For some reason it just felt natural to get out of the way to the side and send him running around me as I used some form of ikkyo. I couldn't make him go down of course since I barely had any training so I sent him crashing into a wall... It made me ask why I couldn't make him go down though and I became even more intrigued.

So when I went to uni one of the first thing I looked for was an aikido club. From there I learnt that aikido is a lot more
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Old 08-13-2008, 11:16 AM   #17
Tinyboy344
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

I was born and raised Catholic, first started Aikido for a year when I was 13 so.... it felt weird to bow in at the beginning of the class "why do I have to bow to the photo of the old dude on the wall!?!?"
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Old 08-14-2008, 08:54 AM   #18
Mary Eastland
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

One of my first memories is doing shomen uchi kokyu nage and realizing that I had done it before....this was after about six months of training. ;o)
Mary
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Old 08-14-2008, 12:19 PM   #19
RonRagusa
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Quote:
Jun Akiyama wrote: View Post
So, what is your first memory of your aikido training?
Showing up a week early for my first class.

Ron
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Old 08-14-2008, 12:52 PM   #20
Peter Wong
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Re: First Aikido Memory

The first time I saw Aikido was in the early 70's. As I was about to leave the dojo after a Karate class I looked over to the Judo mats and saw a small Japanese man bowing to four much bigger men.
The men charged the Japanese man one after another and they got thrown around one after another. This went on for a couple of minutes. I left the dojo thing WOW ! What I was told about Aikido is true "Aikido is fake". That little guy couldn't do that to four big guys in a real fight. Well it wasn't until about twenty-five years later that I fpund out that that small Japanese man was the late Mitsunari Kanai Sensei. And yes he could do that to four much bigger guys.
If onlly I had not filled my cup so early in life, I could have enjoyed
Aikido longer...
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Old 08-14-2008, 02:30 PM   #21
Marc Abrams
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Re: First Aikido Memory

I came from "hard" arts and fighting sports. I started training in Aikido with Imaizumi Sensei and thought to myself that nobody was really trying to hit the teacher. After several months, Sensei called me up as an uke for a shomen-uchi attack. I decided to really try and crush his head with a fully committed, balanced attack. The sensation that I had was as if I had jumped off of a three story building onto a trampoline. I flew back for 3-5 feet in the air and hit a padded wall. when the cobwebs cleared from my eyes, I looked up at Sensei who was smiling at me, arms in the Ikkyo-connection position and he said "just go like this" (he moved softly). I am still in Aikido today, still training directly with Imaizumi Sense still trying to "go like this."

Marc Abrams
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Old 09-04-2008, 01:12 PM   #22
Amanda
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Well my first technique was munatuski kotegaeshi and I could not throw a half way reasonable punch. In the end my instructor made me actually hit him (I strongly suspect this hurt me more than him...).
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Old 09-04-2008, 08:57 PM   #23
Janet Rosen
 
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Re: First Aikido Memory

At the end of my first class, about which technique-wise I remember absolutely nothing (but it probably involved suwariwaza shomenuchi ikkyo) my instructor had us stand back to back and the next thing I knew I was being lifted horizontally for a nice relaxing backstretch however since I had no idea that was the intent I panicked and let loose the loudest scream, excuse me, kiai, ever heard.

Janet Rosen
http://www.zanshinart.com
"peace will enter when hate is gone"--percy mayfield
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Old 09-05-2008, 05:18 AM   #24
Eva Antonia
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Hello,

my first aikido experience was induced by my biggest son, who had yearned for doing martial arts since he was six, and finally, when he was nearly eight, we found a dojo near to our house. At that time, I din't even know what "aikido" was, but it was listed under "martial arts", so we thougth we give it a try.

I phoned the club if we could come for a trial session, and there was a very old guy who answered profusely and friendly, and when we showed up, we found out he was the teacher.

At that time, I didn't have the least intention to join the club; I had lived 20 years without sports and was happy with it. Then they started, and after some minutes I found myself shyly asking if I could participate, too.

The old, old teacher got attacked by guys twice his size and a third his age, and they did tremendous breakfalls. My son and I thought
a) it's just a show
b) if we ever would have to do similar falls, it would break all our bones.

We saw in the first lesson that it was NOT a show and that the teacher was really able to send a person on the mat with just a slight tip of his finger. We found out much later that doing breakfalls was actually enormous fun and didn't break any bones, but the most overwhelming memory was to see the ease and fluency with which this frail old teacher handled the attackers - and to understand it was the real thing.

Best regards,

Eva
(with a deep reverence to Henri Behr senior of CERIA aikido club)
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Old 09-06-2008, 06:17 AM   #25
barry.clemons
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Re: First Aikido Memory

Quote:
Jun Akiyama wrote: View Post
Hi folks,

So, what is your first memory of your aikido training?

How does thinking about this memory make you feel now?

-- Jun
hmmmm.....

My first memory of aikido training revolves around major confusion. Even though everyone was very nice to me, and even though I knew I was a beginner, I felt very much like a child. Everything was new. Everything I thought I knew was not applicable (read=wrong), and I need to relearn alot of things.

Thinking about this memory now... I think about that memory all the time. I use that memory to remind myself to empty my cup every day before training.

Barry Clemons
"The virtuous man is self-sufficient and undisturbed; not a slave of circumstance or emotion" - Zeno
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