Top 10 Reasons Why You Joined Aikido

Because I grew out of getting pain induced kicks out of mosh pits...
And decided I could get them in a prettier way...
Because it just fits in beautifully with everything I do and believe...
Because I started several years ago, stopped and spent all that time missing it sorely...
Because it looks awesome!

my best friends dad started a class and i got dragged along to keep her company and since then i've been addicted

Ellie Hughes wrote: my best friends dad started a class and i got dragged along to keep her company and since then i've been addicted

Addicted you say? Welcome to the fold! If you haven't done so already, you will have to check out this thread to make sure. {sniff} Almost five years old .... I'm so proud. {sniff}

Top 10 Reasons I Joined Aikido:

10. I already lacked a social life. Might as well have a REASON for not having a social life!
9. Jujutsu was too much work.
8. Needed something to do on Friday night (see #10)
7. Needed a reason, as a grown woman without kids, to roll around on the ground.
6. Local Aikido class is small and close-knit
5. My Sensei is made of awesome. I HAD to be around that much awesomeness every week in hopes it would rub off. (hasn't yet)
4. Attacking people outside of a dojo is generally frowned upon.
3. I liked all the vowels in "Aikido."
2. Cheaper than therapy, less jail time than out-of-dojo assault.
1. Though I didn't know it at the time of my first class, my class became my family. I joined Aikido to be with my family

Because a gang of Otaku's were beating me up!!! LOL

1- I needed to do some sport.

2- It's cheap! yeyy

3- There was no Kung Fu in my town

4- MMA/ Muay Thai/ Boxe/Karate/TKD are for sissies

5- My mum hates the fact that I do Aikido... So... that's a good reason to do it. ^^

6- I wanted to learn how to defend myself from the school gangs :P

7- It's much cooler than the maths club!

8- Useful for a possible zombie apocalypse.

9- If I have to fight Chuck Norris, I least I lose with a bit of dignity. xD

10- The dojo has huge windows, so when my classmates pass by on the street, they look inside like "wooowwww she's throwing all those people! don't mess with her!" ahah

Because it gives me a way of dealing with an attacker short of shooting him.

Then during my first class I thought "I could get good at this if I persist long enough. . ."

Then I found the philosophy really fit well with my philosophy.

Now I keep trying to talk Sensei into doing more classes. Twice a week is not enough!

1 Seen a Steven Seagal movie DUH!
2 Like havin an excuse for weaponary at home (bokken and jo)
3 Always conciderd my broomstick as a deadly weapon.
4 my secret desire to wear a skirt
5 Like to be able to in stead of throwing a party to be throwing at a party.
6 because sankyo very much sounds better!
7 Ukime thats how i roll!
8 Like the idea that i have something to defend me from my wife
9 A good excuse to get away from my wife
10 Cheaper than going to a bar to get away from my wife

(disclaimer this is the humor section, and i do love my wife -just in case she reads along- )

1. Been wanting to learn a martial art since I was little, grew up on Karate Kid
2. Jealous of my brothers since they started learning TKD while I was in college
3. Saw it on my work's group exercise schedule
4. I get a class fee discount for being a Y employee
5. Loved it from the first class
6. It works surprisingly well with what I learned in theater
7. Gives me motivation to take care of myself and work out
8. Amazing sensei and awesome group of guys to train with
9. At 5'5", I'm the shortest one in class next to the kids so that has its own entertaining dynamic
10. Favorite ukemi are back break falls and extensions

1. Been wanting to learn a martial art since I was little, grew up on Karate Kid
2. Jealous of my brothers since they started learning TKD while I was in college
3. Saw it on my work's group exercise schedule
4. I get a class fee discount for being a Y employee
5. Loved it from the first class
6. It works surprisingly well with what I learned in theater
7. Gives me motivation to take care of myself and work out
8. Amazing sensei and awesome group of guys to train with
9. At 5'5", I'm the shortest one in class next to the kids so that has its own entertaining dynamic
10. Favorite ukemi are back break falls and extensions

because I don't have to destroy my body in the process of study.
because I can study it philosophically and spiritually even off the mat.

Tiffany Bowden wrote: because I don't have to destroy my body in the process of study.

*looks at his thumb splint*

Oh, NOW you tell me!

Because I finally found a group of people who share my affinity for dance-fighting in half a dress. Until now I was doing this at home by myself...

Emma Mason wrote: cuz I LIKE pain?

It's good to see a fellow closet Masochist.

1) Or, to quote the USMC: "Pain is weakness leaving the body." (Yeah right!). It's not so much 'liking' pain, as I have learned to appreciate it, and allow it to remind me that I'm alive.

For me there is also the element of: Therapy. Aikido-Therapy.
2) A nice blend of human interaction, both physical and emotional that doesn't involve sex. (Though we all do tend to get exceptionally sweaty).
3) Watching my fellow Aikidoka grow in experience and ability. Which allows me to do the same.
4) Making friendships on the mat that extend to off that mat too. I recently got to enjoy some of the work of Akira Kurosawa (Movie Director) for the first time.
5) To experience the joy of having someone smile when they see you. (Though some of them smile akin to the way a Tiger does).
6) To be amazed at the physical capabilities of others: When Sensei is leading the stretches and warmups, He/she says in a joking manner: "Now, touch your forehead to the mat." And someone does, easily.
7) The occasional light moment when even the most experienced Don stumbles on their Hakama.
8) Pushing the dustmop through the hordes of children that are on the mat after practice- can be a challenge, yet still fun.
9) Jo-staff kata. Need I say more?
10) I've been losing weight.