Your Aikido Evolved

Got this thought from another thread.

How many of you have experienced an evolution, of sorts, in your training?

Let me try and clarify a bit.

I originally started training in aikido because of how well it's philosophy fit into my law enforcement career. I saw it as a means of self-defense that would allow myself to escape harm while hopefully doing the same to the "attacker", and therefore keeping my butt out of trouble.

Already, though, my reasons for training have shifted...a LOT. It's become more of a personal challenge now. After years in the MMA scene I feel like I have a chance to start over with something completely new. Something completely different from anything i've ever done. I'm finding it hard as hell too.

I'm 100% positive that each of you have had huge leaps in this aspect. I know that it could very well change with each day or even each second. I'd like to hear about them though.

Perhaps one of you had a revelation while training one day that completely altered the course of your training forever. Maybe you kept a lot of your goals intact, but maybe your overall goal changed considerably.

Look forward to some responses.

My goals haven't changed, but I had trained in other martial arts (not MMA, which with all respect doesn't give you the same thing, I don't think), so I knew what I was after when I started training aikido.

IMHO, the only way not to evolve is not to be mindful and open to new information. Its constantly evolving.

Lynn Seiser wrote: IMHO, the only way not to evolve is not to be mindful and open to new information. Its constantly evolving.

From the original post:

Already, though, my reasons for training have shifted...a LOT.

There's a difference between a person evolving and their reasons for training shifting.

There's a difference between a person evolving and their reasons for training shifting.

True.

I'm so new to aikido that I haven't really evolved as a person yet though. Or maybe I have and I just haven't realized it yet.

For me, the only thing that has evolved is my reasons for training. I don't want to split hairs here, but to me that IS evolution. Mostly because I feel that a simple shift from self-defense to a personal challenge is a step up for me.

Mary have you evolved as a person since you started your aikido training? And have your training goals changed at all?

In an article my sensei recently wrote, he said that the ideas you face in learning aikido inevitably have an affect on your personality. The longer I practice, the more I see the concepts in aikido presenting themselves in a variety of situations in my life.

Recently I've become more aware of the ego involved in my practice. Ego that I receive the best instruction from sensei because of the dojo (he teaches at 5 or more dojos) I'm at, ego that I should be better because I'm 2 dan, and things like this that really have absolutely nothing to do with my true ability. At a recent seminar, I worked with several people that were a lot stronger that I am, and I couldn't do the technique. You can become a lot more aware of something like this when you practice with people outside your dojo. Should they have resisted less? I don't know. At this point I really want to know if my aikido will work on anyone, and of course it does not.

James Cavin wrote: Mary have you evolved as a person since you started your aikido training? And have your training goals changed at all?

Whether and how I've "evolved as a person" is outside the scope of this discussion. I refer again to the original post.

My training goals have not changed at all. I already explained why this is: I had already trained in other martial arts, and I had a pretty good idea of what training in aikido would be like. Apart from the specifics of kicking in this style vs. joint locks in that style, the process of training in a martial art is basically the same thing no matter what the style. The most salient and significant features don't change. The nature of "practice" doesn't change, the revelations that come through practice are pretty much the same, the nature of progress (or lack thereof) through this type of practice is the same. The experiences of setbacks, of becoming injured, of struggling and getting in your own way and getting over it, are all the same. You train. If you stick with it, you inch forward. Sometimes it seems like you just made a big breakthrough, although in reality I think that's never so: your conscious mind just caught on to something that the rest of your self has been absorbing over...months? years? Sometimes it feels like you're not learning anything, but that too is illusion: you just don't have it all tied up in a neat package that you can put your hand to and a label on. It's what I've experienced before, and it's what I expected in aikido -- so no, my goals haven't changed at all.

James Cavin wrote: How many of you have experienced an evolution, of sorts, in your training?

Nice inquiry.
I was lucky to be introduced to aikido by people who had elevated views on it, so I did not have to make those transitions all by myself

Anyway - and this might offend some of you guys: After three years of training (like the Japanese saying: "Three years on a stone...") I had kind of a Satori in aikido, where I felt I understood it all (please don't laugh), and could do all. I was in Heaven for a while.

Still, after that experience, I got right back to the very basics of it, digging my feet down into the ground, struggling anew with ikkyo, shihonage, and the rest. But it felt wonderful, like working on those techniques really for real.

Since then, I think my aikido has evolved in much more modest ways than it felt like at that moment, but I do believe (and hope) that it has improved - for real.

I would say all practitioners evolve as their Aikido does, as you face challenges and adapt to them. There's a saying that every external change is mirrored by an internal one and vice versa.

Also, people's training goals change as the face surprising challenges, like "Hey, my shiho nage didn't work on this person" when you thought you were pretty good.

In my own training, I've gone through many periods of struggle and then had quantum leaps in my ability. For instance, things didn't work well for me early in Aikido (after practicing other MA for many years) until I "discovered" moving my center and moving uke's. That really brought me to a new level in what amounted to a single session.

Stefan Stenudd wrote: Nice inquiry. I was lucky to be introduced to aikido by people who had elevated views on it, so I did not have to make those transitions all by myself Anyway - and this might offend some of you guys: After three years of training (like the Japanese saying: "Three years on a stone...") I had kind of a Satori in aikido, where I felt I understood it all (please don't laugh), and could do all. I was in Heaven for a while. Still, after that experience, I got right back to the very basics of it, digging my feet down into the ground, struggling anew with ikkyo, shihonage, and the rest. But it felt wonderful, like working on those techniques really for real. Since then, I think my aikido has evolved in much more modest ways than it felt like at that moment, but I do believe (and hope) that it has improved - for real.

Beautiful Post and this has been close to what I have experianced as well.

I really enjoy the evolution into "Beginners Mind".

When I began Aikido, I was asked by one Sensei "Do you want to learn a martial art, or do you want to learn Aikido". At the time I said I wanted to learn a martial art without having any true understanding of what it means to practice Aikido.
Four months into my training I began to change, that is, I began to percieve that Aikido offered far more than simply martial techinique. I have always been "spiritually orientated", and so I started to try to undestand Aikido principles and philophies quite seriously.
Nine months into my training I experienced a 'revelation', if you like. That is, Aikido isn't something you learn but rather it is something you become. Suddenly I began to understand how relative Aikido was to every possible aspect of day to day living. Aikido is essentially a way of existence.

So basically, my goal of wishing to learn a martial art transformed to wishing to learn Aikido once I had learned to embrace it on more than a purely martial level.

After my Aikido training I went into various arts like Arnis/Kali, Taekwondo, Karate and BJJ.

I still believe that my foundation is Aikido but I try to be more realistic during training I use atemi as a legitimate strike rather than a distraction as I was previously taught and I train myself with a weapon that I would most likely have in a given situation like shorter sticks and knives. I also consider ground situations why I mix the "ground fighting" strengths of bjj and mix it with our very own wrist locks like a sankyo, or a nikkyo.

All in all I believe that the manifestation (physical display) of my Aikido has already evolved. However I believe that Aikido is truly a way of life so in essence applying Aikido thinking into non-martial situations is the higher call of O sensei and should be the ones that never change.

Sincerely,

Iking

I began Aikido as a partner for my young son who was too shy to train alone. It has become the articulation in movement of my life path. "The way of harmony." There is never a day that I do not learn, There has never been a day that I have not enjoyed. It is a perpetual moving without urgency toward nowhere.