Greetings all,
I'll be starting Aikido in about a week, first time in any MA. Have been doing a lot of reading (articles and lurking on these forums) and have a provisional conclusion that Aikido promises to be a good "fit" for me. (In theory, anyway. Will let you know how the reality turns out!)
That said, is there anything I can be doing now to get ready for class (stretching, maybe?) Can anyone offer a general idea of what the first few classes might involve? (This is a local community college class, so visiting beforehand is not an option.)
And, does anyone have experience training in a college-PE-class setting as opposed to a dojo? The teacher is a local sensei, so I'm expecting the instruction to be good, but it seems like a public-school semester class would have to have some different structure compared to a dojo where training is ongoing. My boyfriend is signed up also, and concerned about this re: some health issues that might impact his training. I keep telling him that Aikido seems to be an adaptable art and he can probably train around the bad shoulder, but he wonders if the classroom setting will force a more rigid expectation of what students must accomplish to earn credit for the course. Any thoughts there?
Yes, I know these questions will all be answered next week... but I'm too eager to wait! Appreciate your help and perspectives, and look forward to joining the conversations here.