Hello All,
I've been doing martial arts (if you wish to count boxing as a martial art ) for 21 years, but only took Aikido classes very briefly in college, In fact, it was only one semester. I loved the class but didn't continue mostly for financial reasons. I basically did what I could for free, taking a semester of Aikido, a semester of Tae Kwon Do and being a member of the Boxing Club for 4 years.
I loved the Aikido class, and continue to practice many of the moves I learned at that time to this day. Recently, my daughter has begun taking Kenpo classes, and this has rekindled my enthusiasm for martial arts (the fire never really died, but it has been a very low flame for many years).
As we were practicing with punching pads, my daughter struggled to keep her hands still, and it occurred to me that I should teach her Immovable Arm (or is it Unbendable Arm? I get the terms mixed up after all these years...), as taught to me by my Aikido Master in college.
So, I got on the computer and did a search for "Aikido Immovable Arm". The first result on my search didn't look promising, so I clicked on my second result instead. That link brought me here.
The look on my face must have been priceless when I saw the name of a person who had responded to the thread....Ron Ragusa. You see, Ron Ragusa is the very instructor I was thinking of as I started the search. I joined this forum mostly to see if it was really him (it was, by the way), but I think I may hang around too.
Even though I spent so little time studying Aikido, I greatly appreciate the philosophy behind it. As I start to get back into martial arts, with the eventual intent to start taking lessons again, I think I am most likely going to start taking Aikido lessons.
So there you are, the story of a Newbie in Aikido who has been at it for almost 20 years