Hello Aikidokas, I am Pekka and I am happy to join this forum as an Aikido re-starter.
I started Aikido in 1990 in Kimusubi, Helsinki and then moved to Munich where I trained at Aikido Schule Heinz Patt. After moving back to Helsinki in 1993 I joined my current Dojo Awase Helsinki. After some years of training I had almost
20 years pause of not doing any Aikido...
Then Harri Rautila received his 7th Dan and Shihan and there was a "celebration training" for it and I decided to join that training. Luckily my gi and hakama still fit me and there I was - almost 60 years old and doing Aikido again.
That training made me to remember how great art Aikido is and after getting some pep talks from my two senseis: Harri Rautila and Markku Kuusinen (6th dan) I decided to start again. There were only couple of fellow trainers left from late nineties in my club - and obviously all of them had higher Dan ranks
So what did I do: I put all in. I started to train 3-4 times a week, most times two training sessions (one for beginners and one for advanced). I had to contact Finnish Aikido to check my rank - I was not sure if it was 3 or 2 kuy. It turned to be 3 and later I found my notes about my preparations for 2nd kuy back in nineties.
Before corona hit us, I managed to have 1+ year of really focused training and I did my 2nd and 1st kuy tests. My great plan was to have my shodan test this spring, just before I turn 60... but Corona has now severely affected my plans - I hope to take them later this year.
I have now trained a lot, read a lot and (now this is different from late nineties) watched also lots of videos. I even made a YouTube playlist for 1Kuy tests from great videos of François PICHEREAU (
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...h2TjJX-GES8RR).
I am very happy to be back in Aikido and really happy to join this forum.
And message to all of you who have had a long pause in training and are hesitant to start again:
Just do it - your body remembers more than you think. You will be soon back in track and age is not a problem - it just gives you more focus !
Cheers,
Pekka