new student intro

Hello All!
My name is Chris. I have enjoyed reading through the various forums and posts. I have recently joined a Dojo with my 10 yr. old son. Neither of us have any martial arts experience. I did some research for a few weeks on Aikido because I have been drawn to it for a long time now and thought it would be great to get into with my son. I am so glad I am a student!! I look forward to not only learning some self-defense, but more importantly learning about the harmony involved/inteded in the whole lifestyle of Aikido. I also look forward to always growing with my son and other Aikidoka in applying Aikido as a lifestyle and not only some sport or self-defense tool. So far, sooo fun!
-Chris

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your introduction and welcome to the AikiWeb Forums! I hope you'll feel welcome in jumping into the discussions here.

-- Jun

Hi Chris,

It's great to be able to do things like this with your family. I started aikido 3 years ago, after my 2 sons (now 11 and 13) had been in it for a year (we also had no prior m.a. experience). I loved it from the moment I stepped on the mat, and my kids taught me how to do front and back rolls.

My youngest then joined in at age 5 and I help out with the kids class every week (although my instructor usually steers me away from working with my own kids ).

It has been really great, and, although there have been a couple of moments when they've thought about quitting, they've ended up continuing with it; my oldest has even said he would like to continue into the adult class when he turns 14 next year.

Glad your enjoying it.

Paul