Aikido Training Log

The desire to hurt as few of my adversaries as possible. It's inevitable that the mad scientist's henchmen will try to stop me from liberating their test subjects, and when that happens, I need more ways to incapacitate them without any of them having to go to the hospital. 

It's also just one of the ten martial arts on my list of martial arts to learn; the ones with an asterisk after them are the ones I already have a degree of training in:

Aikido*
Boxing
Capoeira
Hapkido*
Judo*
Jujitsu*
Karate*
Kra Maga*
Kung Fu
Savate

The ones I have the most training in so far are Krav Maga and Aikido.

How long did you train in each martial art? Some have similarities such as the connection between Jiujitsu,Aikido, and Judo

Aikido: 26 hours, proper dojo.
Hapkido: 2 months, trained by one of my father's employees.
Judo: 2 weeks, just a few moves that I taught myself from books when I was locked up.
Jujitsu: 1 month, handful of moves I taught myself from books when I was locked up.
Karate: 5 weeks, proper dojo, learned a few techniques.
Krav Maga: 3 years, trained by my father. 

So yep; specialty is Krav Maga. Really good at that. Thinking my next specialty will be Aikido. 

That's kinda ironic; the first martial arts I get a firm grasp of will be possibly the world's most violent martial art next to what may be the world's most NON-violent martial art haha.

I've missed a few Aikido classes the past week or so due to back injuries and a bike wreck where I sustained more injuries; been healing up. Hoping I'll be able to go to class tomorrow. 

Have to be at work in less than an hour though; just got a new job. Cashier at a hardware store.

I wouldn’t trust anything without a minimal of a years worth of structured training from an accredited dojo

Not sure what "snyesrd" means. 

In that case though, I guess I have no real martial arts training, as I've never trained at an accredited dojo before, not even the current dojo I go to. The training is structured, the Sensei's an officially recognized Grandmaster of Aikido, yet it's still not a real dojo. It's a student-founded Study Group, with a focus on exceptionally high quality training. I wouldn't switch to an accredited school even if given the chance to, because it would mean having to leave my Sensei who studied the art with the masters for decades, in exchange for certified instructors who have never even been to Japan lol. Seems like most accredited dojos are more focused on the technical aspects of an art and have a focus on pumping out cookie cutter martial artists with no real concept or understanding of the history and philosophy and spirituality of martial arts, most schools not even bothering to incorporate or recognize the power of Ki/Chi in their art forms. Sad thing indeed, but kinda expected; most accredited dojos have TONS of students; far too many for the instructors to focus on individually without an extra fee. 

At my study group there's about 10-15 students. Usually only 5 or so bother to show up. Last night, only three of us were on the mats. The instructor showed up, Brian showed up, and I showed up. ...It was damn near a Private Lesson lmao. XD

I hope training has been well

Not as well as it could be. Trouble finding enough energy for both work and training while still maintaining my social life while still having some free time to just be left the fuck alone for a while.

The battle of time management strikes us all eventually the trick is coming up with a schedule you can stick with if. I trick myself into going since I also teach and by the time I’m finished I’m already there for my class so I might as well take it lol

Haven't been able to make it to all the classes. I'm at 33 hours worth of training now, and I'm half way to being ready for my first Test. Got to watch one of the black belts take their next Test; that was cool to see the format in which it's done. 

Here's the shorthand version of my attendance record so far; been trying to make it to most of the classes; so far I have been. 

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HRS.  /  DATES  ("xxxx" = Missed Day) ("...XXXX..." = Next Class)
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0001. Monday, February 19, 2018 (30 HRS. COUNTDOWN BEGINS)
0002. Thursday, February 22, 2018
xxxx. Friday, February 23, 2018 (MOVIE NIGHT - No movie? Hung out.)
0003. Monday, February 26, 2018
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0004. Thursday, March 01, 2018
0005. Friday, March 02, 2018
0006. Monday, March 05, 2018
0007. Thursday, March 08, 2018
0008. Friday, March 09, 2018
0009. Monday, March 12, 2018
0010. Thursday, March 15, 2018
0011. Friday, March 16, 2018
0012. Monday, March 19, 2018
0013. Thursday, March 22, 2018
0014. Friday, March 23, 2018
0015. Monday, March 26, 2018
0016. Thursday, March 29, 2018
0000. Friday, March 30, 2018 (MOVIE NIGHT - "Sanjuro", 1962, Akira Kurosawa)
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0017. Monday, April 02, 2018
0018. Thursday, April 05, 2018
0019. Friday, April 06, 2018
xxxx. Monday, April 09, 2018
0020. Thursday, April 12, 2018 
0021. Friday, April 13, 2018 
0022. Monday, April 16, 2018 
0023. Thursday, April 19, 2018
0024. Friday, April 20, 2018
0025. Monday, April 23, 2018
0026. Thursday, April 26, 2018 
xxxx. Friday, April 27, 2018 (MOVIE NIGHT)
xxxx. Monday, April 30, 2018
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xxxx. Thursday, May 03, 2018 
xxxx. Friday, May 04, 2018
xxxx. Monday, May 07, 2018 
0027. Thursday, May 10, 2018
xxxx. Friday, May 11, 2018
xxxx. Monday, May 14, 2018
xxxx. Thursday, May 17, 2018
0028. Friday, May 18, 2018
0029. Monday, May 21, 2018
0030. Thursday, May 24, 2018 * 30 HRS MARK *
0000. Friday, May 25, 2018 (MOVIE NIGHT) (Blade of the Immortal)
0031. Monday, May 28, 2018 
0032. Thursday, May 31, 2018  
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xxxx. Friday, June 01, 2018
xxxx. Monday, June 04, 2018 
0033. Thursday, June 07, 2018
xxxx. Friday, June 08, 2018
0034. Monday June 11, 2018 XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Man...I haven't been to an Aikido class in months. Think last one I took was in August. Started getting too hard to make the meets at night after working all day; just didn't have the energy. Figured I'd just rely on Krav Maga and my gun; perfectly capable of defending myself...just not without completely destroying the other guy. ...Might start going back to Aikido; it was good for me mentally and physically; helped me see the power of gentleness; taught me how to completely relax and stop resisting, and in doing so, making me damn near invulnernable to impact forces that would break the bones of someone who was tensed up, resisting with all their strength. It's truly incredible what one can be capable of if they simply learned how to relax.....I need to remember that. Truly relaxing the mind and body is pretty much a dying art these days. Just about everyone is tensed up to some degree or another, even if they're relatively relaxed. Like right now; if you take a moment to really focus on your body at the moment, and completely let everything go without actually moving from your position, you'll probably find that a good majority of your body was tensed up; your neck, your shoulders, your core, your legs and many more muscle groups which really aren't necessary for the action you were performing previously (probably reading, or typing). All that tension was completely useless to you, and in the long run counterproductive. But it happens to all of us naturally; what's "un-natural" for lack of a better word, is deliberately making a conscious effort to be aware of which musclesyou're using right now, and which ones should be in a state of relaxation. 

Sensei has pretty much mastered this; he's an old man and not that long ago he was in a motorcycle crash and went flying several feet away from the bike before impacting the pavement and rolling like a rag doll several more feet. Story goes that he simply got back up immediately, dusted himself off and went back to check on his bike. He had some cuts and bruises, but he didn't break a single bone whereas most other people would've been killed as soon as they hit the pavement. All because they weren't relaxing. Granted though, he'd spent decades training himself how to truly relax. There probably isn't a moment that goes by that he's not as relaxed as he can possibly be. It's become his new instinct, replaced by the far more counterproductive instinct that most of us suffer from. 

Tension equals stress, stress leads to serious health issues, and eventually death. Being a survivalist, it's probably in my best interest to learn how to relax to the max. =P

Still need to quit smoking though. Not going back to the dojo until I'm 100% drug and alcohol free.

Never assume movements that were once practiced will still work as flawlessly as they once did

How come?

It’s a dangerous mindset to have believing your body is capable of things it might be able to do as cleanly . I explain this in any class I teach once you experience your adrenaline dump you lose a lot of your fine motor skills and even a trained martial atrist is lucky
To retain 60% of their overal ability

The deoendent on the trained martial artist. In Aikido, there should never be any kind of adrenaline to speak of, thus no adrenaline dump. The first thing you have to learn in Aikido is how to relax, because if you perform the movements in Aikido without relaxing, you're just going to end up hurting yourself. Aikido is more like a dance, and the opponent is more like a partner; it's a balance between two dualities; the resistor, and the non-resistor. The resistor's role is to essentially wrestle with an empty jacket, (the non-resistor), whom instead of fitting back, simply remains as relaxed as possible, calmly positioning themselves into the right place at the right time so as to sabotage the resistor. With aikido, your opponent basically beats themselves up trying to hurt you. It's an art of fighting without actually fighting; if you're experiencing any kind of adrenaline rush whatsoever as an Aikidoka, you're doing it wrong. It's all about being gentle, and becoming one with your opponent; understanding them on an energetic level, and calculating what they're going to do next. It takes many many many years to get good at it; even the masters still learn new things in aikido. It's less of a martial art and more of a lifestyle and philosophy. 

Also......you're like, a year older than me......how the heck do you teach martial arts? Don't you need to be a licensed instructor for that, and doesn't becoming a licensed instructor take a while? 

Stillamazes me and boggles my mind thinking back on the time my Sensei put on a demonstration of the true power of Aikido; he slowly made his way onto the mat, using a jo staff as a cane (he's in his nineties and has broken a lot of bones and had a stroke a while back which left half of his body with nerve damage; can't even feel is right hand). He then instructed all the black belts in the class (takes at least five years to become the lowest level of black belt in Aikido. We only have two belt colors too; white belt and black belt) to attack him whenever they were ready. And they genuinely went for it, full speed, full power; I was kinda nervous when I saw them converge on him. Thin without skipping a beat, sensei simply began pivoting slightly to get out of all of their ways, simultaneously grabbing the tips of their pointer fingers, and proceeding to throw them all around the room like it was nothing lol. My eyes were bugging out of my head for a while. XD 

He was pretty much untouchable lol. Like trying to beat water into submission lmao.

I don't know your age personally and becoming an instructor is a case by case basis tbh usually begins when your teacher feels you have learned enough to assist them with teaching and it progresses from there. Also I have been doing martial arts at the same location for several years I began assisting then running small groups on my own before gradually doing more and more. 

Also just things to think about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNA7yw6Iqcc

Impressive background

And I saw that video once; we like laughing at that guy down at the dojo. The style of aikido he practices is an Americanized style designed by students who didn't want to put in the time to actually learn real Aikido because it was too complicated for them. Only reason real aikido wouldn't work on the streets would be because the student didn't train enough in the techniques to be able to perform them reflexively and properly. 

There's also three different kinds of real Aikido that O'Sensei taught in Japan; the first style was far more brutal because he was training warriors to fight in WWII. The second style was a bit more centered on self-defense without actually killing the attacker. In his later years, Morihei Ueshiba started adopting a path of peace instead, and wanted aikido to mirror that as well, so it became more about loving one's opponent instead of fighting them. Basically, as O'Sensei grew in wisdom over the years, so did his Aikido. After that, the art became more widespread, which was when people like the one in that video started mutilating it into something O'Sensei never wanted it to be.

And I'll be 24 years old in eleven days; the 19th.

But yeah, there aren't any strikes or kicks in the style of aikido I'm learning. A lot of our techniques have strikes as an option by being in the perfect position for a strike, or performing a leverage manuever which could also incorporate a strike into it, and the instructors will point those little moments out, before saying, "That's how it used to be; but we don't do that here." lol.

I'm still waiting to see that "street effective Aikido" that you're supposed to have after enough years, or harder practice, or finding an authentic school. It just becomes the "no true Scotsman" argument after a while.

I've heard Akido is a great suplementive martial art, but it would be outclassed by say Judo or Jiujitsu