Why did we choose Aikido as the martial art we train on?
What do we expect to gain from it?
How and if it has affected us on our day to day life?
Tuesday, 13 April 2010
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I chose aikido bacause it was reccomended by a friend of mine as a martial art that combined harmony and strength, while providing a great deal of knowledge about the human-body.
ReplyDeleteAwareness of myself and the other.
strenghtening my connection with the earth, through balance and focus.
evaluate and perceive the position of my body in space at any given time.
learning from a fantastic man that has dedicated lots of years of his life to the study to the body, its movement and meaning.
After some months practising aikido i felt much more calm and confident with my own body. The pace of my breathing changed, and my posture has been slowly improving. My muscular tonus increased, and the way I move became easier and requiring less effort.
I have lived in the Far East and tried a number of martial arts, Karate, Muay Thai etc. However, I could never train regularly because of the lifestyle of working at sea.I had always said that when I return to regular life I would take up an art and practice.
ReplyDeleteMy grandfather had been a civilian Jujitsu instructor in WW2 and I knew I wanted to try something similar. I found an Aikido dojo in Old Street and went to try it out. After training I was hooked and dedicated myself to learning the art.
Training in Aiki has helped me to remain focused and try to work more harmoniously with other people. I feel health and alert when I train regularly. As I get older it has helped me remain supple but I have not remained completely injury free. However injuries would appear to relate more to issues off rather than on the mat.
Why did we choose Aikido as the martial art we train on?
ReplyDeleteTo gain confidence in body and inspiration in mind.
What do we expect to gain from it?
An understanding of the intrinsic magic of existance at it's fullest.
How and if it has affected us on our day to day life?
I have gained confidence to combat hurt and heal deep problems. To tell the truth. To make a shield and defend myself against others that may wish to hurt me. I have become a much better teacher, a better delegate, cleaner and confident writer. Most importantly out of all of this, happiness on a more sustained and calm plain.
As funny as it may sound I did not chose Aikido but Aikido chose me. Well, that is not entirely true. But not entirely wrong either. I was working in Spain with young people with behaviour problems. One of the kids had enormous difficulties managing his own anger. So my boss send me with him to an Aikido teacher he had worked with before in France. Here I started Aikido and practiced for 2 month intensively. I liked a lot of the ideas and found it very helpful to myself to experience to physically go with the energy and not against it.
ReplyDeleteBy now I have found out that my performance art (physical theatre, dance, aerial acrobatics) benefits from and is complemented by Aikido. I want to keep that going as well as a feeling or state of calmness or balance within myself. That and improved possibilities to either not get into physical trouble or if so to have options to defend myself are both what I expect to gain and what also affects my everyday life.
For example is a day that I started with Aikido usually a more productive, focused and ultimately enjoyable day.
But it indeed affects my everyday life a lot as I usually practice something else physically as well and Aikido and exercises taken from Aikido practiced as part of my warm-up or warm-down help me keeping myself subtle. A similar "keeping myself flexible" also happens with my mind.
http://www.aikido.ch/calendar.asp?Mode=2&Item=100
ReplyDeleteAikido Zurich
I started studying aikido because it was recommended to me by a theatre director and aikido student named Anna Furse. She led a longterm experimental training with a group of actors where she introduced us to some aikido warm up exercises - Torefume is the one I particularly remember as being useful for centering the voice.
ReplyDeleteA few years after that I started training regularly. I found that aikido practise would be followed by a feeling of increased calm and space in myself the following day, also that my energy levels rose.
I guess that my reasons for continuing to train change. For a long time I found clear analogies between the practise of aikido and my professional practise as an actor. Feedback from sensei would be similar to feedback from directors and acting teachers; increase relaxation, increase my sense of time/space in executing a technique/performing a line. I felt that aikido practise increased my capacity for connecting in a 'real' sense with fellow actors in a scene and that it also had positive effects for my improvisatory work in terms of being direct, and driving through to the my characters objective.
At present, while I continue to believe that aikido practise is of benefit to me professionally my focus has changed.
I'm more concentrated on the practise in a martial sense, or for itself alone.
I started studying aikido because it was recommended to me by a theatre director and aikido student named Anna Furse. She led a longterm experimental training with a group of actors where she introduced us to some aikido warm up exercises - Torefume is the one I particularly remember as being useful for centering the voice.
ReplyDeleteA few years after that I started training regularly. I found that aikido practise would be followed by a feeling of increased calm and space in myself the following day, also that my energy levels rose.
I guess that my reasons for continuing to train change. For a long time I found clear analogies between the practise of aikido and my professional practise as an actor. Feedback from sensei would be similar to feedback from directors and acting teachers; increase relaxation, increase my sense of time/space in executing a technique/performing a line. I felt that aikido practise increased my capacity for connecting in a 'real' sense with fellow actors in a scene and that it also had positive effects for my improvisatory work in terms of being direct, and driving through to the my characters objective.
At present, while I continue to believe that aikido practise is of benefit to me professionally my focus has changed. I'm more concentrated on the practise in a martial sense, or for itself alone.