AIKIDO
Casey Karren HLAC-1440
Jonathan Kroupa
November 30, 2014
Aikido
What aikido means to me. I took this class based on a credit course, with many to choose from Aikido stood out most. I’ve heard a little about what Aikido is from a buddy of mine who took a class not affiliated with Salt Lake community college. He showed me a few moves, and some videos, at that moment I was hooked.
Never in my life had I taken a martial arts course, or had any real experience except playing around pretending I knew what I was doing. Luckily for me I signed up early for the class so I could look up and study more about Aikido, before the course started. For the longest time I thought Aikido was like any other martial art, but as I learned more about the style I saw it was more defense, using your energy and center of gravity to defeat your enemy. I was a little worried though, after watching a few demonstration test one must past, and seeing how fast they where moving from move to another, I thought I’m screwed! With no martial arts experience I'm going to get my head ripped off. As the school semester got closer I was back and forth debating weather or not I should stick with my choice or choose another class. Maybe rock climbing, something I was good at and had experience with, or bowling something everyone was dong for an easy health credit. As the semester was about to start I decided to stay with my decision and go with Aikido.
My favorite quote from Socrates is “ The unexamined life is not worth living.” Meaning get out and try new things stop with the everyday routine. The day class started I felt intimidated, thinking to myself what am I doing here I should’ve done the rock climbing class! As everyone started coming in, and we sat introducing ourselves I knew I had made a mistake almost everyone had some kind of martial arts background. As we continued with the class our instructor explained to us that this was an introduction class and that it was only fifteen weeks long so he didn’t expected us to pick up on it quickly knowing some of us where first timers.
Our daily class routine would start out with us setting up the pad, the same pad that would allow us to get our bodies slammed on. After we had set up the pads our sensei, as we would call him being our instructor would clap four times, this would tell us class is starting. We would line up in two lines depending on how big the class was. At this moment we would pray to master sensei and begin class. This being all new to me was a little different, but of course being a tradition and out of respect we had no questions it was the Aikido way to bless class. After we prayed to sensei we started our warm ups. Once done with warm ups we would sit on the side of the mats and watched as sensei would demonstrate the move we would be learning. After being showed the move a few times from different angels we would pick a partner and practice the moves on each other as sensei walked around making sure we did it right. We were told to choose a new partner every time. This way we would not get comfortable with just one person, but to try new moves on other people since our class was widely disperse with big and small, boy and girl. After the class I fell in love with Aikido wanting more, at this moment I knew I had made the right decision.
At the end of the semester we have to perform a demonstration test, consisting of seventeen moves that we learned though out the semester. This had me scared! Remembering the movies I watched before the semester started seeing how fast they moved I thought for sure I was going to fail. As the day came I performed well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. My over all experience with Aikido was amazing! I would definitely recommend not only this class but the sport of Aikido to any one wanting to try something new. As for me, I’m now looking for Dojos to continue on my love for Aikido, wanting to expand my knowledge and to learn more.
Jonathan Kroupa
November 30, 2014
Aikido
What aikido means to me. I took this class based on a credit course, with many to choose from Aikido stood out most. I’ve heard a little about what Aikido is from a buddy of mine who took a class not affiliated with Salt Lake community college. He showed me a few moves, and some videos, at that moment I was hooked.
Never in my life had I taken a martial arts course, or had any real experience except playing around pretending I knew what I was doing. Luckily for me I signed up early for the class so I could look up and study more about Aikido, before the course started. For the longest time I thought Aikido was like any other martial art, but as I learned more about the style I saw it was more defense, using your energy and center of gravity to defeat your enemy. I was a little worried though, after watching a few demonstration test one must past, and seeing how fast they where moving from move to another, I thought I’m screwed! With no martial arts experience I'm going to get my head ripped off. As the school semester got closer I was back and forth debating weather or not I should stick with my choice or choose another class. Maybe rock climbing, something I was good at and had experience with, or bowling something everyone was dong for an easy health credit. As the semester was about to start I decided to stay with my decision and go with Aikido.
My favorite quote from Socrates is “ The unexamined life is not worth living.” Meaning get out and try new things stop with the everyday routine. The day class started I felt intimidated, thinking to myself what am I doing here I should’ve done the rock climbing class! As everyone started coming in, and we sat introducing ourselves I knew I had made a mistake almost everyone had some kind of martial arts background. As we continued with the class our instructor explained to us that this was an introduction class and that it was only fifteen weeks long so he didn’t expected us to pick up on it quickly knowing some of us where first timers.
Our daily class routine would start out with us setting up the pad, the same pad that would allow us to get our bodies slammed on. After we had set up the pads our sensei, as we would call him being our instructor would clap four times, this would tell us class is starting. We would line up in two lines depending on how big the class was. At this moment we would pray to master sensei and begin class. This being all new to me was a little different, but of course being a tradition and out of respect we had no questions it was the Aikido way to bless class. After we prayed to sensei we started our warm ups. Once done with warm ups we would sit on the side of the mats and watched as sensei would demonstrate the move we would be learning. After being showed the move a few times from different angels we would pick a partner and practice the moves on each other as sensei walked around making sure we did it right. We were told to choose a new partner every time. This way we would not get comfortable with just one person, but to try new moves on other people since our class was widely disperse with big and small, boy and girl. After the class I fell in love with Aikido wanting more, at this moment I knew I had made the right decision.
At the end of the semester we have to perform a demonstration test, consisting of seventeen moves that we learned though out the semester. This had me scared! Remembering the movies I watched before the semester started seeing how fast they moved I thought for sure I was going to fail. As the day came I performed well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. My over all experience with Aikido was amazing! I would definitely recommend not only this class but the sport of Aikido to any one wanting to try something new. As for me, I’m now looking for Dojos to continue on my love for Aikido, wanting to expand my knowledge and to learn more.