Martial Arts

[FullAuto]

T minus sixty minutes until spewing begins. Unbelievably nervous.

 

But it's only an hour and a half, how bad could it be?

[Thorondor]

There can of course be other angles to this, FA, but it is largely just a chance for you to learn more.

 

That's all it is really, and you should treat it as such.

 

You'll witness the usual proceedings, become familiar with things and blend in. If anything, the invitation results from people being appreciative of your usual participation and won't be unduly demanding or unreasonably expectant of your first attendance.

 

::

 

If anything they'll want you to feel welcome and motivate you to stick around and improve as the promising aikidoka you are.

[FullAuto]

Well, it wasn't the nightmare I expected, but once again I was embarrassed to find I was the lowest belt at a class (advanced training is green belt and up). A dozen black belts, half a dozen browns, about fourteen blues, and me.

 

Good Lord it was ever so slightly excruciating. I was stood on the mat before it started, mentally cataloguing people I'd seen coming and, and thinking "I'm not the only green belt here."

 

Except, hilariously, the greens worth their salt graded at the same course I did, and are now all blues. Class started, and I knew. "I'm the only green belt here."

 

The training was very good, the problem was it started with suwari waza, kneeling techniques, which I happen to be rubbish at. Aside from that, it now looks like I will be training five times a week...

[Jman4117]

So...your lady friend..she there?

[FullAuto]

...Yes.

[Sunflash]

...Yes.

 

 

ANNNNNNND?

[Space Voyager]

Yeah, all this talk about belts and not a word on the important issues!

 

I'm certain you wouldn't be invited if you didn't deserve it, FA!

 

It's the fact that I think I haven't internalised the movement style of aikido and I may not be able to at the necessary level. In the past, I've browsed through martial arts and picked and chose what I wanted, I've always been a step removed, scanning them for useful principles and never becoming absorbed in it. I think my remoteness sets a limit on my skill in any particular discipline, and it may not be something I can sort out.

 

Pffft, this is how I see it; considering this is a tough martial art you have barely started training. And you are advancing through belts like they were underpants AND you were invited to advanced class, becoming the only green belt in their midst! Do I need to spell it out?! They see you have a lot of potential!

 

If you'll find Aikido to be your martial art of choice I'm POSITIVE you'll adjust yourself to it. Besides... all great masters adjusted the techniques to themselves as well.

[FullAuto]

ANNNNNNND?

 

And nuffin. I'm failry sure it's all in my head and she's just being nice and polite. And she's older and more mature, has a better job, home, car etc and she has no possible reason to be interested in me. I'm on to a good thing here, and I share three of my training sessions a week with her. I'm also (thanks to the local economic conditions) fairly poor, I can't afford to take a girl out regularly, can't afford a lot of travel, and so on. If I get some better indicators or suffer a catastrophic courage build up, I might go for it. Otherwise, I'm going to stay in my box.

 

They see you have a lot of potential!

 

Possibly, but I can't see it at all (although envisaging bribery and whatnot doesn't make sense). I think my aikido has got worse with each belt, although I suppose each one is a higher standard.

 

I have made quick progress, I suppose, but regardless, once I reach brown I have at least a year there, being pushed every session. No exceptions. Next grading opportunity is in either February or March, and I'll be ready for blue then.

[Space Voyager]

He he he, if you continue with this tempo you'll be blue all over, not just the belt.

[Pete]

...once I reach brown...

 

Glad you said that because elsewhere in the past few posts you've made you don't sound particularly positive that you'll get there.

 

Keep working hard at it like you are and I'm sure you'll be just fine.

[FullAuto]

I'm not. But I think I will. I've been constantly exposed to aikidoka who are at a higher level than I, and although I've been warmly welcomed and they've made sure the learning curve was gentle, ultimately I've had to keep improving rapidly just to keep pace with them. This has helped me, and the phrase "That's good enough to grade, but it's not good enough." has been used over and over and I'm at the stage now where I can see brown belt as perhaps being attainable, not through any brilliance of my own, but because I'm training with people who are wonderful martial artists, and they cannot help but rub off on me.

[FullAuto]

Aikiweb, unfortunately, has its fair share of idiots.

 

Those idiots, like other idiots, are prone to dropping some absolute clangers:

 

You can try entering the conflict by being the most aggressive person. Your energy will overpower the others, and they'll defer to you. Say something like "I don't care who's fighting who, because all ya'll are about to get shot!"

[FullAuto]

Beer bottles!

 

Beer bottles are often used in physical disputes. If the bottles break, they may give rise to sharp trauma. However, if the bottles remain intact, they may cause blunt injuries. In order to investigate whether full or empty standard half-litre beer bottles are sturdier and if the necessary breaking energy surpasses the minimum fracture-threshold of the human skull, we tested the fracture properties of such beer bottles in a drop-tower.

 

Full bottles broke at 30 J impact energy, empty bottles at 40 J. These breaking energies surpass the minimum fracture-threshold of the human neurocranium. Beer bottles may therefore fracture the human skull and therefore serve as dangerous instruments in a physical dispute.

[Space Voyager]

That is a horrifying abuse of beer bottles! They are only honourably used to drink their content.

[FullAuto]

Yet once empty, are legitimate weapons?

 

I'm feeling a tiny bit ill, I might not go training today.

[Thorondor]

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4ByhlXFP-bg/TBbxxZzR6II/AAAAAAAAAAs/3wIL6XNM0RI/s400/real-steel.jpg

 

Batteries down?

 

::

 

Take a break then. Hope to see you back up to full charge soon, FA!

[FullAuto]

I was awake most of last night with a fever and cold sweats, spent most of today laying around either in bed or the bath. Went to training, felt great, got back just now and I'm dead on my feet.

 

Unless a miracle occurs I'm having tomorrow off.

[Space Voyager]

I was awake most of last night with a fever and cold sweats, spent most of today laying around either in bed or the bath. Went to training, felt great, got back just now and I'm dead on my feet.

 

Unless a miracle occurs I'm having tomorrow off.

You better! Training with a fever?! That is serious heart gamble!

[FullAuto]

Well, serious or not (it's just man flu, the messy killer) I had today off, and it's been good to relax, not even think about aikido, do some of the gentler exercises when I felt up to it, and let my body recover.

 

I'm glad I went on Wednesday, with five black belts in attendance it was a great session, learned as much as I ever do in one go, and now I'm cooling down and recharging until Saturday.

 

Here's a wonderful deconstruction of the "90% of all fights go to the ground." myth.

[Space Voyager]

I didn't know about this myth... Luckily, as I have no problems forgetting about it now.

[FullAuto]

Another Aikiweb diamond:

 

I'd even go as far as to say that 90% of violent situations could be avoided simply by not hanging around stupid people and losers.

 

Made-up statistics FTW!

 

And some beauties not from Aikiweb:

 

combat is 80% mental & is only 20% physical.

 

Research basically shows us that society is made up of three groups. 98% of the human race are made up of what we’ll refer to as ‘sheep’. The other 2% are comprised of ‘sheepdogs’ & ‘wolves’.

[FullAuto]

There is a disturbing trend in Japan to present their part of WWII as a good thing, to whitewash what actually happened, and unfortunately this whitewashing extends to other things during this time period. Like aikido, and aikidoka (a lot of the early aikidoka served in one capacity or another in WWII).

 

Peter Goldsbury is extremely knowledgeable about this, and has written a series of columns for Aikiweb. Although very dry and not exciting reading, they are very informative, and very disturbing.

[FullAuto]

Last night I began hearing commotion from a neighbors apartment. Then my apartment started shaking from someone repeatedly slamming their door as hard as possible. It was extemely loud and unsettling, to the point that I became alarmed. It was obvious to me that someone was causing trouble and didn't care who heard it. Could've been a burglar kicking doors in, I didn't know. So I had to defend my dwelling.

 

As a result of another recent incident, I keep shuriken on my coffee table for personal protection. It only took me a few seconds to jump up, grab the ninja stars, and run out the door. Boy, my adrenaline was racing. My intent was to let whoever was out there know that I was now out there too. So without saying a word, I clanked my cold steel shuriken together. It seemed to get really quiet, then I heard a man on the level below me sniffling, lock his door, then walk off down the stars. Maybe he was the one, and he was fighting with his girl or something, I don't know. Nothing really happened at that point, so it was otherwise uneventful.

 

I guess the point of this story is how you respond to threats--fight or flight. In a way, I put myself in harms way. But I also pre-empted the situation from escalating on the perpetrator's terms. This is a critical piece of the equation. He was no longer free to act a fool and take this to the next level, without at least first acknowledging that someone with conspicious metalic objects was right around the corner.

 

Roger Flatley is an idiot.

[Space Voyager]

I wouldn't be spending any time in martial arts forums. Martial artists have no more sense than anybody else. In majority it is quite the contrary. Even those black belts, who should - so I once held - be at peace with the world, calm pillars of humanity. Bollocks.

 

I strongly advice against making aikido your way of life. Train, yes, be pulled into thinking about it too much, no way. Don't take it too seriously.

[FullAuto]

In AikiWeb's defence, SV, that chap is not an aikidoka, he's just a moron that posts there. While there's a lot of bullshit talked on MA forums, there's also some good stuff. The crap is usually obvious enough, and the gems can save you a lot of blood, sweat and tears. Digging through the crap can be worth it.

 

As for living it, I see lots of things I like, and lots of things I do not like. I take what I consider the best things and try to minimise the rest. There are some that try to live it as completely as they can imagine, but even they are cherry-picking things from old budo codes, and the attitude that goes with this ("Contenders only... Pretenders find another Dojo." as one said) is beyond my understanding. Trying too hard, is all I think when faced with things like that.

 

I don't really have any revelations to post after practising for seven months and counting. Training five times a week is tiring, and I have bruises up both my shins, my right wrist is always tense now and needs manually 'cracking' to relieve it, my back hurts from an accidental collision, and my left elbow still feels like there's something wrong with it. To be honest, I don't know why I am doing aikido. I'm doing it...because I'm doing it. To learn what I want, I don't need to train five times a week, I stand no chance of romance with Her (totally different socioeconomically, just not going to work), I'm not interested in racing ahead through the belts, I'm already capable of self-defence past the point than will probably ever be necessary. I'm not going to quit, but at the same time, there is no huge motive to carry on. Most of the people are nice, some are not.

 

I'm not burned out, depressed, fed up, any of that. My aikido isn't brilliant, I can live with that. It's improving, slowly. I don't need a break. I don't know what I need.

 

I suppose I want to know why I'm doing it, but I don't really know.