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MAY
IS ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH!
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Singaporean, Indian or any other type of Asian cuisine you can find --
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7 May, 2002
AIKIDO
HURTS SO GOOD
When John Mellencamp sang the song "Hurts so Good" in 1982, he was referring to the pain of falling in love. But he may as well have been singing about aikido classes.
| I simply get up, wipe the sweat out of my eyes, grimace, catch my breath and say "thank you, that was fun. Can you show me again?" |
I began learning aikido a month ago, three times a week with Sensei Kei Izawa. It's been a wonderful experience so far, but boy, am I sore!
I'm finding muscles I never knew I had, because they ache along with all the other muscles in my body. I've gotten used to the pain when I bend over to pick something up, and learned to wince when I cough. And, I can feel myself growing and appreciating the underlying concepts of its flowing, circular moves, and beginning to understand aikido's unique philosophy.
Aikido is a Japanese martial art, created in the 20th century by Morihei Ueshiba (1883-1969), or O-Sensei. A fierce soldier who immersed himself in martial arts such as jujutsu (unarmed combat), kenjutsu (swordfighting), and sojutsu (spear fighting), O-Sensei evolved his own way of fighting over a period of years, imbuing his style with a philosophical. O-Sensei reportedly had mystical encounters that helped him clarify his technique, including being able to anticipate an opponent's moves to counter them
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Aikido translates to "the way of unity with the fundamental force of the
universe." The "ki" in aikido is the fundamental force, or energy - the
Chinese call it "chi" as in tai chi. In a lofty analysis, aikido is about
the ideal human self, unifying body and mind, realized through vigorous
mental and physical training. In plain language in the context of a fight
situation, aikido is about absorbing your opponent's force - be in harmony
with him - and using it against him, rendering him harmless with as little
effort on your part as necessary.
Aikido is purely a defensive form of combat; instead of teaching you how to attack, it teaches you to react when attacked. And, although like many martial arts, it emphasizes the training of mind and body, aikido does not stress competition, or "winning" a fight, or even different levels of belts. There are rankings, but not the rainbow of belt colors that designate a student's proficiency in other martial arts like karate, judo, kung fu or tae kwon do. The students who have attained the "dan" level of expertise get to wear hakama, the baggy samurai pantaloons over their gi; that'show you know they're advanced.
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I'm no martial arts expert - what little knowledge I have comes from watching
kung fu movies and driving my younger
brother Glenn to karate classes when I was in high school. But I can tell
that aikido is truly a lifelong pursuit, not just a catalog of moves to
master by rote. Everyone in aikido from newbies like me to Izawa Sensei
to even the current Doshu (the leader of aikido, the grandson of O-Sensei,
Moriteru Ueshiba) are all students of the form, always striving to perfect
our abilities.
And in the spirit of everyone being a student, almost everyone in my aikido class is a teacher. Izawa Sensei assigned various advanced students to take me and Takako-san, another new student, aside and teach us some basic moves during our first classes. More recently, we've simply joined the rest of the class and the advanced students take turns working with us on the moves being taught. They teach us very slowly, and don't throw us down as hard as the other students slam each other. Their patience is a blessing, since I often feel like a complete idiot and can't seem to get the simplest moves down.
That's because in aikido, even the most complex moves can appear simple, effortless and flowing. It's only when a newcomer like me tries to duplicate the move that it becomes clear how many elements go into it. It's easy to stumble because you're thinking too much about where your feet go, how you hold your opponent's hand, and most important, how to fall without hurting yourself.
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Each class, which is held in a YMCA gym that is lined with the floor padding used for wrestling matches, begins with a series of warmup exercises which I've been able to accomplish easily enough. But then Sensei has the class line up at one end of the gym and has us go to the other end, usually starting with the two basic moves "irimi" and "tenkan," which involve stepping forward and then sweeping your back foot around in a circle around you and then snapping forward again. It's the simplest move - it only took me four classes to get it down, and I still don't do it correctly with the centered pivoting of the hips that is so essential to aikido. Then we may do forward and backward rolls across the floor, followed by "shikko," which is a ducklike walk while squatting that I think must have been important for samurai back in the day, but seems like torture to me now.
By the time the actual class begins, I'm already completely out of breath and sweating like a pig. Sensei simply begins by demonstrating a move by having an advanced student attack him and then taking that student down. Then everyone pairs up and learns the move that was just demonstrated.
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Japanese terms are thrown out casually as if even new students already
know them; over time I've finally come
to recognize some of the words and the moves they represent. Much of aikido's
movements are built upon samurai-era fighting techniques and the motion
inherent in them. As Izawa Sensei reminds me often during the class, when
he comes to critique my progress, the circular arm motion of many of the
moves can easily be imagined as holding a samurai sword and slicing down
diagonally across your opponent.
Sensei also reminds me quite regularly about my posture, which my mom used to do when I was growing up. She was right after all…. He also reminds me all the time (and so do the advanced students helping me) that I need to use my hips, or koshi, as my center of gravity and pivot point for moves. I fall into the habit of using my upper body strength and arm muscles to do what I should be doing effortlessly with a twist of my hips. Here I was proud of weight-lifting and developing some muscles for the first time in my life, and I discover they're getting in the way of learning aikido!
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The muscles certainly don't help me from hurting when the class is done. It's amazing how hard of a workout you can get by just being thrown to the ground and rolling. Sometimes, I still get my rolls wrong and end up getting the wind knocked out of me, as if someone just punched me in the lower back. I simply get up, wipe the sweat out of my eyes, grimace, catch my breath and say "thank you, that was fun. Can you show me again?"
Call it masochistic, but I think this is all good for me. I feel healthier already, and am finding day by day, week by week that the moves Sensei demonstrates are familiar - or at least, that I can discern the two or three basic steps that go into each move.
I just hope that sometime in the months to come, I won't have to take Aleve when I get home from every class. Still, it hurts so good…