Thursday, December 10, 2009

First class: Crouching Tiger. . .Limping Dog

I'd forgotten aikido is harder than it looks. Lots. I was soon reminded of that rather quickly. While others were gracefully whirling and twirling, it was a challenge for me not to step on my partner's toes--which I ended up doing at least once, anyway. That was when I could remember the technique at all. When the teacher demonstrated what we were to do next, it looked so simple. An evasion there, a small pirouette here and the adversary flew through the air. In my case, not quite. My partners had to break down the moves for me so much, that I even succeeded getting them almost as confused as I was at one point. However, everyone showed great patience and helped smooth out my ragged technique somewhat.

 So despite displaying all the suppleness of Robocop, I limped through this first session relatively intact. I even managed to do some things more or less correctly. For example, my forward rolls weren't that bad. Even from a standing position. The only thing that was really a challenge was sitting in a kneeling position. Couldn't put any weight on my ankles for more than a few seconds without being very uncomfortable. Ah, the joys of the aging body!

Sore ankles notwithstanding, I enjoyed the class immensely. I'll be back for more this Friday.

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