An evening at an Aikido session really was a venture into the unknown, with my prior knowledge of the sport totalling to a grand sum of zero. As one of York’s smallest sports clubs, Aikido is something that very few people have ever tried, and in truth before I came to York, I didn’t even know it existed.
So I suppose the first question I had was what is Aikido, and will it hurt? The fact that I had to fill in an insurance form before I could even step onto the mats suggested possibly so.
Thankfully, though, I quickly realised that Aikido is one of the non-aggressive martial arts, which revolves around incapacitating your opponent without causing them damage. Errm!
The martial art originated when Morihei Ueshiba, a dissatisfied student of several kinds of jiu-jitsu, decided to develop his own style. Students refer to him as Ósensei (“great teacher”), and bow to the framed portrait of him propped up next to the mats, overseeing the session.
So that’s how it began, bowing down on a mat to our great teacher, before we warmed up with a series of stretches, rolls and movements which my body was simply not used to; perhaps I’ll apply it to our hockey warm up tomorrow. We’d barely started, but I already had a mystified look on my face, as I contemplated what our sensei was set to show us next.
In truth, the rolling around and stretching was the easy part. My body may have moved in an uncontrollable motion which resembled some long limbed creature flaying around madly, but at least I understood what I was doing. What came next was much more challenging, as we learnt how to avoid the attack of our opponents and restrain them through our own counter movements.
Of course the sensei and the experienced members of the group made this look easy; meanwhile I was clueless. Which way should I turn, where should I move, what next? There were so many questions flying around my head.
It’d be fair to say I wasn’t a natural, but gradually I began to get to grips with the concept of Aikido, with the assistance of the kind and welcoming members of the club. As we changed to a new move, which saw us restrain our opponents in a different manner, I finally found that I was starting to understand the importance of the movement and use of your whole body.
Somehow I don’t think I’ll become a black belt any time soon, and it was intriguing how the most experienced members of the society seemed to be able to gracefully glide around the mats, whilst I struggled to grapple with the basics.
All of the movements that we used in the warmup were applied in exercises through the carefully constructed session, which I must admit tested me. For much of the time there was a look of bewilderment and bemusement etched across my face, but the element of enjoyment never disappeared, and it was a privilege to be able to experience something new and enthralling. Never before have I had the opportunity to try out Aikido, and I’m delighted that I did.
If you fancy having a go yourself, then I’d encourage you to just head along to one of their sessions in the Derwent Performance Studio, either on Tuesday from 4:30-6:30 or on Friday from 8-10pm.