What do we have to prove? We know we're badass...

For those of you unfamiliar with me, my name is Lisa and I began studying aikido in June of 2002. I was 17 at the time. I actually fell into aikido by accident. At the time, I was actually interested in Tae Kwon Do, which our dojo also taught, among other arts. My grandfather took me out there one Saturday morning (June 5th, to be exact) to see what a class looked like. Neither of us knew the schedules, and we were way too early for TKD, but just in time for the aikido class to start up. So, I ended up practicing in a t-shirt and a borrowed pair of gi pants.

One of the first things I noticed about this bunch was how nice they all were. While I had a genuine interest in learning a martial art, I was worried about what kind of people the instructors and other students would be. I guess I had it in my head that classes would be like little mini boot camps with lots of harsh formalities and no room for error and questioning. It set me at ease to be around these people that were so accepting and had as much of an eagerness to teach me as I had to learn. It was this attitude that kept me coming back. I even managed to get my grampa to try out a couple of classes. :)

Aikido as a martial art is very relaxed while at the same time efficient. Rather than straight lines and hard punches and kicks, aikido works with circles and the manipulation of energy. There is no actual attacking in aikido, it's all defense.

I remember coming home from class and talking to my dad about it. He's an ex-marine, and as such, he wanted to try to show me some of the simpler combat moves, because he felt they were superior to what I was learning. While every technique he showed me was indeed quite effective, and would work very well for him, they would do me no good at all. Each of these techniques of his required upper body strength that I don't have, and for half of them, my relative shortness put me at an obvious disadvantage. They also tended to use much more energy to execute. None of that is an issue in aikido because you're fundamentally just redirecting the other person's energy, so you're not wasting your own. There is no forcing or real strength required because if that person stops giving you energy to work with, in other words, if they stop attacking you, there is no need to continue fighting as they are no longer posing a threat. There are also multiple ways to defend against any one attack, and what may work great against someone shorter wouldn't be the best against someone taller, and no one way of responding to an attack is better than another.

I think that plays a role in that sort of loose and relaxed, yet alert and ready swagger that I see in most aikidoka. It comes through in their personalities.. they're a generally happy and peaceful lot, as aikido is about harmony, and they don't feel they have anything to prove to others, they already know they can be badass when they need to be.