What You Should Know Before You Get on the Mat

by Nick Walker

This is the information printed on the sheet of paper that is handed
to every new student who shows up for an Aikido Shusekai class.

• Aikido is a martial art in which one throws attackers by blending with and redirecting the force of their attacks. Aikido practice is also a means of cultivating a state of inner harmony and a harmonious relationship with one’s body, with other people, and with the world. There are many different styles of aikido, but the differences between them tend to be fairly minor. Our particular style is called Aikido Shusekai, which means Aikido for an Excellent World.

• It’s pronounced EYE-key-doh (emphasis on the first syllable, not the middle one).

• Those white pyjamas we wear are called gi. You don’t have to have one to join this class.

• In stepping onto the mat, you are agreeing to take full responsibility for your own safety. This means, among other things, that you will be mindful of your own physical limits; that you will politely excuse yourself from any activity that you feel would push you beyond those limits in a harmful way; that you will inform the instructor and your training partners in advance of any injury or health condition that they might need to be aware of; and that you will immediately, clearly, and politely inform your practice partners if you feel that anything they are doing might be placing you in danger. If at any time you feel that you cannot make or maintain this level of commitment to your own safety, please stay off of the mat.

• Before getting on the mat, please remove your shoes, socks, wristwatch, and all jewelry, and turn off your cell phone.

• Please do not leave the mat or get onto the mat while the instructor is demonstrating to the class. Bring a bottle of water to class with you so that you won’t have to leave the room to drink. Please don’t bring your water bottle on the mat, or drink while the instructor is demonstrating to the class.

• We bow a lot. In aikido, bowing is a mindfulness practice. We bow when we enter and leave the room, and when we step onto or off of the mat, to remind ourselves of our commitment to a mindful practice. We bow to everyone we interact with on the mat, to give ourselves a moment to commit to mindful interaction (or to process the interaction that just happened), to communicate to others that we’re practicing mindfully, and to thank others for their role in our training. If you neglect to bow, your instructors and fellow students may conclude that you are not in a sufficiently attentive state of mind to be safe to practice with. Except during the formal seated bow at the beginning and end of class, the gassho or namaste gesture (palms together in front of the chest, fingertips pointing upward) is an acceptable substitute for bowing.

• After some preliminary warmup exercises, most of our class time is spent working in partners. You’ll work with a number of different partners in each class. Most of the aikido you learn, you’ll learn from your partners. You are responsible for your partners’ safety, and for communicating clearly and politely with your partners. Invite someone to be your partner by bowing to them, and when the instructor calls the class to sit down again, bow to your partner and thank them. When the instructor tells the class to work in partners, find a partner right away; don’t wait for someone to find you. If there’s an odd number of students and you’re the one who ends up without a partner, join a pair (preferably an advanced pair) and work with them as a trio.

• As a beginner, you should partner yourself with more advanced students as much as possible. Advanced students are easy to spot, because they wear colored belts. Students wearing white belts are the least advanced, those wearing orange belts are next, then blue belts, then brown, then black.

• Because aikido techniques are meant to be performed in response to attacks, an aikido technique is best practiced by having someone play the role of the attacker. When two people practice an aikido technique, the person playing the role of the attacker is called the uke, and the person performing the technique is called the nage. When you practice an aikido technique with a partner, you and your partner will take turns playing the roles of uke and nage. This means you spend half your practice time throwing, and half your time being thrown. Being thrown is called taking ukemi. When you are taking ukemi, do not fight your partner or try to resist falling. Obviously, if everyone just allowed themselves to be thrown all the time, we’d have no way of making sure our techniques really worked. But it takes a lot of training to know when it is safe and useful to give resistance. For your first three or four years of training, do your best to relax and go along with the technique, unless an instructor or advanced student asks you to offer resistance in a specific situation.

• Aikido is not a competitive art. There are no opponents in aikido, only partners. Don’t refer to your partners as “opponents,” and don’t treat them like opponents.

• You’ll probably need to ask questions sometimes in order to learn, but please keep conversation on the mat to a bare minimum. Socializing, anecdotes, and questions about the history or philosophy of aikido can wait until after class.

• If you have any sort of question or concern related to your aikido practice, or feel a need for increased support or guidance in your training, please talk to an instructor.

• Because aikido directly addresses our relationships with fear, aggression, and personal boundaries, aikido training is likely to push all of your least favorite buttons sooner or later. Strong emotional reactions may arise during practice. Accept them, and behave responsibly. Step off the mat and calm yourself as necessary. It’s cool; we’ve all been there.

• Aikido is very, very difficult to learn. The only way to get good at it is to spend a lot of time being bad at it first, and to keep coming to class, week after week, year after year, no matter how frustrated you are. People who keep showing up for class get good eventually. People who don’t, don’t.

• We have a website at www.aikiarts.com, which has a recommended reading list and other useful information. We also have an online discussion board and a spam-free, low-traffic email list for announcements and aikido-related discussions. For information on how to join the discussion board and email list, please ask a senior student at your Aikido Shusekai dojo.

"A mind to serve for the peace of all humanity is needed in aikido, and not the mind of one who practices only to defeat an opponent. There are neither opponents nor enemies in aikido. Therefore, to compete in techniques, winning and losing, is not true aikido.

"Winning means winning over the mind of discord in yourself.

"This is not mere theory. You practice it."

- Morihei Ueshiba, Founder of Aikido

 

 

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