Muscle Memory
In college, there was about a half-year that I was doing aikido regularly, and I enjoyed it then, and have, from time-to-time since, thought about taking it up again.
The local dojo had a free introductory program in February, so over the past couple of weeks, I took the kids to a couple of sessions. They seem to have enjoyed it. Jess has gone to one introductory session and will go to another later this week, but hasn't decided whether or not she's interested yet.
Having seen the kids' sessions, and talked with three of the instructors that will be working with them, I had a pretty good feeling about the place, and decided that absent any warning bells in my introductory session or the sales pitch, we'd be signing up for membership in the dojo. It didn't hurt matters that when we showed up for the kids' sessions, we ran into a couple of families that we knew (one from the kids' school and one from on the block), who have been going to the place for a while.
One of the instructors (Mike) looks to be in his early twenties, and when I saw him working with the kids the program director (Charlie) spoke very enthusiastically about him. When I went in for my session on Friday, Charlie asked if I would be comfortable working out with Mike. Having seen him with the kids, I thought I would. We headed out to the mat and he started running through things, most of which felt at least vaguely familiar. Then we started working on forward rolls from a kneeling position. It felt almost like I'd been doing them all my life.
After we finished on the mat, we went over and talked to Charlie. Mike talked about how good my form was on the rolls, and said that clearly I'd learned something when I did aikido in college. He very diplomatically described my tenkan as a bit rusty. After all the praise of my rolls, I really didn't have the heart to tell him that even when I was doing it 2-3 days a week, it never got much better than rusty.
Then I went in and listened to the sales pitch, which did nothing to lessen my enthusiasm for the place (which is really about the best you can hope for). Charlie talked a bit more about Mike, mentioning that he had started coming as a kid, and was a very enthusiastic and skilled student - from context, I gathered that Mike couldn't be much older than 22. Afterwards, I was chatting with Mike and Charlie and a couple of other folks who were there - one of the black belts who had just finished teaching and a woman in street clothes. While we were talking, I mentioned that it had been twenty years since the aikido I did in college. Mike's eyes went wide at that - I guess he hadn't realized how middle-aged I am.
The local dojo had a free introductory program in February, so over the past couple of weeks, I took the kids to a couple of sessions. They seem to have enjoyed it. Jess has gone to one introductory session and will go to another later this week, but hasn't decided whether or not she's interested yet.
Having seen the kids' sessions, and talked with three of the instructors that will be working with them, I had a pretty good feeling about the place, and decided that absent any warning bells in my introductory session or the sales pitch, we'd be signing up for membership in the dojo. It didn't hurt matters that when we showed up for the kids' sessions, we ran into a couple of families that we knew (one from the kids' school and one from on the block), who have been going to the place for a while.
One of the instructors (Mike) looks to be in his early twenties, and when I saw him working with the kids the program director (Charlie) spoke very enthusiastically about him. When I went in for my session on Friday, Charlie asked if I would be comfortable working out with Mike. Having seen him with the kids, I thought I would. We headed out to the mat and he started running through things, most of which felt at least vaguely familiar. Then we started working on forward rolls from a kneeling position. It felt almost like I'd been doing them all my life.
After we finished on the mat, we went over and talked to Charlie. Mike talked about how good my form was on the rolls, and said that clearly I'd learned something when I did aikido in college. He very diplomatically described my tenkan as a bit rusty. After all the praise of my rolls, I really didn't have the heart to tell him that even when I was doing it 2-3 days a week, it never got much better than rusty.
Then I went in and listened to the sales pitch, which did nothing to lessen my enthusiasm for the place (which is really about the best you can hope for). Charlie talked a bit more about Mike, mentioning that he had started coming as a kid, and was a very enthusiastic and skilled student - from context, I gathered that Mike couldn't be much older than 22. Afterwards, I was chatting with Mike and Charlie and a couple of other folks who were there - one of the black belts who had just finished teaching and a woman in street clothes. While we were talking, I mentioned that it had been twenty years since the aikido I did in college. Mike's eyes went wide at that - I guess he hadn't realized how middle-aged I am.