Day 26 of writing every day.
This Saturday marks the first day of the Children’s Aikido class for 2023 that I’ve been teaching for the past 4 years officially as the instructor.
For me Aikido practice isn’t confined by a lesson plan like how kids might go through class at school. Classes are at a frequency of 4 Saturdays a month in 1 hour sessions, so there’s not that much of a feeling of continuation from one class to the next like kids would feel going to school Monday through Friday.
When learning something it’s typical to have homework or study/practice alone before the next class. But when it comes to noncompetitive activities such as Aikido, very few students, especially young ones are able to review what was taught in class on their own. On top of that Aikido is typically practiced in pairs and preferably with enough space to roll around in.
The added challenges to solo review means that most typical students aren’t able to do much on their own without supervision from the instructor to make sure they aren’t doing anything wrong that might risk injury.
Without competition, there isn’t really any instant reward from learning Aikido. The draw for it I think is that it offers an experience that students don’t find in their daily lives and the practice of it brings some measure of enjoyment and satisfaction physically and mentally that they keep coming back for.
There is no end to the learning process and the human body needs to get regular exercise to prevent atrophy and keep everything in working order. Unlike competitive sports, the goal is not to push your body to the edge and exert until you’ve reached the limits of exhaustion. Such practices may have some purpose as tests and for learning, but it’s a fact that professional athletes tend to have shorter lifespans than average.
As I lead the class, my hope for this year is that the kids will continue to stay enrolled and experience the joy of practice and at the very least learn how to use their bodies to roll safely and be able to react so they can always be one step ahead of danger and risk of injury.
The path to who I want to be
Simply wanting to be an ideal version won’t get me anywhere closer to being the ideal me. I’ve already mentioned how identity can affect our ability to change our ability to change our habits. So I decided I’m going to be the ideal me.
I’ve decided to quit gaming for the time being to see how it affects my habits. I did it before when I was training to be my best, and I had some successful outcomes of it, but there wasn’t a sustainable system to keep it up when the goal changed.
A life where I can practice Aikido to my heart’s content is what I want to realize, and to do that I need to do better and hold myself responsible just as much as I’m doing for not being content with work and my living situation.
Evening reflection
After the children’s class, I’m again hit with the obvious that young children take after the adults they see as teachers like they would from their parents, siblings, etc. This applies to both good and bad sides of the people they imitate as part of the learning process.
I do not consider my Aikido to be anywhere near perfect, which is the very reason I want to train more besides finding it enjoyable. But seeing children mimic me without understanding the meaning and purpose behind what I displayed as an example really gives me pause to how big a responsibility I have to do better and not leave students I work with with bad habits and tendencies.
Thanks for reading!
One Chance Works 