Jump!★

Yesterday, I followed Panda to our university's Aikido club because I fell in love with Judo when I went to Japan. For some reason, I was excited, perhaps the feeling of finally being able to exercise. Panda was the only girl, so plus me, it became two. Yay for company.

We reached the Aikido centre, which was a 15 minutes drive from school, halfway into the class because our van was late. The sensei was a man about 70 years of age, I would guess. It was fun for me because he spoke English as well haha. When he spoke Chinese, I really couldn't understand because he was using those complicated terms to describe the movements. When he named the steps in Japanese, my brain just malfunctioned.

I only remembered one name, iriminage, which means to enter (your opponent's body). I have no idea that Aikido was a close combat type of art and at first it freaked me out when I thought about worst case scenarios if someone attacked me, I would be too afraid to get close. These people are so brave...

The sensei also preach philosophy which reminded me of my humanities class which I like. Aside from that, he also acted out scenarios of being attacked, whereby he's the victim and his assistant, whom is bigger a lot in size than him, acts as the assailant. He taught us, and he especially focused on girls, how to escape if someone grabs you or physically restrains you.

And for this sake, he disallowed girls to partner with girls whenever we practice the defenses, which honestly shocked me initially. It was so awkward because I obviously don't know anyone aside from Panda, so the assistant teacher partnered with me. The first exercise was pretty simple, but it wasn't simple for me because I wasn't used to the steps. It was a simulation of a scenario where the assailant wants to punch or stab you, and you avoid him followed by a punch to the chin so he will fall backwards. Everyone is so swift and made it seem so easy, while I keep blocking with the wrong hand and just wanted to face palm so much.

I felt that in a way, Aikido is similar to dance, with the structured steps and swift movements but what I couldn't get used to was that they use the same leg and hand. It got so confusing for me I didn't know how to coordinate my body. You know like how when you keep reading a word, it seems foreign and you don't know what you're reading anymore, this is exactly like this but in actions, because we have to repeatedly do it for about 15 minutes.

The second exercise was almost the same, except we make the assailant fall by twisting his wrist and then rolling him on the ground so his front faces down. Sometimes I get to be the assailant, most times I'm the victim. This second time, I was partnered with Roan, the president of the club, whom was my freshie can you believe it, a year younger than me . He's a lil bro, although he looks older. According to Panda, he collects martial arts like how people learns new art medium, and I can clearly see his self-assurance. He doesn't look like a person who does martial art though, tall and slender, so we really can't judge people can we.

For me, this was the hardest exercise because we have to drag the assailant and do arm lock. I couldn't do the 2 different arm locks properly and Roan had to ask others to demonstrate to me. I tried my best nevertheless. In the end I got to learn how to do it correctly and also got to experience how painful it was to almost have your arm dislocated. While in this exercise, there was a great juxtaposition going on, which was the contrast of the power of the movements and Roan's gentle voice. (I sound like a creep.) It felt so strange to be instructed and shown on how to execute those movements while a person is so near to you and is practically holding hands. It reminded me of the Judo moment except in Judo, you grab the collar of their shirt.

Third exercise was releasing your hand or yourself if the assailant is grabbing your hand or shoulders. This one for me is the funnest but also most painful because my partner, Zeff, although he looks kind and gentle, his grip was so strong. My wrists were getting red from all my attempts to free myself because he said he would hold on tightly so I can be as close to the real experience as possible. My hands were so weak that I couldn't properly escape lol. The sensei had to come to us and demonstrate how exactly should I do it.

When I see people doing the exercises with ease, it quickly became obvious that I was the weakest of the bunch. I'm a first time, so I will get stronger! I also became more and more sorry for my partners because they couldn't practice as much as they could have if they weren't partnered with me.

I was shocked to discovered there was a fourth and last exercise because by that time I just wanna sit down and listen to stories. It was approaching 11pm. Roan partnered back with me and this time we did the punching/stabbing stance again but with a different defence. We had to turn and drag the opponent with us and then hit him in the head so he falls backwards. That was confusing for me too as I didn't fully understand the footwork even though Roan showed me multiple times. Sometimes, I just rather be the attacker because I can just fall and not do all the work but then the point is to let me be the victim.

When we are turning the victim, we are behind him and one of our hands will be on his wrist and the other on his shoulder, near to the neck. When Roan demonstrated the victim part while I act as the attacker, it felt like I could fall any second if he pushes me from the shoulder. That was how firm his grip was; it was kinda scary, but an eye opener and quite enlightening.

Sensei mentioned how Aikido is like massage; when you fall or your partner arm locks you and all that stuff, you get flexible, and when you are flexible, you can be healthy. He is not wrong; right when I came back, my whole body hurts like I had a massage, my stomach hurts and my wrists had small red dots and slashes on them. I felt so accomplished.

The next morning, pain was the first thing I felt. It was at the most weird of places; my neck front and back, the back of my thigh but higher up, not the muscular part, and my joints... I like all these pains.

Throughout the day, I felt so active though. It's almost 2am and I am still feeling so awake what is this magic. But I gotta go sleep now because I have a full day class tomorrow and then a meet up with Japanese people for a cultural exchange! As sensei told us, we have to have strong intentions and tell ourselves "I can do it!".