I need to loosen up

It is one of those days where I am glad I went for keiko. Funny I would say that, you think. After all, the reason why I came to Japan was for aikido training. Of course, my intention is to attend classes everyday to make as much as possible out of my short stay in Japan. However, realistically speaking, execution of such a plan is easier said than done.

First off, there is the injury factor. I got injured twice over a 6 month period. One from over training before my body could adjust to the rigors of daily training. The other was from riding my bicycle. I won't bother explaining…. Then there is the holiday factor, the social factor and the I-don't-feel-like-a-million-dollars-today factor. 

Today was one of those days where I feel worn out and worried that I might not be able to make it through the hour long training. I had a very interesting but also exhausting weekend and it is an experience I d not wish to repeat for the sake of my health and well-being. I slept for most part of Saturday and did not attend any classes. On Sunday I also slept in but went to another dojo for training in the evening. Come Monday I was still feeling tired. In fact, I almost fell asleep in class today. Age is indeed catching up on me.

Anyway back to my story. I decided that I was going to attend class today. With trepidation, I stepped into the mat telling myself to take it slowly and keep going until the end. I trained with a nice lady and a nice gentlemen. I ended up chatting with both. The lady shared her experience on training with me when I told her about my problems with kokyuho. She told me I felt stiff when she threw me. So we went over the technique and she showed me where my problems were. As I thought, it dealt largely with the connection issue. I have problems staying connected with sensei and end up stiff and disconnecting prematurely. After listening to her we tried the exercise again and she said I felt much better than before. I realized that I was only relaxing parts of my body as opposed to keeping my body in a relaxed state. It goes right down to the toes really and I was so happy to learn that today. 

As for the nice gentleman, we chatted about aikido and he was kind enough to try and speak to me in English. He was very good to train with and I had a tough time keeping up with him. 

Well, here I am, at home and extremely tired but very happy. Happy that I went for training and got something important out of it. 

I am looking forward to tomorrow's lesson.