On my first day of Aikido training, I walked towards the dojo with so many thoughts running through my mind. Thoughts like: How does my Sensei look like? Who will I meet in the dojo? Will I be able to do all the things that Sensei asks me to do? I was feeling nervous but enthusiastic at the same time.

I soon stepped into the dojo and the first person I saw was Sensei. He really stood out from the crowd of newcomers like me and all the parents who came in with their children. He had white hair, was wearing a Gi and had a black skirt on (which I remembered was called a Hakama, it was something that I learnt from my own research on the Internet). He doesn’t look like a local to me, more like Japanese instead. I walked towards him, and reported my name. I then received my first and brand new set of Gi. I then went to change and like most of the newcomers, I had to ask how to put on my belt. After the belt was tied on, I stood around for awhile, waiting for things to get started.

Soon, all the newcomers have their Gi on, and my first class was about to start. We were seated in a row, in Seiza. Less than a minute into seating in Seiza, the pain in my folded legs became unbearable. Then Sensei introduced himself and started asking all of us why did we want to learn Aikido? I wasn’t the first in line, so thoughts started flying through my mind, searching for a suitable answer. Then I remembered that I knew Aikido from Steven Seagal’s movies. When it was my turn, I nervously uttered “Steven Seagal”. Sensei smiled and said: “Oh, so you want to be like Steven Seagal…” Actually, that wasn’t what I really meant. I just smiled back and let it pass. A while after that, I wondered what Sensei might think of me. Wanting to be like Steven Seagal would sound like a wrong and misunderstood motivation to start training in Aikido, judging from the violence in his movies.

As class got underway, we were taught basics and I kind of found everything to be quite easy to do. That calmed me down some, and time flew by. Soon we were back in the line, seated and bowing out of our first training session. Before I decided to train in Aikido, I did some of my own research about the art, to know more about the art. Mostly, I had read about O Sensei, about the mystical “Ki”, and all types of stuff one can find about the art on the Internet. I also found video clips and downloaded some to watch. The clips featured some techniques and I thought that they all looked spectacular, with all the flipping and flying around, the guys in the clips seemed like rag dolls, being thrown around effortlessly.

Then I thought to myself, when will I see such action in the dojo? When will I get to learn such techniques? I was really interested to see these techniques performed in real life, in front of my eyes. I began thinking about training all the time, and I was constantly looking forward to the next training. Things went well for me with my development in Aikido practice. I came to know all my dojo mates, and I’m happy to have friendly people in my dojo. I started looking for a couple of books that can help me with my training. The books really helped me with the technique names (as they were all in Japanese) and they also helped me visualize and understand how to do techniques better.

I also realized that while training on the mat, I really learnt a great deal. Sensei would sometimes talk about etiquette in the dojo, and also about concepts of Aikido. Sensei also emphasized on having a martial spirit and mindset, which would help us in our development and set a standard in discipline on the mat. Not only did I learn a great deal from Sensei, I also learnt a lot from my fellow dojo mates, and from my seniors whom I train with. I really want to thank all of them for helping me.

After a few more sessions, I began feeling good about learning Aikido. I thought to myself “This is great! I have never felt so good about something before.” Although I had only practiced Aikido for a short while, I began to feel that Aikido is maybe something I can do for the rest of my life. Looking back, it has already been almost a year since I started. Time passes by so fast it seems, but I have only taken my first step on the path of Aiki. I realize I still have a long way to go before I can do real Aikido. But for now, I shall continue to train hard.