Dear friends,
I recently began taking about 4 weeks ago an Aikido class which I am enjoying. Having previously taken judo for several years in my youth, thus, judo already being ingrained or hardwired into my system beforehand, this has both maybe somewhat helped me, as well as possibly detracted me, from learning Aikido. For one thing, it’s been interesting to re-train myself in, what is brand new for me, the differences between the judo break fall and roll (which I have down pat since my youth) from the Aikido break fall and roll, which is gradually beginning to come to me now.
Our Aikido instructor, rather, our "sensei", he being a second degree black belt, thus, appears to be, as well as I would logically surmise, proficient in the art of Aikido. However, I am having some difficulty accepting the “warm up” that he begins our class with, rather, the approximate 15 minutes or so he has us spend on “doing stretches”, i.e. the traditional static “hamstring stretches”, groin stretches, shoulder and arm stretches, and the like.
I believe that I have read in the past how doing static stretches before your activity may be counter productive, as opposed to doing what may be helpful "dynamic stretches", instead, just before your activity. I seem to have validated this for myself.
For example, when I first show up at the Aikido dojo, just before class starts, my first initial instinctual reaction is to, rather than to “stretch out”, is to instead, I really first desire to just lie down on the mat and to want to begin to lightly roll around (not yet the full blown 360 degree ukemi), and to continue to do some gentle rolling, twisting and turning within the lying position well as in the standing position. However, I do not proceed to do any of this light movement. Instead, I just simply wait for sensei to come to the mat and to then guide us into his static stretching regime. Anyway, I never have any instinctual desire to do any kind of static stretching at the very beginning of class.
However, our sensei, I’m sure he having the best of intentions for all of us, has all of we students go into a static stretch, just for instance, say, a "hamstring stretch" or "hurdler stretch" or various other stretches, and to “hold the stretch” for several seconds. I, regrettably, comply to sensei's instructions.
I believe that I can validate from my very recent personal experience that these static stretches led by sensei are not productive. For example, immediately after the guided stretching led by our instructor, I unfortunately feel less fluid when we then proceed to go into the rest of the class. Whereas, in the very beginning of class, just before the 15 minutes of various static stretching exercises that we did together, I was aware that I had a more playful bounce to my body.
I can understand how slow and long post-activity static stretching, that is, at the end of class, can be actually beneficial so I would be fine with doing some "stretching" then. That is, I would be fine with holding a long stretch near the end of our class. However, instead, our sensei does not instruct us in any post workout “stretching”.
Therefore, is there a way that I can somehow lightly or humbly approach him (he is a 2nd dan, no less.) and suggest to him that I wish to refrain from doing these static stretches? Is there some way that I can gracefully state that I will join in with the rest of the class after he is done “stretching”? Are there any other ideas that you may have for me?
Otherwise, I am actually considering to intentionally arrive to class 15 minutes late in order to miss and avoid the sensei's structured stretching regime. The sensei has already told us at the very first class that if any of we students arrive late, we are to move to the outside of the class and to proceed to warm up on our own. Thus, I would interpret that to mean that, if this were the case, then I can somewhat "warm up in my own way", i.e. the light movements of lightly rolling around and twisting that I am naturally drawn to do before starting Aikido practice.
Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much.
The best to all,
Greetings!
I recently began taking about 4 weeks ago an Aikido class which I am enjoying. Having previously taken judo for several years in my youth, thus, judo already being ingrained or hardwired into my system beforehand, this has both maybe somewhat helped me, as well as possibly detracted me, from learning Aikido. For one thing, it’s been interesting to re-train myself in, what is brand new for me, the differences between the judo break fall and roll (which I have down pat since my youth) from the Aikido break fall and roll, which is gradually beginning to come to me now.
Our Aikido instructor, rather, our "sensei", he being a second degree black belt, thus, appears to be, as well as I would logically surmise, proficient in the art of Aikido. However, I am having some difficulty accepting the “warm up” that he begins our class with, rather, the approximate 15 minutes or so he has us spend on “doing stretches”, i.e. the traditional static “hamstring stretches”, groin stretches, shoulder and arm stretches, and the like.
I believe that I have read in the past how doing static stretches before your activity may be counter productive, as opposed to doing what may be helpful "dynamic stretches", instead, just before your activity. I seem to have validated this for myself.
For example, when I first show up at the Aikido dojo, just before class starts, my first initial instinctual reaction is to, rather than to “stretch out”, is to instead, I really first desire to just lie down on the mat and to want to begin to lightly roll around (not yet the full blown 360 degree ukemi), and to continue to do some gentle rolling, twisting and turning within the lying position well as in the standing position. However, I do not proceed to do any of this light movement. Instead, I just simply wait for sensei to come to the mat and to then guide us into his static stretching regime. Anyway, I never have any instinctual desire to do any kind of static stretching at the very beginning of class.
However, our sensei, I’m sure he having the best of intentions for all of us, has all of we students go into a static stretch, just for instance, say, a "hamstring stretch" or "hurdler stretch" or various other stretches, and to “hold the stretch” for several seconds. I, regrettably, comply to sensei's instructions.
I believe that I can validate from my very recent personal experience that these static stretches led by sensei are not productive. For example, immediately after the guided stretching led by our instructor, I unfortunately feel less fluid when we then proceed to go into the rest of the class. Whereas, in the very beginning of class, just before the 15 minutes of various static stretching exercises that we did together, I was aware that I had a more playful bounce to my body.
I can understand how slow and long post-activity static stretching, that is, at the end of class, can be actually beneficial so I would be fine with doing some "stretching" then. That is, I would be fine with holding a long stretch near the end of our class. However, instead, our sensei does not instruct us in any post workout “stretching”.
Therefore, is there a way that I can somehow lightly or humbly approach him (he is a 2nd dan, no less.) and suggest to him that I wish to refrain from doing these static stretches? Is there some way that I can gracefully state that I will join in with the rest of the class after he is done “stretching”? Are there any other ideas that you may have for me?
Otherwise, I am actually considering to intentionally arrive to class 15 minutes late in order to miss and avoid the sensei's structured stretching regime. The sensei has already told us at the very first class that if any of we students arrive late, we are to move to the outside of the class and to proceed to warm up on our own. Thus, I would interpret that to mean that, if this were the case, then I can somewhat "warm up in my own way", i.e. the light movements of lightly rolling around and twisting that I am naturally drawn to do before starting Aikido practice.
Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you very much.
The best to all,
Greetings!
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