[Li Shen Long]

Well today was my first day of training, i'll have to type this out tomorrow, i'm just too damn tired right now. So let me get back to you guys.

[setsu nin to]

i'm just too damn tired right now

thats men that traning was realy good!

[Li Shen Long]

Ok, now that i'm well-rested I should be able to do this. Firstly I will tell you what I did during the class, after that I have some questions. Anyway here it goes:


First off my sensei told me how to properly wear my uniform, he proceeded to show me the rules and such. After all that good stuff he called his top student over to "show me the ropes" so to speak, his top student Akmad showed me how to properly stretch my legs feet and hands and after that he showed me something about moving my hands like i'm rowing a boat, he told me to feel the ki or energy inside of me. At this time I hadn't the slightest idea of what to do about this Ki business so I just pretended to do it. I know I know, i'll get to that. Anyway after that all of the students were called to attendance, and of course I didn't know what to do so I lined up improperly, the other student told me that it goes by rank, so I quickly went to the proper position and we all watched sensei perform moves on his top student. After which we had to perform the move over and over again on our training partners, I was once again teamed-up with Akmad. It basically continued like this for the duration of the class, we only paused once for 10 minutes and another time for the "call to prayer", when I say that it continued like this i'm talking about the sensei shows us a new move and then we have to do the move he just showed us. Now I didn't perform the moves properly until like the 50th time trying them, but the instructor was very patient and understanding which I liked. Anyway the sensei left 30 mintues early because he had a date, his top student finished up the training, I felt more relaxed when the instructor left because I didn't feel like I was under pressure to get it right as fast as possible. Anyway that was the class, I know i'm missing some things, my instructor told me if I have ANY questions or I don't know how to do something that he will help me out in any way possible. But yeah to the questions, when I was training I felt I was being rushed, I was clueless when I entered and I felt a little frusterated, I didn't ask that many questions because I didn't want to hold the class up. The question is: should I be performing moves soo early in my training? I thought I am supposed to learn the very basic stuff first, I felt that I completely skipped past that stuff. Do you think I should ask my sensei if I can study the basics first before training in the moves?

[setsu nin to]

Wow thats exelent, i hope that you liked it. in diferent schools they use diferent methods of teaching martial arts. In some schools they made few groops, in one groop are beginners, in other groop senior students, in third groop black belts... But in some schools as in your for example all students practice together, which is in my opinion better, becouse you will work with more advanced students and you will progres much faster in your learning. some students who practice in that way are frustrated in begining becouse they are "worst", but thats normal becouse they come last and they are beginers. After three months you will see first change. in my opinion you shouldnt ask Sensei to change your way of practicing, becouse he showed you great honor to let you practiced with older students and his asistent. Belive me he did you a big faveour!

[Li Shen Long]

One other thing got to me, this instructor doesn't speak english like I thought he would, he is use to speaking arabic and he's "just" now speaking english, this means his english skills are rusty and I sometimes have a hard time understanding him. The key to teaching someone is to make sure the person you're teaching understands you, I had a very hard time understanding him. This is a major dampering factor, I don't know...I'll see if it's like this when I go again tomorrow.

[setsu nin to]

Well speaking English just for you was one more great honour that he shows you. when my friend go in French to learn Kenjutsu under one Japanese Sensei he told him in English "we are in French", than he repeat same thing in Japanese and every other word from than was in French. Unfortunatly my friend didnt understood more than five everyday using words. In the end he learned maybe 20 more words just for practicing and that was more than enought.

[Li Shen Long]

Well I have some bad news, this really upsets me. While at the club today my parents received some prejudice from egyptian members at the club, they then soon left. They do not wish to return to the club and they have asked that I leave the club also. This is kind of hard for me, I haven't recieved any prejudice from anyone, but I want to respect my parents decision. I will tell you this, if I do leave this particular dojo it will be only a bump in the road for me, this by no means means that I've given up. I will simply have to find another dojo, so all is not lost. I have other choices, so it's all good. Also this has no reflection on my martial arts training, I enjoyed it. This is just out of respect for my parents. So, to be continued....

[setsu nin to]

What club? Dojo?

What did Sensei said to all that if it was happen in Dojo?

[Li Shen Long]

It is called the Maadi Sporting Club, it is a very big facility that has many activities that one can do. It has tennis baseball and other stuff, not just martial arts. This did not happen in the dojo, this was outside the dojo, in the courtyard. The sensei understands, like I said this isn't a problem, just a temporary delay.

[bamboo]

http://www.aikiweb.com/search/search.html

A link to 5 aikido dojo in cairo.