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Beginners' Basics

Safety First

Aikido, like any other form of physical activity, has rules and regulations.

Health and safety is a paramount issue at QMUL Aikido Club. The following are a few health & safety guidelines for training at the Club. This isn't an exhaustive list and they are mostly common sense but it never hurts to re-iterate them:

Aikido is a cooperative martial art where you work with a partner to learn the techniques. Cooperating with them will also help maintain a good, pleasant training atmosphere for everyone.
Please ensure you take off any jewellery including rings and necklaces before training. If this is not possible, you may cover the piece of jewellery with some tape.
Please ensure that your finger and toe nails are properly trimmed, as sharp nails can easily cause cuts to others.
Please refrain from eating or drinking while in the dojo.
Please switch off mobile phones to help minimise disruption to the class.
Ensure that you have warmed up properly before training. Most injuries in Aikido will occur as a result of not having warmed up the joints or muscles properly.
Feel free to ask for help if you don't understand something. The instructors, and senior grades are there to help you. You need only ask.
If you are not sure about a certain technique or anything at all, please don't feel pressured into doing it. In this case, refer to the previous point.
If you have to leave the mat area for some reason. Please let an instructor know. It is not only good etiquette, but is also a safety requirement.
Have fun ... please enjoy the class.

Discipline and etiquette

As a Japanese martial art, Aikido still holds to the Japanese traditions of etiquette and respect. One of the most common examples of showing this in Aikido is the bow or rei. This is used to show mutual respect between the instructors and the students. There are two forms of rei: the kneeling (seiza) and standing (tachi) rei. The rei is typically done at the start of a class, before and after practising with a partner, and at the end of the class.

Posture

"No building in the world can stand without proper foundations." Just as an infant takes it's first steps in the world, before you learn anything in Aikido, it is important to know how to stand. There is more to this than just standing, anyone can do that. The key is to stand in good posture - where you maintain a solid, balanced basee from which your Aikido will come from. In Aikido, this is called kamae. Aikidoka can assume either left posture or right posture, depending on the situation.

Hints/Tips for good posture:

Wide, triangular stance, with hips facing forward;
Knees bent slightly and not locked out;
Weight evenly distributed on both legs;
Shoulders relaxed, and arms in front of your centre, with elbows slightly bent and not locked;
Hands form a knife-edge with the leading hand at head height and the second hand at chest height just behind.

Break falls

Many of the techniques in Aikido involve finishing with a throw of some sort on uke. This means that uke needs to learn how to fall safely. A number of ukemi techniques are taught at the club:

Backward break fall.
Sideward break fall.
Forward rolling break fall.
Backward rolling break fall.

Basic Movements

Now that you know how to stand (and fall) in Aikido, one needs to learn how to move around without losing that good posture. There are a variety of basic movements that are practised to facilitate this:

Tsugi-ashi (movement in posture).
Ayumi-ashi (change from one posture to the other).
Taiso-baki (A turning movement).)

Basic exercises

There are five basic exercises in our style of Aikido. The purpose of these exercises is to help teach the student the principles of movement and balance breaking and are not meant to be seen as techniques.

Weapons

Aikido is primarily an unarmed form of martial art. However, the art does make use of a number of weapons. These are as follows:

Tanto: A wooden or rubber knife.
Tanbo: A wooden or soft club.
Jo: A four foot wooden staff.
Bokken: a wooden sword.

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Last updated: 07 Oct 2008 23:33