> How can I make it easier to learn martial arts?

How can I make it easier to learn martial arts?

Posted at: 2015-05-07 
Martial arts are difficult.

No need top hurry.

You are making progress, even if you don't notice.

Just keep at it, it will come.

I've been studying Aikido since 2009. I'm only 4th kyu right now, having taken only 2 tests in 4 years.

And you know what? I'm still learning, and am quite happy right where I'm at.

I'm in no hurry, since it's a lifelong endeavor anyway. You should be in no rush, either.

Take your time, listen with an open mind, and don't worry about trying to make things go faster. The harder you try, the harder the study.

For what it's worth, Aikido is a very difficult thing to learn. So don't worry about it, just have fun. And if you want, and the opportunity is there, take the classes. But only for the fun of it, not to hurry things up.

I taught aikido.. individual lessons aren't really that useful - you need to train with many different types of people.

if you read "The Book of 5 Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi, you'll see his (famous) advice always ends with.. "train hard, and you will understand".

Basically, train! Train and train some more. Unarmed work is difficult on your own, but bokken work really helps. Watch videos (esp. of Ueshiba and saito). Train some more. Why are the others progressing faster? Do you talk alot in training? are you trying to get as much out the lesson as possible?

Also, your rank is irrelevant. Sometimes at the start people progress slowly, and then suddenly it comes to them. There are plateus in all martial arts.

You should definitely have your Sensei help you. He should really make time, he is running a business after all and needs to be able to satisfy all of his students. Individual lessons are very helpful and aid progression, you should ask your Sensei about them.

Other than that, just keep showing up for class and practicing. Different people move at different rates. Don't worry about how fast others move up, just focus on how you're doing. Again, just keep at it, practice, go to class, and work hard, and you should see improvement in time.

Now go forth, and do that.

Aikido is one of the more difficult martial arts to learn in some ways. Not only does it require developing your sense of touch and how hard and fast or slow and easy you apply something but also timing and stepping into the attack in a lot of cases. I won't embarrass myself by telling you how long I worked on getting a few of its techniques down that I really liked but it took a good long time. Now I can use them quite well and have commented on them before and their effectiveness in this forum but I am talking years really before I could really use and apply them. Even now they are not near as smoothly executed as those of my friends who train and study Aikido.

One thing that helped me was understanding and remembering that if I had to really use a lot of power or force to execute something then that would work against me doing the technique correctly. You want to rely on technique and not power or strength for executing many of the techniques in Aikido and trying to physically force them does not work.

Let him help you.

Listen to what he says.

Practice at home

Work with other students who "get it"

Stop expecting too much and practice more.

Maybe you should beat up some kids to gain some confidence. Find some school bullies to fight with.

I do aikido. It's a Japanese martial art and ever since I started, I just can't progress. I'm still a very low rank and everybody else but me is progressing. I just can't seem to learn it. Is there anything I could do to get myself to learn aikido more easily?

My sensei wants to help, but I'm not sure what would be a good idea. Individual lesions would be great, but I don't think my sensei has time for that.

Any suggestions on how to get around my mental block?