Hi - I suppose I could have brought this up during a post keiko circle but this will give people more time to think before answering and might lead to a more in depth examination of my proposal.
I've been reading "The Spirit of Aikido" and it dawned on me that perhaps we could try something out that might help with making the dojo more accessible to those with day jobs, families or those living the american dream. I was reading about the Doshu's amazement over class participation at Hombu Dojo. Regardless of the season - snow, freezing weather as well as summer with it's hot conditions practitioners show up regardless of the weather. My focus was on the time frame involved. Obviously the size of our dojo doesn't compare to Hombu but I'd like to throw this out for Shobu community feedback . . .
Would anyone be interested in Aikido classes daily at 6:30 am?
Granted I'm not a morning person (yet) but I would gladly sacrifice a few hours of sleep in order to free up more evenings for my family. There is no doubt in my mind that if I could somehow go to keiko more often without impacting my relationship with my wife and kids that I would. As it stands now going three times a week has at times created serious implications with the relationships in my life. I think an early class would be great and allow for more time on the mat. What do you all think??
-Bob
Bob,
ReplyDeletea few thoughts. It's a worthy idea. I wonder if 6:30 is early enough? an hour keiko, change clothes, driving time, it would be hard to get to work (for me) by 8:00. Are you thinking an open mat situation? Would sensei ask a senior student to be there?
All Interested Aikidoka -
ReplyDeleteI would almost never be able to lead these classes. On one hand, I think that the more training the better. On the other, I think that if people started to just do the morning classes and I was no longer working with them personally it would be a loss. In my experience, there tends to be two outcomes. Either the classes just die out after a month or two, or a "mornings only" group starts to form as a subset with in the dojo community. This happens when people who otherwise wouldn't join the dojo do so because they can only attend the early mornings. Perhaps this seems like a good thing, and possibly would be from a financial point of view, but from a training point of view, if I'm not able to guide these folks directly then I'm not so sure about it.
Another issue may be what happens to the current 10am morning classes? There may be people for whom these work that could not make an earlier time.
Bottom line is that I really don't want to dilute the concentrated quality of the training that is happening now. I'm not saying no, but if enough people want to give this possibility a try we will have to discuss it face to face together first.
- Jay