[ ncsu : student organizations : aikido : beginners ]

Beginner Information

Dressing for Practice

• Aikido requires loose-fitting clothing
• A uniform from another martial art is OK
• Long pants are preffered
• Gym clothes are OK
• Anything else is OK too, although it may restrict movement
• Your hair must be manageable or it will get messed up

Please note: your jewelry, watches, and belts will probably have to come off - they will be uncomfortable and get in the way.  Shoes also come off, although some people opt to keep their socks.  If you're embarrassed about foot odor, put deodorant on your feet, it works very well.

Etiquette

• If you are not practicing (the teacher is demonstrating, or you are working in a group of three) you should sit down
• Please limit conversation
• It is OK to ask questions or call the teacher
• When practicing aikido, one person is performing the technique (nage, pronounded 'na-ghe') while the other person is receiving the technique (uke, pronounced 'oo-keh', not 'yukeh').
  • The role of uke is not to sit there like a training dummy
  • Don't fight against your nage
  • Try to practice so that both of you can learn without getting hurt

Bowing Etiquette

When you come for the first time you may feel awkward because you don't know the procedures of bowing and such. Not to worry, everyone gets confused at first. Here's a quick guide to bowing:

1. Keep in mind that you can just copy what others are doing, and a breach of etiquette is not a big deal
2. Students enter the mat with a bow toward the front to acknowledge the founder of Aikido, O-Sensei. This is not a religious gesture, it is formal dojo (martial arts studio) etiquette, in Japan and the USA.
3. Students line up, and teacher and students repeats the bow to the front (the picture of the founder, called a kamiza)
4. Teacher and students bow to each other
5. The basic format of the class is that the teacher will demonstrate a technique and the students will partner up and practice while the sensei (teacher) watches over the class. So, when the teacher is finished demonstrating, everyone bows to the teacher then finds a student to work with and bows to that student.
6. At the end of class the procedure from the beginning of class is repeated. Then, students wait for the teacher to end class, and then bow to all the people they worked with.
7. When getting off the mat bow to the kamiza just like when you got on the mat.