Try Something New - Aikido

One of the downsides of being a university student is that you might be tempted to adapt a lifestyle that’s bad for your health. Examples would be an unhealthy diet consisting of fast food and junk food or lack of exercise. The latter can be caused by the fact that somebody moves from the countryside to the city – as I did. Let me explain: In my opinion, in the countryside you are more likely to go for a walk or jogging or biking or whatever, while in the city you don’t really feel the need to do something outdoors and therefore often prefer watching TV or meeting friends to have coffee and cake.

Of course you could force yourself to go jogging or visit a gym in the city, but if you are not exactly a sports buff, that’s not so easy. However, there’s another solution – signing up for sports classes. The USI (Universitäts-Sportinstitut) for instance offers a huge variety of different sports (ranging from aerobics to martial arts, swimming or different dance styles) at a cheap rate. If you join a sports class, you are forced to go there once a week and if you enjoy the activity, I’d say it’s perfect.

I’m always eager to try out something new, so this semester I signed up for a hip hop and an aikido course. For those of you who haven’t heard of aikido before – it’s a Japanese martial art, which above all focuses on defending yourself. Basically, you learn how to use the attacker’s strength for your own benefit and defeat him without straining yourself too much. It’s all about the movements.

In the following video a guy pretty much cuts to the chase in explaining what aikido is about:

And here he demonstrates one of the various techniques:

During the lesson, the teacher shows a technique to you and then you split up into pairs and practice with your partner. The teacher observes and provides individual advice for every pair. I can’t remember any of the techniques in detail yet, but they are repeated in each lesson and it really is a lot of fun. In addition, I think once I have a little more practice and once I'm able to recall the movements, aikido will be very helpful to defend myself, should I ever find myself in such a situation.

It stunned me to find out that there actually are several aikido schools in Graz, like for instance the “ASKÖ Aikido Klub Graz”, the “Aikido Union Graz” or the “Aikidoschule Graz”. So if you want to try out something new, I can only recommend this sport.  :)