Recently I revisited Nick Walker's aikido dojo @ Berkeley YMCA with Alex, to remind myself of what it was like and whether it's worth the YMCA membership ($99 join, $62/mo).

It was ... familiar, ish. A decent cardio exercise - just enough to get sweat going, not really any muscle training. All the usual exercises, in variants I'm not really familiar with 'cause it's been a long time since I went to Nick's class. I feel a bit ambivalent about it; it's comfortable and I like aikido for the non-sparring feeling, but it feels lacking something.

Today I went to Berkeley to try out their yongmudo and judo clubs/classes - yongmudo 4-7, judo 7-8:30. Alex came for just judo, since he was busy earlier. It'd cost me $42/mo for one, $57/mo for two.

Yongmudo was interesting. A lot of skill overlap from aikido. They do a lot more hardfalls than I'd prefer. Did mat work (scarf hold) - not normally done in aikido. Front high fall off a big (~6'?) stack of mats onto a crash pad. Nikkyo and kotegaeshi, though they didn't call 'em that. A sort of tenchinage from kata-dori, into the pin. A fair amount of prep exercise, enough that it was hard for me to finish just muscularly (abs and arms not strong enough). I liked it overall.

Skill wise I'd be starting as a mid ranking student - definitely better than the yellow belts, better than some of the blues, definitely outclassed by brown/red/black. The second half of yongmudo (5:30-7) is supposed to be normally nominally for brown belts and up. I'll have to find out how strongly they actually mean that, and how representative today's sample of it was; if anything I found it easier than the first half (since the aikido experience transfers very well for wrist throws etc), and would feel comfortable with something fairly more intense than what was there. (OTOH the browns are definitely above my skill level...)

The instructor for the second half was better, also.

Judo was harder. One thing that concerned me - that I'll have to ask about - was that they explicitly did (and seemed to even prefer?) doing front and back rolls over the head, like gymnasts do 'em; this seems dangerous to me compared to standard over-the-shoulder rolls. Again, lots of highfalls and slappy sharp stuff. Somewhat odd footwork to me for the hip throws, though that I'd get used to. More mat work, again with the scarf hold and attempted escape from it. (I totally suck at escaping it, even with someone a bit lighter than me. With a 250lb opponent it was just zero movement.) Various partner stuff about walking and getting off balance in prep for hip throws. Significantly more physical training and harder prep exercises, some of 'em physically quite weird for me (e.g. their "judo pushups", cartwheels, over-the-head rolls, etc). Overall, I was more ambivalent about it; I suspect it'd be a lot harder on me physically in bad ways, but the extra physical training per se is fine and the significantly different technique would be interesting to learn.

Skill wise I'd be starting off as a mid white belt - I know a couple judoish throws from aikido, and can take a fall, but most of my skills don't transfer well at all at this stage. So it'd be harder, have to learn all new stuff, etc.

Both had a lot more students, and proportionally more within my age & weight range, than Nick's aikido class (or for that matter Kayla's). That's both pro and con; it's more production-line-y, but there's also more partner selection and somewhat more higher level people available (though not proportionally so on the latter, especially with half of them tied up running the class).

I'll try going to both next MWF for the free week (which happens to be right now - through next Wed.) and see how I take to it before deciding.

4.5 hours of practice was quite strenuous though. Right now my neck's a bit sore, arms are very definitely tired and need rest. But I feel the normal post-exercise goodness.


ETA next day: Ow, my pecs and ribs are sore. >

It's been a while, and I'd like to start practicing regularly again.

So here's a list of dojos that are located conveniently for me (as found by browsing http://www.aikiweb.com/search/ and eliminating those with no-longer-existant websites or that would be >35 minutes one-way commute from my standard work-home commute via public transit). I've visited some before, but I'll go back to each and take one class as a visitor to see what they're like now, and update here with the results.

http://www.heartaikido.com/
http://www.cityaikido.com/
http://www.ucsf.edu/aikido/
http://www.goldengatekokikai.com/
http://suginamisf.com/
http://www.sfaikikai.net/
http://www.berkeleyaikikai.org/
http://www.aikiarts.com/
http://www.aikidoinstitute.org/
http://www.suigetsukan.org/