First-time Kenshusei

19th Oct 2007

by Stephanie Ragno

Originally, my reasons for going to Chicago for the summer Kenshusei program were simply to improve my aikido, to gain experience from the massive amounts of training that I would be doing, and the influence of so many wonderful instructors. However talking to those who had been through it in past years in the months before the program, I realized that there was so much that I was missing from the whole concept, a mental aspect that I had never really thought about.

The moment I made it to Tenshinkan dojo, I put down my bags and immediately changed and went out on the mat for class. That’s when it really hit me. This month was going to be harder than anything I’d ever experienced. There were times during Kenshusei that I thought that there was no way I could make it through that next class or that I asked myself if I could really force myself to get up from that last fall. This was the mental part that I’d been missing, the strain put on my mind from being so tired constantly. But somewhere along the way I was able to overcome that negativity. Except during Zen of course. Zen was still torturous.

One of the things that I enjoyed the most as a Kenshusei student was the fact that you were never alone. If you screwed up and were doing the 300 workout because of it, if you were hurt or even just tired, there was always someone right there with you. Being a part of a group like that made me want to try even harder at everything. I felt like I could do more and last longer than I ever could before. My limits were stretched, but I made it through mostly intact. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.