What Do You Think Of Akido?

[ScottUK]

If they drop their sword, they should impale themselves on it. Is that an aiki technique too?

[Hardball]

If they drop their sword, they should impale themselves on it. Is that an aiki technique too?

If they drop their sword they break out with jujitsu.

[ScottUK]

Perhaps my humour was too subtle. I'll get my coat.

[Tom Yum]

Perhaps my humour was too subtle. I'll get my coat.

Can you pick me up a case of beer while you're out there? Thanks.

[jeff5]

Many of the Aikido techinques and body mechanics are based on similar movements that you would make with a sword. This was to make the empty hand portion of the Samurai arts relateable to men who mainly fought with weapons.

[tntma]

I find it so amusing how people can make fun of things (styles) that they dont understand or know much about, lol. And the whole thing about the boxer and the aikidoist, lol, come on now, you cant be serious.

Dont get me wrong, I agree that boxing is great, as well as any other form of martial art, if used right. But to just assume that one art would take out another is a bit crazy. There are a lot of factors to consider. I also understand peoples pride in there art, thinking that thier art is superior.

Just because an art isnt for you doesnt mean that it isnt effective.

As far as the similarities of Aikido and Samurai, Jeff5, very well said.

[ScottUK]

That said, there are only so many ways to move your body - it is not surprising that aiki has 'sword movements' in it because the human skeleton has limitations...

[TKD Student]

My personal thought of Aikido is that it looks so... unreal! Every "counter attack" makes the opponent make 100 summersault's (spelling??) in the air before landing on the street. I think an Aikidoka would not stand a chance against martial arts that have kicks and punches, if he or she doesn't know anything else than Aikido.

[TKD Student]

Well, that could be true for just about anything. A TKD student who only practices TKD, and nothing else, for example. Or a boxer that does not know how to grapple.

Honestly... I think one would stand a better chance with TKD or Boxing in a fight, than using Aikido. The fact that Aikido has no punches or anything is a great weakness, I would say. Sure... it might work against 1 or 2 in a street fight if you're good, but I think it would be darn difficult. Not saying that it would be easy with another martial art either, of course. Everything depends on the students skills and experience.

[tntma]

Aikido would do very well in a self defense situation, whether against one or multiple opponents. It focuses highly on defense (pins, throws, takedowns, evading). And just because aikido doesnt focus on strikes, we do learn how to strike and where to strike effectively. We dont focus on strikes because we are predominately deffensive, but because of that, if you run up agains an accomplished aikidoka, and attack him, chances are good you will end up on the ground.

With its high focus on randori (one against many) excersises, aikido is very usefull against multiple opponents. To get your black belt in many aikido schools, you must complete a randori of anywhere between 3 and 5 attackers. Most that I have see, you have to defend yourself using throws, pins, locks, evading, takedowns.

As I said before, it does take a very long time to get really good at aikido, but once you reach that point, there isnt really much that you cant defend against.

[Tom Yum]

Aikido has the least amount of "McDojo's, compared to some other arts. My dojo is a pay every month place, with no contracts, and no "Black belt" programs. In fact, they almost guarantee you won't be a black belt before 5 years. It is also non-profit.

I am impressed by the seriousness of the whole thing.

I just read a book about bouncers and barroom brawling, and the author (A biker) speaks very highly of Aikido, and the Aikido mind-set.

I'm more impressed with Yoshinkan Aikido. I believe that's the style you were telling me about that the Japanese police force use.

[Shoot]

It could be a fun hobby and way to meet people that will increase your athleticism better than doing nothing or very low intensity activities, such as walking. The underlying philosophy may help you stay calmer in stressful situations. It's application to self defense is very limited and relies on "rote rehearsal." In other words, its applications are situational and would take an inordinate amount of time to perfect to the point of being useful. The amount of time and energy spent training and the risk of injury (albeit relatively low) outweighs the benefits. The investment yields very little increase in overall health or ability to apply as an effective self defense system. A fraction of the time spent training in Aikido could be spent doing non-martial arts activities, such as weight lifting, flag football, softball, or swimming with better health benefits and substantially more increases in self defense ability. Training in non-contact cardio kickboxing would be significantly more beneficial.

You asked. That's what I think.

[Uke]

It could be a fun hobby and way to meet people that will increase your athleticism better than doing nothing or very low intensity activities, such as walking. The underlying philosophy may help you stay calmer in stressful situations. It's application to self defense is very limited and relies on "rote rehearsal." In other words, its applications are situational and would take an inordinate amount of time to perfect to the point of being useful. The amount of time and energy spent training and the risk of injury (albeit relatively low) outweighs the benefits. The investment yields very little increase in overall health or ability to apply as an effective self defense system. A fraction of the time spent training in Aikido could be spent doing non-martial arts activities, such as weight lifting, flag football, softball, or swimming with better health benefits and substantially more increases in self defense ability. Training in non-contact cardio kickboxing would be significantly more beneficial.

You asked. That's what I think.

I'd like to address the idea of rote rehearsal first. Some men have written the idea that rote rehearsal of drills are meant for the practitioner to reproduce the drill during combat exactly as its practiced. That simply is not true. Especially not of modern systems, even modern TMA's.

Rote rehearsal in modern systems looks to drill in common angles of attack and mastery of motion. I agree that if any system sought to have its students execute prearranged movements in combat then it would be unwise, but modernized and solid systems have for the most part corrected their misinterpretation of how to use kata, forms and such.

Today, rote movements are used to drill in ideas and concepts in the better schools. They are initially used to teach the framework that will eventually free a student from limiting himself to ANY response, giving him limitless ways and variations to respond with. The core of their(Aikido) system which is circular won't change, but the non-aggressive nature has been replaced with a killer instinct that Ueshiba did his best to remove.

Many Aikido and Aikijutsu schools have realized this and have made strides in becoming more combat orientated. That's why more Combat Aikido and Combat Aikijutsu schools are popping up. And some of them that I've encountered are good. They're tough too.

I agree that it does take more time to become proficient at using aikido, but that's only because aikido/aikijutsu requires a much deeper understanding of momentum, kazushi, and anatomy. Watching someone who has taken the time to master those principles in combat shows that those skills are not only impressive, but brutally effective.

A lot of people are caught up in thinking that every system that takes time to learn isn't practical simply because of the length of time spent learning. IMO that's ridiculous. I agree that a school should teach a student how to defend himself as quickly as possible in case Murphy's Law shows its face, but that can be done on with two part curriculum. You teach self defense intensively for the first 18-24 months and then offer the more advanced techniques, concepts and attribute development. It works well because even though the intensive SD part is simple and practical, you are still learning to apply the core concepts and put them together so by the time you get to more complicated things you won't even realize that you've already laid the foundation by learning to respond according to the concepts you've drilled.

Modern Aikido/Aikijutsu are doing this nowadays. Its important to make the distinction between traditional Aikido and modern combat Aikido. Traditional Aikido is supposed avoid and be passive with violence. The brutality of the arts Ueshiba learned had been taken out. Modern Aikido makes a point to get the job done without all the artsy stuff.

There are other styles that have taken a similar approach like karate and jujitsu. They're modernizing for practicality in today's world.

So, what do I think of Modern Combat Aikido? Like with most good things I think its the real deal if you spend the time learning it.

[Tom Yum]

I'd like to address the idea of rote rehearsal first. Some men have written the idea that rote rehearsal of drills are meant for the practitioner to reproduce the drill during combat exactly as its practiced. That simply is not true. Especially not of modern systems, even modern TMA's.

Rote rehearsal in modern systems looks to drill in common angles of attack and mastery of motion. I agree that if any system sought to have its students execute prearranged movements in combat then it would be unwise, but modernized and solid systems have for the most part corrected their misinterpretation of how to use kata, forms and such.

You're trying to engrain the movement into muscle memory first...

Today, rote movements are used to drill in ideas and concepts in the better schools. They are initially used to teach the framework that will eventually free a student from limiting himself to ANY response, giving him limitless ways and variations to respond with. The core of their(Aikido) system which is circular won't change, but the non-aggressive nature has been replaced with a killer instinct that Ueshiba did his best to remove.

Many Aikido and Aikijutsu schools have realized this and have made strides in becoming more combat orientated. That's why more Combat Aikido and Combat Aikijutsu schools are popping up. And some of them that I've encountered are good. They're tough too. .

Can you give us some examples to look at?

By combat-oriented, do you mean including moves that are more devastating, using more spontaneous randori or both?

[Uke]

You're trying to engrain the movement into muscle memory first...

Yeah, that's a part of it.

Can you give us some examples to look at?

Examples to look at? You mean like Youtube? No.

By combat-oriented, do you mean including moves that are more devastating, using more spontaneous randori or both?

You can be sure that I didn't mean suplexing.

See "direct method".