Just started in Aikido, just wondered if anybody could recommend any good books to read, i am very interested in the spiritual side of Aikido just as much as anything else to do with the martial art, i would be most gratefull for any guidance,
I read and enjoyed the following: On Mastering Aikido (The Mastership Series Book 1) by Daniel Linden and Mitsugi Saotome The Way of Aikido: Life Lessons from an American Sensei by George Leonard Journey - ON Mastering Ukemi in Aikido (The Aikido Series Book 3) by Daniel Linden
I've enjoyed reading and rereading: KODO: Ancient Ways: Lessons in the Spiritual Life of the Warrior/Martial Artist by Kensho Furuya
I enjoyed reading "Angry White Pyjamas" even though it's more about training as an aikidoka and less a how to manual.
Aikido and the dynamic sphere by Westbrook and Ratti is quite a good resource for aikido. It doesn't concentrate on the spiritual side as such but does give a grounding in the art on both he physical and non physical side. I'm not an aikidoka but 'I think' it's a respected book on the subject.
Ive got a general budo book by Westbrook and Ratti and its terrible, I'm thinking your aikido book may not be well thought of at all. Nice pictures though.
Well it's a good thing I don't do aikido then lol I did make sure I out a caveat in my post just in case this happened lol
Angry White Pyjamas is a good one for motivation - for knowing that you can always be more hardcore! I'd also take a look at "The Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee. It's got naff-all to do with aikido specifically, but it's also got nothing to do with any of the martial arts I've done and I still find it a really useful and interesting guide to approaching the martial arts generally.
A personal favourite of mine I picked up while training. It's decidedly yoshinkan but I always found Shioda's approach to aikido very orderly and pragmatic and I think this is a great guide for anyone studying aikido.
Do you know of any works on aikido he did care for? Not being facetious here genuine question, he was so well respected on map that any books he rated would be well worth looking into
