Historically I have been reasonably skeptical that Aikido had much to offer to participants in arts that train with greater resistance (in particular to arts with a sporting component). At training on Tuesday I was thrown by my BJJ coach (not particularly unusual in itself). However, my BJJ coach was previously an Aikido instructor and he threw me with an wristlock (I sort of ended up throwing myself). I think it was some sort of nikyō that he caught me with. Anyway, thought it might make a change for someone from outside of Aikido to attest to the effectiveness of at least some of the techniques, seeing as people generally seem to claim the opposite. I seem to recall him mentioning at some prior point that BJJ had given him the tools to use what he had learned from Aikido, so I guess that supports the notion of Aikido as a supplementary art that best suits people that have knowledge of other grappling arts. Disclaimer: While I was in my teens I did briefly train in Aikido, and at the time I found the instruction I received to be of no real value.
I know a guy who used to do aikido in Japan, he showed me some cool techniques. They absolutely work!
I'm finding that too, having jumped from JJJ (still train it with a small group of people) to Judo, every Judo class I go to sees my Judo improve by about 2% and my JJJ by about 10% - I know the techniques quite well but the Judo style training is allowing me to become "seasoned" as someone so eloquently put it. Edit: Also props to you for putting that post up.
a high percentage of early aikidoka were already judoka, as far as my understanding goes. so i do think that aikido we seen as a kind of finishing school. just my thought. i'm sure more experiened and knowledgable have their own.
I suspect your BJJ coach's ability to make aikido work in the kind of dynamic context that aikidoists don't train for had a lot to do with the fact that he is a BJJ coach.
