Does aikido in its current format work?

Agree.

It was frowned upon when a practitioner attempted to apply themselves in the first MMA contests.

That said, (apart from the Chi & Spirtual) it has some good self defnse methods.

 

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA0XACGbYck&feature=player_embedded"]Tomiki Tournament - kotegaeshi - YouTube[/ame]

 

Atemi helps in Aikido.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo5Na1x6sAc"]Chiba Sensei - YouTube[/ame]

 

The real question of threads like these is “do standing joint-locks work?” (I do not practice Aikido, but rather Hapkido). I would say yes, but only in certain situations.

If two trained people square off at punching and kicking range, then no… they probably don’t work –unless one participant has a clear advantage at some point after a strike. However, there are situations that occur in self-defense that do not occur in combat sports, and in these situations they do work (grabbing a lapel to threaten someone, pushing someone up against a wall, etc.).

So, perhaps a better question is : "How do we train these techniques under pressure?"

Tomiki Aikido isolates one situation where one participant tries to shank another with a baton, but still only allows one attack, at one angle.

In my club I have a drill where participants grab each other’s jacket with one or both hands. They are allowed to strike the body – BUT only if they are holding on to their partner’s jacket with the other hand. They are allowed to put any standing joint-lock, sweep, or throw on each other that they want. I do this to isolate the range where these techniques could occur, but where (for whatever reason) someone does not want to go to the ground. I do it this way because once you either:

A.) Go to the ground, or
B.) Stand back and trade punches and kicks

…then you are in situations that these techniques were not intended for and where they are unlikely to work. Personally I think catching punches or weapons out of the air is rather unlikely, but I don't totally discount it because I know somene (who is very credible) who was a corrections officer, and who has told me he has done these techniques in actual events (after years of training)

However, you can still train live, non-compliant standing joint-lock techniques with a real element of danger. Whatever the drill, I feel that the element of REAL (controlled) danger has to be there. I also do other drills, but this is one. (Disclaimer: this drill is not safe without close supervision and control)

 

Unfortunately to me, in the above clip, after the takedown, he turns his back on the opponent. I am not happy to see something like this in Aikido.

First lesson in Aikido as a whitebelt is on a mindset and attitude.

I'm also not happy to see the lack of atemi in the examples posted in this thread. This is sad to me.

Atemi through a kuzushi. When you hit it unbalances the opponent. If the opponent blocks, then you can apply a lock off of the blocking arm. If this does not come, then you can start over... atemi hit or blocked... takedown or lock... if neither start over... atemi...

Yes this is a very big oversimplification.

Do we have to go back 40 years to see atemi in Aikido? You see a lot more of atemi in this video at the beginning:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ1Z4XcYlv4"]Kenji Tomiki- Aikido Kyogi II - YouTube[/ame]

You don't see any of these Aikidoka turning their back on a downed opponent after disengagement. There is also a very cool, IMHO, sequence of unarmed versus a knife thrust in a competition from 11:30 to 15:17 in the video.

 

Agreed. Great clip, thanks for posting.

 

Without Atemi and Kuzushi at the instant of contact Aikido does not work

 

Obvious trollin' is obvious.

Still, it was quite funny to read.

 

Yeah, I was always taught that turning your back on an opponent after a takedown was a foolish idea too. I'm surprised to see someone do it in competition, but I guess that's part of the territory of turning a MA into a sport.

Now I've gotten round to watching the whole video in one go, I have to say that was really, really cool to watch. I'm not a huge fan of Aikido in a sports environment, but that was still fun to watch.

 

"Take the initiative from the beginning. This is Aikido." - Shigenobu Okumura, from "Interview with Aikido Shihan Shigenobu Okumura, Part 2".

Best,

Chris

 

I came into this thread, which has a question for a thread title, hoping that someone was trying to start a conversation. What I found was a guy telling me that my aikido sucks and I should do his aikido instead. Leaving now.

 

Dont be forced to leave because of the opnion of another. Point out your opinions and your convictions. In the long run, there will those of us who will sincerely appreciate it

 

part of your problem was you started the thread based people either doing Aikido or sport Aikido. As I stated there is no such thing as just AIKIDO. there has been so many changes and evolutions to different styles of Aikido, traditional and modern that some are almost completely different MA systems to each other.

So to turn around and say the Alternative to Aikido is Sport Aikido when you have said what style or school of Aikido you are comparing Sport Aikido to?

 

OwlMAtt didn't start this thread. I believe he was voicing his disappointment with the original poster.

 

i wouldn't worry about it matt. the op is nonsense. just trolling.

 

Fair point, I don't why I got the two mixed up, but my post stands as a note to the originator and to Owlmatt, the poster had no understanding of ALL styles of Aikido to make that statement

 

lol. i doubt the poster had any understanding of aikido, period. i don't think i do either, but at least i trained in it for a year and a half.

 

You're posting past your nap time?

 

I don't have a problem with his opinion. I have a problem with him pretending he's trying to start a discussion and then switching into "your martial art sucks and mine is the best" as soon as he has everyone's attention. I think it's a pretty weaselly move and it's not the kind of conversation I'm interested in having.

 

I find it hard to believe anyone could have read the OP without realising it was blatant trolling.

Still, it did produce some good discussion.