Hey all, I've just restarted Aikido after a 2 year absence while I went around trying as many other martial arts as I could! I started when I was 15 but didn't like the club I was with (though the people were exellent) because we only ever seemed to do the grading techniques over and over again, little or no emphisis was ever places on self defence or doing the techniques against less than total complience on the part of your Uki. I went off and did some some Taiji, some Karate, Jujutsu and Muay Thai but eventualy decided to come back to Aikido. What really made the decision to return was the other night. While I was walking home a guy took a swing at me. Weirdly enough it was the Aikido I did years ago which kicked in, I 'entered' in to the side and bobbed slightly down so that the punch, aimed for my nose, glanced off the side of my forhead the guy must have been drunk or something coz he just kept on walking so I did too, still, in my opinion I got out of the busted nose I would have had if I'd stayed still. After this, and with a new found respect for Aikido, I went looking for a new club in my area. The one I found is exellent. No messing about, very rough and tumble, for the first time I can see the techniques and see how they could easily work in real life... I guess the art was just misrepresented to me before! Anyway, that's my little introduction story...
I'm sure your Sensei will appreciate the 'no particular style' comment.... My knowledge on the other styles is limited to say the least, but from what little I know I don't think you guys do a free practice version with full resistance using knife strikes?? - could be wrong... In Shodokan free practice (Randori) ( - there's competitions too!), your allowed to reply with any of the 17 Randori no Kata techniques. It's good fun plus a good workout for speed, reaction and technique application against full resistance.
lol maybe I've done randori in the past but not with this club so I couldn't say but I imagine they probably do, I don't think they'd miss out on the opertunity I was lucky enough to watch a grading on my first lesson, I say lucky coz they only do them twice a year! He passed his 3rd Kyu (I think... well I know he passed but I think it was 3rd Kyu) but he had to do a two man unarmed randori... he had to avoid their attacks, mainly hooks and jab like punches untill the sensei said something in Japanese then he had to use techiniques to put them down. It was very impressive to watch... a great way of bringing in new students too I'd say... you have something to aim toward so yeah, in answer to your question, yes I think there's a pretty high chance they do a full resistance randori against knives, fists and god knows what else.. though I've only seen unarmed Randori as part of a grading... but it's my first week lol ask me again in a few months
Hey, welcome to MAP! We could always use a few more aikido nuts on this board. There are a couple more testimonials from aikido students somewhere on MAP. I've had the good fortunate to train with a couple guys who successfully used aikido against fully resisting oponents. The stuff can work, no doubt about it.
