I have found different answers on this question in the web - from yea, it does - aikido is their most preferred style to The Japanese police take official courses in judo, kendo and taiho-jutsu ... aikido training itself is not considered. So what do you think of it? Is Aikido the official school of japan police or japan policemen study other styles in truth?
Hi Netimen. Every year the Tokyo Metropolian Police send ten of it's senior officers each at least third dan in kendo or judo to the Yoshinkan Aikido dojo to study so that they in turn can teach the Tokyo police effective arrest techniques.A friend of mine Dave Rubens attended one of these year long seminars. If he reads this I am sure he shall be able to enlighten you. Myself I have taught, police. tank regiment, paras. marine royal commandos and SAS troopers aikido. The art is accepted by all of these people. I suggest you ingnore those who have not been exposed to effective aikido and base their judgement on seeing ineffective training. regards koyo These guys find it effective.
thank you very much, koyo But are aikido trainings in the police massive, or those ten officers just teach their friends?
I do know that ALL of the riot police and special units must have a blck belt shodan at least in yoshinkan aikido to further their carreers.As far as military their emphasis was on disarming so that they could have the weapon and for fighting in kevlar armour which restricts movement etc of course they would use the weapon before considering unarmed combat. I see that it is yoshinkan that you train. Ask your instructor about Kancho Shioda. He should know of the police involvement in yoshinkan. regards koyo kancho shioda demonstrates finger thrust to throat (not allowed in mma)
Hi Koyo, What sort of stuff do you teach the SAS? The usual stuff or do you modify things? BTW my instructor (Hans de Jong) and his father (Jan de Jong) established the close quarter combat syllabus for the SAS here in Australia. Regards,
Hi Graham The training was in ara waza (severe techniques) a few of the guys had been training with me and invited me to train some others. The emphasis was also on training in armour and respirator. Also they had to be able to take someone down without taking them out.I E hostages. Easy to teach them because of their natural fighting ability and focus. regards koyo
That would have been interesting to see. What changes did you have to make to techniques when in body armour?
Japanese police In every Japanese style I've ever been around (in the US), it is common lore that "the Japanese police train in our art." It's probably actually true for all of them in the sense that Japanese cops undoubtedly have varying tastes in martial arts just as MAP posters do. I'm sure some of them train in archery, Iado, javelin throwing. Some probably are skilled with harpoons and some probably like to play whack-a-mole
Direct irrimi nage from a trooper wearing kevlar and equipment is like getting hit by a train. Really little change at all. Once when teaching disarming when a rifle is jammed against your neck we performed a version of ikkyo driving the elbow up while entering and clamping the barrel to our hip. Invariably the butt struck the opponent with a sickening thud!! Fking A was the cry. After that practice they looked like pandas. It is really their discipline and attitude of everything is life or death when training that made it such a delight to teach them. regards koyo
As a number of posters have noted, the Tokyo Riot Police ('Kidotai'), do send ten of their people on the infamous 'Senshusei Course' each year. These are often people who have been identified as potential fast-track promotion candidates, and as much as the teaching of aikido technique it is a year-long selection process that looks at how they work together under extreme stress. As well as that, at least in my days (mid-80's), Yoshinkan aikido was taught as part of the basic training for all police women in Japan, though I could not say definitively whether that is still true or not. As far as the course itself is concerned, the vast majority of it is spent doing strong basic Yoshinkan techniques, based on a mixture of high repetitions of techniques ('hajime training') and then the holding of basic positions over long (twenty minutes +) periods of time. Very little is actually spent doing what might be called Arrest Techniques (Taiho Jitsu), and even those are done in very structured and artificial conditions, and certainly not as would be taught in a 'Street Style' system as we would recognise it in the West. The actual course itself has been widely discussed both in Angry White Pyjamas and in various discussion groups, so there is a lot of information out there on the course and how it is run. As far as 'Special Unit' systems are concerned, whether Krav Maga, Systema, SEALS, Rangers, Royal Marine Commandos, etc etc, they are actually all very similar, because they stick to things that are high-percentage techniques that will work under less than ideal conditions (eg when you are knackered after running up a hill, in full combat outfit, you are slipping on rocks, unbalanced, etc etc), and they are then taught to extermely fit, motivated, and potentially aggressive young men who have already been through a rigorous selection process to identify those who have a high survival quotient. As Koyo so rightly said, it is the attitude of these people that make them successful under extreme combat situations rather than the specific techniques that they use. Best regards, David
My understanding, based on the book "Angry White Pyjamas" which was written by an Englishman who attended the senshusei course and trained with the riot cops, is that the police were looking for a traditional, hardcore program to build "Japanese spirit" and Shioda's politics and approach to Aikido suited their purposes. The main impression was that the Yoshinkan senshusei was chosen more to build/test character (in the sense of obedience, toughness etc.) than for it's technical content; not that there is necessarily anything wrong with the techniques, but that seems to have been a secondary consideration.
