I kinda agree... and I kinda disagree. It depends on how serious the confrontation is. I've seen two cage fighters scrap. They threw techniques... although it was scrapping as well. But once again depends on the person. Well I'd find it kinda hard to assault/rape/ambush a pro fighter without a weapon if I wasn't a trained martial artist. The gold medalist olympic judo champ was killed with a ambush + Weapon. Without that ambush/weapon/well thought out plan the killer did. He would've just ended up like the first thing that happened when the first got in a confrontation and he put the guy in an armbar. But this is all besides the point. The point is... Those guys are prepped for actual combat so it seems. Because their techniques are pressure tested and they've learned how to use them against people who are trying to get them. So I'd say a lot more aikidoka guys should go into competition to test their techniques against people trying to get them. I wouldn't mind actually seeing aikido put to use in actual competition though.
Kuroshinobi; Not really. People let their guard down, people switch off, and people get good at what they train for. Most martial artists train for attacks of a particular type that they know are going to happen in advance and they know precisely how much contact will be used and they know how the fight can end. Most people are attacked by others that have those exact same certainties, only their victims don;t because they were not expecting the attack. The majority of the ones who deal with this kind of attack would have dealt with it anyway because of their upbringing and attitude, not because of the MA they study or whether they compete or not. No, these guys are prepped for a particular kind of combat - not actual combat. They are very good at what they do, and it takes alot to do what they do. However Tony Blauer hit the nail on the head when at the first UFC he said "these guys are really fighting, but these aren't real fights." They are pressure tested against known quantities and strategies in known environments in a concensual format. That is a world away from being pressure tested by someone you don't know that you didn't expect to fight, and you don't know what they want. Aikido should be pressure tested, like every MA, but I'm not convinced that a competition format would serve this. I supervised a training session this week where we had a 7 minute stand off between three guys and a girl. The guys kept arguing, the girl kept rebuffing advances and the barman kept separating posturing guys. And there was real tension, because no-one knew what was going to happen - only they all knew that they could defend themselves if they really felt threatened (only one person had been briefed to start an assault). The final part of the exercise never happened because the girl didn't psych up to going all out and flipping on one of the guys who kept making advances on her. So on the one hand, part of the exercise was a failure. On the other, all students got nervous, all felt threatened, all positioned for dominance, all had to make judgement calls as to whether to pre-emptively attack or not (and they went into this following some scenarios that had gone full contact). Even though that is fake - that's pressure testing closer to the real world. I don't get so much opportunity to do full contact training myself these days, because I'm mainly supervising others. But I teach and watch all the time. And to be honest, the way limbs are parried and evaded and balance is lead and distorted all the time - I see Aikido. I've trained with a very elderly soft and gentle Aikidoka on a number of occasions, and felt privileged to do so. His name was Pierre Chassang, and he had been doing Aikido for a long time. And I was never in any doubt that he could really hurt people if he wanted to, and that the attacks did not have to be consensual. If there is any issue at all with Aikido, it's not that it doesn't work. it does. It's: 1. That it is often taught and trained by people who have no interest in its martial nature (but I can cross apply that to Tai Chi or karate or TKD or Judo). 2. Without hard training sessions on a regular basis it takes a long time to be good enough to use it.
That was an excellent post and I shall certainly be responding to it from an aikido perspective soon. Thanks again koyo
A few years ago my wife went out with a friend to take a drink and chat, while there they met another friend of my wifes friend. He and his family had just that day arrived from a holiday. He is young and not a trouble maker, maybe nineteen years at that time. It was getting late and my wife went home. The day after she heard that her friends friend and a few other had continued the night at a different bar. Some minor trouble happened (i don't know what) and on the outside after a while when they was heading home, someone started bullying him from the front while another sneaked up from behind and smashing an empty beer bottle in his head. He then falls in to a car, head first, then to the ground, still head first. He died at the hospital. How can you compare incidents like this with a cage fight? A thug or rapist wont warn you that in a minute or two I will seriously hurt you for your money, or that soon I will rape you, you better get ready, ok here I come, oh you ain't sober, ok I'll take the next one. The bet is not on pride, but on sever injury or your life. Your enemy is not a good person attacking you for money and to get famous but really don want to hurt you any further than the sport requires, but to kill you, cause that's his way, thats how his world works. And he do not want to fight you, so he stabs you before you knew he was there, or he and his other five friends beats you to a pulp, fast, because they don't want to fight you. So in a world where the thugs don't want to fight, what should though martial artists do? Don't end in such situations in the first place!!!!
In all honesty I think the minute you start comparing sport to reality or how things happen in controlled environments to reality and think that's how it's going to work then you're in cloud cookoo land. Lets take an extreme example from the other end of the spectrum. WWF wrestling. It's fake, it's choreographed it's a show put on the please the crowds. What they're doing isn't real and doesn't prepare anybody for a real fight. None the less those guys are big and powerful and I wouldn't want to fight them if I had a choice. Confusing sport and entertainment with reality is not a good way to approach life.
When aikido was introduced to the UK late fifties early sixties we already had boxing wrestling judo and some karate and kendo. Most of those who came to aikido came from one or other of these arts and came to learn the self defence techniques.Therefor the training was mainly in that area with no one giving up their balance or attacking tentatively. It was agreed that the best elements of self defence were awareness and "clear sight". The first principle being taught was ichi gan (see koyo's book thread) This ment you were shown a technique then through your own study left to master it with all the thumps and mistakes you encountered. during trial and error. The next principle was to get off the line of attack. Again you took the hits until you began to master this principle. Then the emphasis was placed on being able to go from aware to all out attack in an instant. Being aikidoka we were told "At all cost avoid aiki" That being the circumstance where you and the attacker shared the same distance and timing. Often used to teach very basic movement. Awase was the principle meaning to find the opponent's rythm and destroy it. So we were told to avoid aiki BUT we were also told to avoid competeing. To develop a one cut one kill attitude meaning when attacked to get off line to survive the initial attack (if we could not pre-empt it) and explode into all out attack with no thought of competing or defending to seize the initiative and sustain the "one cut" which could be as many as it took. The hardest training I have ever received was misogi where I had to continually attack a shihan with no hope of getting through and being thrown struck and pinned over and over again with the command "Again" each time. This truly toughens you up and builds strong fighting spirit.This toughening plus the one cut attitude makes for good self defence. If we wished competition one or the other would have to forego the all out attack without defence or BOTH would be injured.Coming from other arts our desire for competition was easily met outside of aikido which HAD to retain the one cut mindset. However today many approach aikido as their first art with preconceived notions of what it should be. Example controlling an attacker with the least damage not realising that to do this you must have the choice meaning that you COULD cause real damage if need be. Also the tendancy of many "teachers" to assume a spiritually superior attitude which simply hides ineffective techniques (give em what they want not what they need) I understand when other martial artists criticise aikido however it is the teachers who deserve criticism NOT the art. There are those who stay true to the true nature of aikido but saddly they grow fewer by the day. My own experience of real fighting is summed up as the Bear put it Surprise Aggression and Sustain. (he misquoted the "old man") technique is secondary to attitude awareness and explosive pragmatic action.(plus you got to be tough and know you are not made of glass) again thanks to jwt for his much more precise explanation.
