There is one thing, that I don't understand. I know very little about other arts trainings (for example karate), but I think they do katas etc. Roughly this we do. Also we train with weapons (bokken, jo and tanto). But why do we say, that aikido instills tradintional principles more than other arts? Or in other aikido they do anything more?
Personally I think that ALL traditional japanese arts instill the same principles of character development. None more than another.I certainly find this among the judoka and kendoks friends and others who come to cross train with us. regards koyo
We have no black belts. Even the instructor wears the same belt as the rest of us. The only rule we have is that if you wear a Hakama then you must be able to take all the instructor can throw at you. It means we have no egos in the class and no structure of rank, we all teach each other and all learn from each other. A Reiki healer is a person who heals using Reiki, the energy of the universe, I started it when my instructor did a different type of energy healing on my wife prior to her death a few months ago. Not everyone believes in it, but hey, so what.
After some consideration I think it was also the ettiquette and discipline that attracted me. I found that no talking and not one moment on the mat being wasted was an atmosphere I could progress in. regards koyo
Interesting experience you had. If I may ask, how long we're you doing escrima and what style it is? I also do escrima and tried aikido for a short time. The went back to escrima.
I have black belt in Kuk Sool Won and have experienced Kung Fu and very brief Tai Chi and Kick Boxing. I left KSW and started Aikido becuase I liked the approach of my Aikido instructor. Immediately when started training with him I found that I was learning "Martial Arts" not anything else or everything else. I am not saying that this was the only reason, but it was definitly the main reason. If I could've found a KSW instructor similar to my current Aikido instructor, most probably I would have remained with KSW. P.S. This does not mean that I am not appreciating the merits of Aikido itself. Wonder
I feel that when judoka began to emphasise "winning" in competition over developing flexible techniques. Many chose a favoutite technique and concentrated almost completely on that technique losing the true adaptability of the art. In aikido you could not slump on the mat or chear on a club member. It was ingrained in us that we were training for that one time where we may have to fight for our life rather than a competition so the atmosphere was very disciplined.I enjoyed that type of discipline and still maintain it in my teaching and training today. regards koyo
Jigoro Kano the founder of Kodokan Judo once berated a university team that had just won a competition by saying "You fought like wild dogs. So that is all you are."Many of the original budoka spoke of the way that judo and karate were in danger of loosing their true purpose of character development by pursuing competition. Using strength and jigotai (defensive resistance) was against the principles of judo. In a real situation any resistance would be countered by a strike. The perfection of technique was the goal.A number of budoka feared that once judo became an olympic sport that "winning" would mean more than the deaper aspects of the art. regards koyo
Well, I don't consider Aikido my main art, but I'll still share why I'm interested in it. One, I think it looks cool; two, I enjoy throws (which I don't do enough of in Shorin Ryu IMO); three, when I was younger(10-14 sorta age, when I thought martial arts was a bunch of ninjas disapearing into elevators that didn't exist and such ) I thought Steven Segal looked cool in the movies, and thought it would be neat to learn what he did. So, while I might not be training for a future in Hollywood battling Samurai clans (or maybe I am.......), I still enjoy a different aspect on martial arts.
I gave up Aikido because I noticed it's similar to escrima in terms of locks and I don't have time to do both. And also I prefer the way the attacks are feed in escrima (with a knife, stick). I prefer to train myself to defend against quick attacks like a boxer's jab cross combo.
Just want to mention, most people that trains in Escrima are not thinking of hurting people. . We Filipinos are probably one of the friendliest people you can find .
Being an almost complete newbie I'll not try to argue, but I expect koyo to say aikido has all the same =)
