Neither am I, but I agree with with the point he's making, and I am sure many others will disagree with him like you do. Which is fine
Aikido saved my life! Or at least saved me from a nasty accident. I was mucking about on my daughter's scooter, having just stolen it from her and whilst speeding off, the front wheel got stuck in between two paving slabs. Over the handlebars I went, but as I felt my balance going past the point of no return I managed to relax and breakfall safely. My wife then tried to kill me for being so stupid though. Still I wish it had been filmed, that would have been cool.
i have a similar story, but i was training in hapkido at the time. i was at a concert mucking around in the parking lot playing frisbee with a friend. ran quickly to catch the frisbee which was tailing away from me, of course, not paying attention to my surroundings. the moment i catch the frisbee i find myself completely inverted because my legs had run into a car's bumper. and i just gracefully rolled out of it. the only thought i remember having was "i'm completely upside down" but rolled out of it like nothing happened, safe as can be. granted, if i had been training in gymnastics the result would have been the same probably.
Personally I have found my years in Aikido absolutely pivotal in taking my karate into a more tactile, effective and resistant form of practice. I can't speak for every Aikido club but my experience has generally been one of learning principals of balance, unbalancing and limb manipulation in a safe static form and then gradually training and applying these against increased resistance and unpredictability. One from the archives: the late great Pierre Chassang working on me.
Not pimping myself again - honest - but this is a video i have posted before and is 100% something I consider "sparring" .....and it is an Aikido-esque technique [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQKtRZXNetE"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQKtRZXNetE[/ame] It is 100% possible to do it...people choose not to
i've found that my time in aikido has helped to inform my bjj practice. the principles at their most base are useful in any context frankly: evade the line of attack, unbalance, perform technique.
stepped away actually doing work (yeah i know crazy), but i was thinking of some things that were said on this thread and thinking of some experiences i've had and things i've read and experienced in aikido. i think part of the problem is people see aikido practice and he/she assumes it's this very small thing. grab a wrist, do this throw, kind of thing. when in reality, there is an incredible amount of depth to the art. there are many, many layers to what is going on in dojo practice. and i think sometimes even aikidoka miss the larger themes that the principles of the art explore. the founder himself said that, in practice, aikido is mostly striking. so right off the bat, there may be a disconnect between what people see and what is actually going on. as far as i know, and correct me if i'm wrong, but there is nothing in aikido that says that i couldn't jab someone in the face if they're threatening me, so that i can escape the situation. or that i couldn't use boxing techniques or kicking techniques or whatever. this is kind of what i'm getting at when i say that aikido is way bigger than what people see on a youtube video for instance. ok, so here's my story....every year, a shihan from hombu comes to the midwest aikido center to do a seminar.... http://www.midwestaikidocenter.org/seminars-events/autumn-seminar yokota is ridiculous. you wouldn't believe how fast he moves, for one. the first time i went to his seminar i had only been at the school for about a month, and i had just gotten my black belt in hapkido, so i appreciated this immensely. he's showing an irimi nage technique, and of course starts by doing the technique a couple times and letting us have it. he stops the class to show some refinements, but the first thing he does is stop after he enters to show us, and i'm paraphrasing, but: you've got his back, you can do whatever you want. and then he performs a roundhouse kick to the ribs (of course, not making contact). and then he says, again paraphrasing: if you want to be nice, do this <aikido technique>. it was amazing. i felt so lucky that so quickly in my practice, someone was showing me the possibilities. and i think that's the reason that i still think aikido informs my current practice. ok, sorry for the novel. but those are my thoughts. back to work! <noooooo!!!!> ps....if anyone's ever in town when yokota is in chicago, go to his seminar. it's well worth it. pps...also, the midwest aikido center is an incredible dojo.
Bruce Lee was right. I still appreciate every aspect of traditional martial arts in some doses. Could it be done differently? For sure.
Bruce was exaggerating. Kata when you have no sense of application: like swimming on dry land. Kata when you have a good understanding of application: like swimming in a swimming pool. Actual application of kata? Like swimming against/in an unpredictable body body of water.
Why can't you arrange your own sparring outside of your class? Even when I was in my 1st grade (5 years old), the kids in my class, we all had group fight in the baseball field everyday after school.
I have to wonder how you can appreciate every aspect when it's fairly obvious you don't understand some of them.
I'm always bemused by people who turn up to a web forum and tell the world what Aikido is or isn't with the most limited exposure to it possible. Yes most Aikidoka are taking the long route to effectiveness, if they have no other "significant" martial arts experience. And that's fine. It's not supposed to be learnt quickly. It's supposed to be studied in depth. In the old days pretty much all Aikido students had significant martial arts experience. Many were sent to O Sensei with a letter of recommendation/introduction. The level of compliance there is in training depends on the particular style and club you attend as well as the relative experience of the practitioners. Generally speaking however, compliance is used as a tool to allow beginners to begin studying the art. It's near impossible for a novice with no other martial arts experience to lock up an experienced students joints without some level of compliance. Aikikai is not a style. It's an umbrella organisation containing within it many styles/schools of thought. Some are as soft as Ki Aikido (generally not part of the Aikikai) while others are a lot harder. Aikidoka don't compete because O Sensei said so. From a philosophical point of view, Aikidoka are trying to achieve some level of harmony. Which does not sit well with deliberately looking for a fight. Which is what you're doing while competing. Tomiki Aikido is the one exception. Competition had to be added before Aikido was allowed to be taught in Japanese universities. Aikidoka do however spar. Aikido by it very nature requires you have at least one partner to train effectively. They have randori sessions where they are free to experiment. These sessions often involve multiple attackers. Either all at once or in rapid succession. Is Aikido any good for self-defence? Yes. If you understand what you're doing. If all you see in Aikido are a few joint locks. Then you've missed most of what was on show. And let me reiterate most Aikidoka in the early days had significant martial arts experience. They didn't need O Sensei to show them how to lock-up a wrist.
