Can I Make Steven Seagal's Aikido Work?

Steven Seagal throws everyone around effortlessly in his movies. But how many of his techniques actually work in a fight? I tried to make as many of them as possible functional.

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Welcome to the Martial Arts Journey YouTube channel!

My name is Rokas. I'm a Lithuanian guy who trained Aikido for 14 years, 7 of them running a professional Aikido Dojo until eventually I realized that Aikido does not live up to what it promises.

Lead by this realization I decided to make a daring step to close my Aikido Dojo and move to Portland, Oregon for six months to start training MMA at the famous Straight Blast Gym Headquarters under head coach Matt Thornton.

After six months intensive training I had my first amateur MMA fight after which I moved back to Lithuania. During all of this time I am documenting my experience through my YouTube channel called "Martial Arts Journey".

Now I am slowly setting up plans to continue training MMA under quality guidance and getting ready for my next MMA fight as I further document and share my journey and discoveries.

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Check the video "Aikido vs MMA" which started this whole Martial Arts Journey:

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[MartialArtsJourney]

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[TheElbowMerchant]

So good to see you back, Rokas! I hope you enjoyed your well deserved break, but I'd be lying if I said I hadn't been missing your videos. Thanks for blessing us with some new content.

[moooper]

Really loving the arc from loving aikido, to hating aikido, to starting to look for the value that can be found in it. I think we have a tendency to throw the baby out with the bathwater when we're disappointed, esp by things we care about, and it's great to see you putting the work in to see if aikido can work.

Proving something doesn't work is the easy part, and I'm over the moon to get to ride along for the hard part of trying to figure out how to *make* it work.

You are easily one of my favorite creators in the martial arts space, and your open-mindedness but uncompromising practicality is refreshing. Keep it up!

[giorgiociaravolol]

My man, you're what steven seagal wished to be. Keep this journey on and I'm 200% sure that you will succeed to apply it in a mma fight. I truly believe it as a long time subscriber

[BradYaeger]

I think the lesson may also be that you pulled off more techniques that you weren't TRYING to pull off . That's pretty much how it goes with most styles we pressure test. If you go out with a set goal in mind you are trying to create a moment versus either taking advantage of one or better yet simply allowing it to happen. Which if you think about it is really the core of the more Zen based philosophies . You train until there is no longer thinking to what you do. The second you say "I'm going to try you have lost the thread as it were .

[Porcupethtonia]

I did Aikido for years and I’m a BJJ purple belt so I’ve also pressure tested Aikido against grapplers as well. In my years, I’ve managed to pull off Ikkyo, Nikkyo, Sankyo, Shiho Nage and Kotegaeshi, and the very odd Kokyu Nage. Although out of all of those techniques, easily the highest percentage was Kotegaeshi as it works even when their hands are close to their body. Even still, you can usually use these techniques to catch your partners by surprise once, but usually that’s it. 😂

[MarioSeoane]

"Since my partners were only defensive " that explains pretty much by itself why you were not able to apply any of the defensive techniques of aikido at that point, designed to use the attackers momentum.

[nanoid]

Aikido has at least two valuable uses: One, retaining your weapon when your opponent tries to take it away - not surprising since the roots of aikido was part of a weapons based system. And two, when excessive use of force is inappropriate. Imagine if your opponent is one of your students that is assaulting another in the class room, or one of your family members who has had too much to drink at a party and has gotten aggressive. Or a violent senile person who is in your care. For many people, this kind of situation is much more likely than a pitched battle against a skilled opponent.

[ericdillard]

I am a lover and student of the martial arts, i had a brief moment that I went to an aikido club. I had many years of MA experience before I trained there and there were a few take aways that I got from the experience. The biggest take away i had was: I had seen aikido before. When I learned Japanese jui jitsu, I had witnessed some of the techniques from my instructor, but HIS instructor would show up from time to time and the stuff I saw this guy do was incredible. I was also aware that aikido instructor was not actually landing strikes, but i noticed that he was always positioned to do so, (his unoccupied hand) was always just inches away from landing a blow.
I was lucky enough to be able to train in Iai-do for a little bit. In the particular aikido club i trained in, they said that every technique was meant to done with a blade(sword) in hand. I noticed that some techniques worked much better when I mimiced how I would move if I was holding a sword, but more importantly that this resolved a lot of issues with the context of aikido. If everyone is holding a sword or blade, you would be much more hesitant to release a control grip, even if you were in a slightly less advantagious postion.
it was my take away that aikido is just japanese jui-jitsu once you've spent 20 years doing it with some weapon techniques thrown in because the founder had a few martial arts he had practiced also.
Aikido, IMO, is mismarketed. it is not a beginners martial art because it requires years (decades) of refinement of technique and muscle memory that untrained people do not have. I have my own issues with aikido, but I think that it has merit in the idea that it is JJJ with the least amount of strength used to make techniques work.

[robertoliver]

This is too cool. Your goal is in sight. Don't give up, Rokas Sensei. Making Aikido functional isn't the end of your heros journey. You still have to share the boon with the world and your former classmates. Maybe Segal sensei is in fact onto something. Also, personally when I play dirty and do finger or toe holds, I grab the smallest one I can. You're trying to grab index like classical aikido when maybe you should grab a pinky. Idk, just an observation, but you're really inspiring with this. Thank you for putting this up.

[shumookerjee]

You watched hours of Steven Segal movies for this video? Thank you for your sacrifice! 😂

Good to see you back, Rokas. Excellent video as always. Would be interesting to see you try these techniques against strikers. As you've pointed out many times before, most strikers won't just leave their limbs hanging out to be caught. They'll either pull back or fire off other techniques as part of a continuous combo.

[darkomtobia]

As a cop I was trained in aikijujitsu. The techniques we studied had their place and were very useful, but every situation is different.
Overall, I was happy with my (limited) ability.

[itsalwayssunnyinpahoa]

Steven Seagal sure is a special operator. He’s a Gravy SEAL with MEAL Team 6. That’s what’s up. TWU

[spitzfire]

Aikido techniques can actually make sense in grappling. Especially when these techniques appears randomly and instinctively not being forced to apply.

One time when I'm having a Gi roll. When my partner grabs my collar. Instinctively I pulled Nikyo technique and he taps. Another when my partner took my back I broke his seatbelt grab by applying Sankyo lock although I didn't tapped him with Sankyo. But that technique breaks me free from his back take and manages me to control my position.

The coolest part is Aikido will surprise you in a situations where you didn't expect it's working.

[dennismason]

In 1977 I watched from a comfy chair whilst Koichi Tohei demonstrated for the 2nd-graders gathered in the Wailuku Library. He had never excelled in English. He held up a finger - "One! Posture!" and he demonstrated with his body. "Two! Breath!" and he demonstrated a deep breath that seemed to take ten minutes to inhale and exhale then he did a quick breath of fire "for energy!" Three, point (mid point on the body) and four, "extend self"...what Tohei did in that library on that late morning (and yes I utterly failed in the "extend self" practice while half the 7-year-olds got it). At one point he said "stand like a mountain!" and he took a gentle stance whilst letting his COG drop to the center of the Earth. It would take a day to type the details, what I can remember. It was the most surreal demonstration by a human that I have ever seen. I once peeked into his dojo through the window to see the whole class sitting zazen and breathing deep and slow in a room as silent as death. "This isn't about fighting", I thought.

[rojcewiczj]

I think the main issue is that Aikido techniques are based on using the driving power of the entire body, like a double leg take down but focused into different points of contact. In a sense they require you to "hit" the opponent with the force of the technique. Without being more free with your use of force, Aikido techniques are going to be difficult to pull off as they don't work incrementally like BJJ techniques. It might be better to have someone put on protective gear and see how much force you can generate in the techniques and then you can work on scaling down the force from there for use in sparring.

[Enno_MartialArts]

„Can I laugh in your face”
~Steven Seagal

[raymondfortenberry]

I love your pursuit of testing techniques. It is very informative. I would like to add that many of these techniques do work. Remember that in self defense situations, the attackers usually are not martial artist expecting you to try a technique, that's why police and bouncers (as example) are successful using many techniques. Not Allway's. I have used multiple techniques that have worked in a real situation, where as in the dojo they did not against resisting opponent. I'm not necessarily Aikido specifically. I'm Hapkido and Aiki-Jujitsu which Aikido came from. Great work. Keep it up.

[votumchik]

Aikido is an exercise without a katana, but with the understanding that it is in your hands. To see the effectiveness of Aikido, give them a real sword.

[howarddavies]

In 1996 Steven Seagal was the highest non Japanese master of the martial art Aikido in the world. He did not get there by accident and is legit in what he does. How many Seagal bashers are legit in what they do? Good video.