Aikido For Fighting And Self Defense | My Opinion

Aikido. One of the most infamous martial arts in the world. Behind the wrist locks, skirts, and pony tails, is it a valuable method of fighting and self defense? Today, we go over my thoughts.

MERCH STORE

Get 10% off your @Combat Corner Professional order using code BBAIKIDO
Hometown Hero CBD discount code COMBATSELFDEFENSE

FOLLOW ME:
LISTEN: The Pod of Five Rings

music provided by
EPIDEMIC SOUND

Aikijujutsu, Jujutsu, Japanese Martial Arts, Budo, Karate, Self Defense, Martial Arts, Judo, Kendo, MMA, Wrestling, Throws, Katana, Kendo, Kenjutsu, Steven Seagal, Rokas, Martial Arts Journey @MartialArtsJourney

#aikido #aikijujutsu #selfdefense

[Booracay]

I was involved with Aikido for many years. Started when I was in Japan, and continued in the US. I think there is confusion about it. Outside Japan you always hear about it being peaceful, not harming your opponent. What I heard while in Japan is that you must do what you have to do, not do more than what is needed. In order to decide not to harm your opponent you have to be capable of doing tremendous harm. Only then can elect to not harm an attacker.

[gretchenriordan]

Aikido training made me aware enough to sense what was going on before three young men attacked me and the evasive footwork got me out of there and to safety. So I ‘won’ a fight by not getting caught up in it in the first place. I train Muay Thai too, but probably nothing would have saved me if those guys had actually caught me. So in that sense, aikido worked :-)

[bujin]

In a lot of ways, I want to just say, "you're not wrong." What you are describing is what Aikido has become, mostly by many of the mainstream Aikidoka who took over after Ueshiba's passing. Though the real history of Aikido, as developed and taught by the founder is far more complicated and nuanced than described, and in some very meaningful ways. For starters, how combat focused the art is really depends on when you were studying with Ueshiba. In the beginning Ueshiba taught Daito Ryu (which he had received an Menkyo Kaiden from Takeda Sokaku), later he started to call it Aiki-budo, then Aikido. Though Ueshiba's focus and intent was not really as the presenter describes (to remove all the teeth from Daito Ryu). The difference between a system "jutsu" and a path "do" really isn't about how soft it is, or combat focused it is, it really has more to do with whether we're talking about a technical discussion or an art discussion. A Jutsu has techniques, they are performed in a certain way, if you execute those techniques in the proper way, you receive a certification stating you know the tested techniques. (There is no "rank" as such, just certification, as rank is a "do" concept, about "how good" you are.) Now that doesn't mean you can use them in combat, it just means you have a technical mastery. Just like having a technical mastery of english doesn't mean you're going to be the next great American author. Fighting is more than technical proficiency. "Do"s on the other hand are more about how you perform the "art." Like have you mastered the "style" of it, do you "get it." Sort of like the difference between one person being able to explain all of the technical details of english while lacking a strong command of it, while another person may not understand all of the technical elements but is super proficient in actually speaking well. (Still doesn't make you a good story teller though.) In both cases, fighting is a step higher than simple mastery of the curriculum. Which really should be obvious to anyone who has actually thought about this. Real application in any field is of a different nature than simply an education of the means and methods used.

Here's the God's honest truth of the situation. Aikido is an extremely effective tool set in a fight. Notice I said, "tool set" and not "fighting style." Because it's not some sort of program that you upload to your brain, and you're automatically a killing machine. Fighting goes beyond the scope of most martial art schools in the world today. Aikido absolutely can work extremely well against a number of trained opponents; I know this for a fact, first hand. However, again, just because you go to art school doesn't mean you're going to be Michelago. There's more to it than that. And the reality is, in the world we're living in today, modern people do not have the stomach to train these "traditional" arts the way they were traditionally trained. Traditionally arts were pressured tested, against each other, dojo to dojo, and often to the death. There's plenty of Japanese history one can read about this from. I recommend reading Go Rin No Sho (the book of the five rings) as a primer. Without this grounding in reality the people who study these arts lose focus, and they are not able to perform the arts with their original potency.

Regardless of the fact Aikido is relatively recent in name, there is nothing new in Aikido really, and its techniques go back to bloody feudal melee war (or the ultimate in hand to hand combat scenarios, where melee wasn't a side show while you're reloading your riffle). However, as time has dragged on, people become more and more disconnected from the real context of the movements. And I'm not just talking about how they came from sword work or something like that, I mean the reality that you may actually have to defend yourself against a trained armed killer today out on the very real battle field. No matter how much you talk about that, if you haven't experienced someone seriously trying to kill you, you don't know what it's like. And then you get generations of martial artists who haven't experienced it, passing it down to more generations who haven't experienced it. You don't need much of that before the warrior spirit dies.

At this point, most dojos have watered Aikido down so much, it's nothing like what O'Sensei actually taught. For starters, people say there are no strikes in Aikido. This is just not true. O'Sensei, Ueshiba, said that atemi (the strike) was 90% of "battle ready" Aikido. What does this mean? One, it means that strikes are in Aikido, obviously. Two, it means Aikido can be used in battle, but clearly it doesn't work the same way as what you see everyone teaching. Another observation I would make is that Aikido has an "efficiency principle" (just like any good martial art would), which basically states, "do not waste anything." Do not take five movements, or even two, for what you can do in one, or preferably none. So you spend half the class having "uke" throwing strikes at "nage" so nage can practice "the Aikido"? Wrong. This is a misunderstanding right here. Uke is studying Aikido just as much when he those the strike, and the very strike itself is part of Aikido, and yet most "senseis" spend nearly ZERO energy teaching how these strikes really work (probably because they don't know). Like most of the yokomens I see are half hearted movements, like what you see presented at 7:59 (which is nothing more than stylistically offering your hand). However, a real yokomen, is a real sword cut, performed empty handed. It will break an arm, a clavicle, the neck, and overall the opponent's center, and the movement is not even over at that point. Because it's a cut, there is follow through, where you glom onto the opponent, and that's when the center manipulations begin, after everything else is broken. At this point, when you're broken before I even start the throw, it's pretty easy to see how atemi is 90% of the technique. You never see Aikido performed like this though, but it's what *REAL* combat ready Aikido looks like. I throw you *after* I break something on you, just with the entering motion.

Aikido can be soft and gentle, but it doesn't *have* to be. Just like water can be soft and gentle, or it can destroy a civilization. However, in the modern world, there isn't much appetite left for Budo (the way of the warrior). But BJJ and MMA manages to replicate part of the warrior spirt, as at least they do some pressure testing. And honestly, it's this pressure testing that makes them so much more effective. Aikido, only devolves under pressure testing, because the students never learned the art in a pressure tested setting. There is an adage that says, "train harder than you fight, so that your fights are just another day of training." Aikido doesn't work (as it's predominantly taught) because dojos violate this rule, not because Aikido itself doesn't work (like there is a flaw in its fundamental design or something).

I could say a lot more on this topic, but honestly, as it is, I'll be surprised if anyone can check their preconceptions long enough to get this far.

[ironjavs]

I started with different martial arts and ended up in Aikido. I was training about two years and eventually stopped because I tought the art wasn 't effective enough and went to MMA and BJJ. I did those a really long time about 10 years and IMHO I was pretty good at it. But then I started to see that I could pull off aikido principiles/techniques in sparring/matches and they were pretty strong and opponents didn't really see them coming (but like you said in the end it was more aikijutsu then aikido): ikkyo was my favourite to get close and you could crab that elbow in grappling situations. It is true that there is only handful moves that you can pull, but there really isn't so many moves in aikido to begin with they are just applied in different positions and made a little bit different. This is pretty common in every martial art no one uses many different techniques when they fight, world best BJJ grapplers are also using often only the basic moves. So don't know if anyone is intrested, but I went back to Aikido few years ago and after 14 years being away from there I just achieved the honor of wearing a hakama and brown belt. 🙂 And planning to continue train Aikido as long as possible.

[mullofcuntiret]

It’s such a relief to finally see reasoned and informed criticisms of aikido that account for the positive and useful as well, in a broader context than just hypothetical street fighting mayhem. Great job.

[mcjon]

One of the interesting aspects of Aikido and the founder is how much it changed after WWII. Ueshiba was a Japanese ultra-Nationalist. However, after seeing the devastation of 2 nuclear bombs dropped on Japan he became a pacifist and his Aikido became even more passive and flowy. If you look at students of Ueshiba from the pre-WWII era and their style of Aikido, it is much closer to Aikijujutsu than the modern Aikido style is.

[jaketheasianguy]

You're on the right path, Rob. Aikido movements when you put them into the right context of old Jujutsu, it all make sense. Like why would someone grab my wrist as their first attack ? Because back in the day if my opponent didn't try to control my wrist with one or 2 hands and try to punch me first like in modern day, i will draw out my knife or my sword and hack them to pieces
Also there's also the fact that most of Ueshiba's students are legitimate masters from different martial arts like Karate, Judo, Koryu styles.... They understand what violence looks like so Ueshiba's teaching is like the cherry on top for their martial art journeys when they got old. Now days most people who do Aikido have no experience in violence or fighting and picked Aikido as their first martial art just because they watch Steven Seagal. This caused the delusion and the idea of "making Aikido functional"

[RandAlthor]

Great video
I was a prison officer for 11 yrs aikido saved my life plenty of times . My aikido reduced to 6 techniques and plenty of stand up wrestling.

[seelingnightapsychomanteum]

I appreciate your approach to the topic. I will also say that I have used its techniques in high pressure situations with commuted attackers. In this case a school for autistic and developmentally challenged young adults. The staff was attacked on a daily basis, and I used the skills I had learned to defuse situations. The trick for me was not to try and apply a technique, just see where the attackers balance was poor, or in one case, kept my hand on the attacker’s forehead. He reached out to grab it, and I was able to apply Shiho Nage. It was gently done; Shiho Nage has actually killed people, and I had to keep that in mind. These were young people who were emotionally unable to handle their environment, and would go into fits of rage. Part of my Aikido training was knowing their limitations and reacting out of compassion, at the same time keeping myself safe.

[bobsterbarrow]

I used Aikido frequently as a Police Officer in the UK, however it was more along the lines of traditional Jujitsu or wrestling when applied in restraining or self-defence. Aikido is an ideology as far as I understand it. When a 'do' is used on the street it becomes a 'Jitsu'. Use what works for you at the time.

[BerrySt]

I've been training in martial arts for 36 years now. I even did Aikido for a few years in the late 90's and early 2000's. I have to say not only was it a really fun martial art to learn and certainly a lot less injuries than BJJ or Judo but my only real fight I ever had, ended with me taking the guy down hard with a Kotegaeshi wrist lock. For me at least those few years of practising that lock over and over helped me that night. Anyway good video and that's my two cents.

[emsantiago]

I have a black belt in Aikido and in Aikijujutsu. It's the same techniques. The difference is the methodology of training.

[peterkhew]

Aikido, Eskrima, and Xingyiquan are weapon based martial arts, that translates the same movements to empty hand techniques. They developed separately in their own culture; Japan, Philippines, and China respectively. Yet if you see the principles underlying all three styles, they are quite similar.

[kerpal]

also the 3 basic wrist stretches i learned from aikido have made me immune to most wrist lock attacks in bjj training, its given my wrists extreme flexibility and should be a part of every martial artists training in my opinion, i know people who have broken their wrists and hands just from posting their hand while falling, the wrist stretches will also help prevent injury for those doing striking arts

[andywoodsman]

Roots of aikido also shows when you as a defender pull up knife or other weapon to defend against aggressor. Every principle and technique feels natural and purposeful. When sparring with that setup, you are going to see lots of hand grabbing and understand a reason for lots of things why they are done that way. It comes from age when everyone was armed. And word still is.

[비가쥬-ug]

This is a great video. What you are saying is very correct. I'm Korean and studying Japanese history. As I get to know more about Japan, I feel amazing how they keep their tradition especially in martial arts. I think, the transition of concept from bushido to budo is phenomenal. It surely influenced most of East Asian martial arts. Sorry for my poor English. Thank you for good video. I subscribed!

[lopezb]

As an Aikidoist, I enjoyed this video. It's respectful and accurate. He knows what he is talking about. It is for example a huge mistake for even a black belt in Aikido to think they can deal with an assault with a knife- or a gun. He may have a friend on the corner with another gun anyway. Ideally, your sensitivity has been heightened by training and by living right, treating others well, sleeping enough, not drinking....so you can avoid most situations and even defuse a bad guy or a gang by spontaneously relating to them somehow. The same skills help you deal with work situations or people close to you. Best wishes to all!

[benfranklin]

Well said. Normally I’m very weary of aikido “critics” because they don’t know the history and they don’t make mention of what’s wrong with it, so much as belittle the style. I enjoy CACC and to me aikido has a lot in common with catch wrestling. If you can do a duck under or an arm drag then you can do aikido techniques. Aikido shouldn’t be your first martial art for the reasons stated in the video, a lot of schools have removed atemi/striking even though they say aikido is 90% atemi/striking. Anyone wanting to do aikido should be like the original students: They knew other styles first and it should be noted they were doing aikijujutsu before aikido in Ueshiba’s later years. So they understood where it was going and why. Well informed take thank you for sharing it.

[saabsly]

AT Someone who understands what Aikido is, where it comes from and that it is designed against armed opponents.

[torantongaarder]

One of the best reflections I have heard out there on the web. Thank you for the time spent on the matter!