This is my view, too. I don't really like the philosophical approach I see in a lot of the Aikido dojos I've visited, but it works for the folks who train there, so I'm glad it exists for them. For some folks, it's just a good mix for them of physical work, philosophical thought, skill development, ritual, and cameraderie.
And this the problem with aikido - it does not deliver anything what cannot be delivered to people by other forms of activity. As somebody has written before about spritual, self-defence and dance (gimnastic?) aspects - other activities deliver better product.
That same can be said of most anything. What does football deliver that can't be found in 3 other pursuits? Parts of BJJ are done better by catch wrestling, Judo, etc.
People can choose whatever they want. But In times of wide access to various hight quality services, the demand for aikido is less than it used to be.
Okay, but I'm just asking questions about the selling points, and how they compete with the other available options. And IF finding another selling point would be better. What can't be argued is that aikido is on the decline, as pointed out in the article. So what are they going to do about it? Because what they're doing now isn't working.
The metric is specific optimization. Is mind/body/spirit what aikido was designed for? With the availability of yoga, tai chi, etc; how does aikido compete? Note: this isn't a rhetorical question, I'm actually curious about the answer.
To someone who sees two aikidoka performing, but has never previously heard of aikido or know what it is, they could see it as a dance. The movements are certainly graceful enough. In the highly improbable scenario that there's an aikido dojo in a metro area where ballroom dancing is not, would you say that someone interested in ballroom dancing wouldn't be more likely to be interested in aikido than other people in town after seeing a demonstration (assuming that such a person is no more interested in martial arts than the average person in that community)?
I'm not trying to yuck anyone else's yum. I'm simply questioning the selling points of aikido, and whether or not another one needs to be established.
Was Aikido ever on the incline? I don't think it's ever been very popular in terms of numbers. That's probably why it's considered esoteric.
What you see as “better” is simply your opinion. That assessment is purely subjective.
There is no aikido crisis. Doomsday preachers have existed for centuries.
I believe this is true. Being unpopular is not a crisis.
I never said that.
I still cannot fathom what anybody would pay attention to Rokas. He is not a leader in Aikido. The guys who really dedicated their lives to it and became really good, some of whom trained directly with the founder, people like Robert Nadeau sensei in San Francisco, are the people who inspired me about aikido. I never found the time to train with him, but watching his class some 25 or more years ago is what made me know I wanted to give it a go someday.
He provides people with 'proof' that Aikido does not work.
And that seems to be getting a lot of people's panties in a bunch.
He provides people with proof that he isn’t very good at aikido. That’s ok. Aikido isn’t a good match for him. He does not need to do aikido. There are plenty of other things I am sure he can become moderately good at.
Just in case it wasn't clear, that's why I put proof in quotes. As you mention, all he provides is he was not good at using Aikido. Whether that's a fault of Aikido, himself, or his school/instructor (back when he was a student), I do not know. But one data point is not proof.
Sure, I understood.
For me he's a good example of how not do go about it. He's falling in all the mistake pits and people can learn what not to do and why. If you look at how long it took for him to get to where he is, I say it shouln"t have taken him this long to get to where he is with his functional Aikido attempts..
