I knew you were being facetious, and I was following up with a semi-serious point (which you restated nicely). I'm not sure I'm making sense today - long night and a head cold. Not enough coffee to clear my brain today.
Aikido hate
- Thread starter Hornviper
- Start date
That's my view of it. The only time I train pure-aiki is to explore the concept and the bounds of what it can do. The rest of the time, I work with a continuum, and try to work as far to the "aiki" end of that continuum as I can. I think that latter part is not so different in most grappling arts.
Bah! Make it difficult, Tony!
Steve
Mostly Harmless
Was said tongue in cheek. The idea is that an aikidoka would never attack... so defending against... an, nevermind.
Steve
Mostly Harmless
I don't know. It's not an uncommon perspective, and is one that tends to be endorsed by cops, soldiers and pretty much anyone who is violent professionally.
FWIW, I agree in general. For home defense, I think a firearm makes a lot of sense. Concealed carry? I haven't seen any real data to support it.
Here is another nice video of an Aikidoist involved in a brawl with a hooligan.
Nice throw to control and the situation resolved!
Nice throw to control and the situation resolved!
It is a fairly common perspective, and it ignores some of the realities. Even if I'm not traveling, in NC there are a ton of places I can't carry. Nowhere people paid to get in (movies, theatre, opera, museums, etc.), anyplace anyone puts up any kind of sign (last I looked the law allowed a pretty wide range of signs) that disallows them (and many retailers do), anyplace that serves alcohol (I think that's right, it might be anyplace that has a bar). And when I'm working on a client site, I'm generally subject to their policy manual on most matters, including that. So, even when I'm not traveling, I am very restricted as to where I could carry, even with a permit. And with all those limitations, it'd be difficult to justify carrying most days (since I'd have to keep taking it off an leaving it in the car). Without consistent carry, the gun isn't an especially useful tool, since we can't predict when and where we'll need it.
And I'd be skeptical of the idea of a gun's usefulness in a lot of types of defensive situations. Like you, I haven't seen data that really supports how effectively it can be deployed, and any data we did have would be hopelessly confounded by the user's level of training and preparation.
Wait, @Steve. Did we just manage to swerve from Aikido to firearms??? That's one hell of a swerve!
Steve
Mostly Harmless
i do still agree with everything else the guy said, though. but what really stppd out for me is the story he told of a fellow navy seal being confronted with the realization that his traditional approach to martial arts had not given him the skills he believed he had learned. He could not do what he thought.
If you understand the following point, you will get where I'm coming from in most of my posts. I don't believe most martial arts teach you what you believe you are learning. I try to explain this, and people mistake this as a desire to dictate training goals. It's not. If you are learning what you BELIEVE you are learning, all is well. It's when you think you're learning something ("how to fight," "self defense," "how to defend against multiple attackers," "how to avoid being taken to the ground,") THAT'S when there's a problem.
Pretty simple really:
Top priority Weapons/Tools for personal protection after that if you want to be overall effective you have to have skill sets in kicking, hand strikes, trapping and joint manipulation and grappling. Wherever a violent confrontation goes you can either stay there if you are more efficient than your attacker or go to another area where you can dominate. If you are only versed in one area and you cannot get it to that area or the other person is better than you then you probably have a serious problem.
Weapns/Tools have to be the top priority for personal protection. Where Jocko makes the mistake in his video he focuses on firearms then right into grappling and western style striking placing knife/stick training last almost as an after thought. While I also agree that someone trained the way he advise would be effective. They should first focus on firearms, knives, sticks and then empty hand skill sets including al of the above I listed. As a firearms instructor I always recommend that practitioner's that study underneath me get their ccw and regular firearms training. However, that is just one tool to work with and they should be adept with other tools such as the knife, stick, etc. With all of that training you need to understand the law fully in your area!
Top priority Weapons/Tools for personal protection after that if you want to be overall effective you have to have skill sets in kicking, hand strikes, trapping and joint manipulation and grappling. Wherever a violent confrontation goes you can either stay there if you are more efficient than your attacker or go to another area where you can dominate. If you are only versed in one area and you cannot get it to that area or the other person is better than you then you probably have a serious problem.
Weapns/Tools have to be the top priority for personal protection. Where Jocko makes the mistake in his video he focuses on firearms then right into grappling and western style striking placing knife/stick training last almost as an after thought. While I also agree that someone trained the way he advise would be effective. They should first focus on firearms, knives, sticks and then empty hand skill sets including al of the above I listed. As a firearms instructor I always recommend that practitioner's that study underneath me get their ccw and regular firearms training. However, that is just one tool to work with and they should be adept with other tools such as the knife, stick, etc. With all of that training you need to understand the law fully in your area!
Spinedoc
Brown Belt
It goes back even earlier than that. Aiki isn't simply blending with an opponent, it's more....It's a state of being if you will.
Aiki is Love, isn't it? Aiki isn't Love, is it? - Aikido Sangenkai
Note to any hooligans - see that little side to side strut he does? And the extended "ayight" fingers. Don't do that. It really pisses off people who know how to fight.
He's lucky the man in the white shirt was nice.
I'd hazard a guess there's no "I" key on his keyboard. Or, in his brutal days of youth, someone bit off the tip of his right middle and ring fingers and the pinky won't reach that far...
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
Interesting, back when I was training police/military Sanda that was pretty much the opinion of my Shifu, Sanda was when for when you ran out of weapons or had none to use or you couldn't use them. Which was right up there with his other view which was Sanda is not hte best or most dangerous marital art, it is just a quick and easy way to learn how to hurt someone really badly.
Karl Geis had an interesting viewpoint on this. If you always practice the same things, the same way, you very easily get into a self-referencing loop. "Shoot, my stuff always works in class, so it will alwyays work." In the legal field, that has another technical term, it's "Believing your own bullsh*t."
Always go back and test what you are learning, against someone who has some motivation to not let you "do it." Can be simple uncooperativeness, or can be outright combat back in your face, but you have to test things to really find out.
Hard to do with full-tilt boogie knife defense though, isn't it. Well, more than once or twice, I suppose.
Steve
Mostly Harmless
Whenever I post from my phone, "you" autocorrects to "yiu" for some reason. I just presumed it was something like that.
It is my understanding that this wasn't how Ueshiba described aiki early in his teaching.
It's too consistent. He spells "aiki" as "aki" and "aikido" as "akido". It seems purposeful, though I can't figure the purpose.
