bad rap on aikido

[teekin]

We seem to have drifted slightly away from the question about who has used Aikido to put down a scumbag (for the record I have not needed to do so).



It has been said on a different Aikido thread that the definition of what harmony is will vary widely between Aikido styles and sometimes between one instructor and another within a given style. I have some background in Nihon Goshin and Yoshinkan styles and my personal experience has not been that we seek the peace, love, and joy kind of harmony. Rather, we harmonize with the scumbag's intent. So if someone is intent on fighting you and they push you then you can pull them and take them further in the same the direction than they had intended to go and lead them into a throw. If you're in close and they want to straighten their arm out then you act to extend it even further than they wanted to go and you now have a joint lock.

I am fortunate enough to be training with an instructor who has a strong background in striking arts and he teaches about proper striking technique, distance, and keeping your guard up along with the Aikido techniques. If you decide to join an Aikido dojo you may find a teacher like this or, failing that, there may be other students with a striking background who will be willing to work with you on those skills.

This is what I was Hoping to find and seems to be the Ideal. Good for you finding someone to work this with. I Liked the feelings of peace and co-operation in the Akido school I attended. I just couldn't live with the fact that the students Beleived that their techniques worked. Total fanatical belief, but no pressure tested proof. I asked them to go hard, I pushed on them to show me what they were doing worked. The head instructor could, but then he also Muscled me! WTF! Even my BJJ teachers don't resort to muscling me, they use technique. ( most of the time, it's hard not to use muscle/weight to hold a patient Uberbendy squirmmer in place) A 5th level Aikido BB muscling me? :bs1:That was the death knell for me, all the proof I needed this this was just dancing. The fact that the school is in perhaps the Roughest part of the city, accross from a hotel that has the police there 3-4 times a week for gang violence/ drug raids ( Sherbrook Hotel, Winnipeg) makes the unreality of their training all that much worse.
There is lots of student cross over taking place within that MA area in the Tai, BJJ, TDK and even Yoga classes. Only the Aikido people don't crosstrain. This was troubling to me until I tried THAT version of Aikido and understood why. I think what You describe as Aikido would dovetail beautifully with high level BJJ/Judo. ( Perhaps If I had a better grasp of submission grappling I could see more into the Aikido technique they were teaching and be able to extract more?:hmm: ) I would like to try Aikido again too, but Your version, not what I found. But not being indepedently wealth ( yet) restricts travel and free time something awful doesn't it? :wah:

Lori

 

[Touch Of Death]

Manny, if you think of the kenpo techs you are learning, as skeletal programs, aikido, is part of the spaces between the note. I punch someone, but on the way back to the set position, I can utilize that return motion to a positional advantage, or come back holding an ear, but this is something best studied once you have mastered the principles of motion.
Sean