Martially orientated Aikido

[O'Malley]

You asked whether there were people who trained aikido as an effective martial art to handle a physical conflict. My answer is that there are lots of aikido people who claim to do that but have serious misconceptions about their training. If you don't train with aliveness, you're not likely to be able to handle a physical conflict, because it's hard to be good at something you never do. This guy is a case in point.

He said he'd been doing research on Rokas and had come across some of my posts on here, which mentioned that Rokas might not have understood basic stuff he'd been taught about technique. IIRC I said that because his teacher has trained in Iwama aikido, and I'm familiar with their methodology.

 

[Taiji Rebel]

You asked whether there were people who trained aikido as an effective martial art to handle a physical conflict.

Well, I asked if anyone here practices aikido with a hard martial edge. The sensei in my old Tomiki club ignored the sporting angle and focused on the martial side. Our club was small and full of strong, tough, physically fit martial artists. Everyone there took aikido as a 2nd or 3rd art and the aim was to learn basic techniques and make them our own. Whilst it was technically an aikido dojo none of us were too precious about upholding the traditions or venerating Ueshiba and the spiritual side was pretty much irrelevant. Little focus was given to the art of peace or way of harmony either. Our sensei was more interested in how to make the techniques hard, fast and effective. Atemi was a big element too. Ueshiba used to say aikido was 70% atemi, Saito claimed it was 90% and our club took this to heart and made striking the biggest part of our training sessions. We took the concepts of aikido and made them our own. Training sessions were hard and physical fitness was high-level. After moving from the area I attended a number of traditional aikido dojos and never found one to compare. The traditional dojos I attended were very low-level in comparison. No focus on hard physical fitness training, ineffective attacks and way too much respect and worship of O' Sensei.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I like this guy’s approach. He knows Judo. He knows BJJ. And he slips his Aikido techniques in opportunistically rather than forcing them. When his sparring partner defends, he uses that reaction to enter into a Judo or BJJ technique (or vice versa).

I’m a big fan of the first technique he shows (Kaiten Nage), although I didn’t learn it from Aikido.

 

[drop bear]

Not quite sure what you mean here about a lot of aikido folk believing they train with a martial edge - could you give some specific examples from your own experiences and training?

Now, combat sports people are competitive by nature. Their perspective is valid in the sporting arena. We are all shaped by the environments in which we train on a regular basis, and the people we train with also influence our perspectives and outlook.

The one thing combat sports players have for certain is their strength and fitness, alongside an ability to discover which techniques work for them in the ring/cage.

This is a BJJ vs BJJ point being made. But it is a good point to consider if you want to be able to perform any technique on somebody.

And without understanding this. You will probably look for the wrong things.

 

[drop bear]

I like this guy’s approach. He knows Judo. He knows BJJ. And he slips his Aikido techniques in opportunistically rather than forcing them. When his sparring partner defends, he uses that reaction to enter into a Judo or BJJ technique (or vice versa).

I’m a big fan of the first technique he shows (Kaiten Nage), although I didn’t learn it from Aikido.

By the way.

Arm drag, two on one, wristlock.

I am not the only guy who hits wristlocks from this.

 

[Buka]

This is a BJJ vs BJJ point being made. But it is a good point to consider if you want to be able to perform any technique on somebody.

And without understanding this. You will probably look for the wrong things.

I really like Kit’s stuff, but when he said “I’m here to talk about the biggest misconception about what the word ‘timing’ means,” I didn’t realize he was going to give a seven minute example of it.