Taiji Rebel
Black Belt
A few months back I decided to train with a new Chen-style taijiquan class. Whilst there I chatted with the instructor about aikido as it was his main art before turning to taijiquan. Prior to switching to taijiquan he spent 20 or so years in aikido, back then it was the hard-style of the early 1970s and he had trained with many of Ueshiba's direct students. Being based in the UK he was also a part of the dojo run by Sensei Henry Ellis and those guys had a definite martial angle to their training. In his opinion, aikido has lost its way these days. It is no longer taught as an effective martial art, but anyone who has been involved in martial arts or aikido for any amount of time knows this. Does anyone here still practise aikido with a hard martial edge I wonder? Or is anyone familiar with folk like Henry Ellis who took a more serious approach to training aikido?
