@HoChunk

Aikido at best is barely functional and at worst a pointless waste of time if you’re looking to learn how to defend yourself. It has too many problems fundamentally to be effective.

In my hometown there was a place that taught a grab bag of Japanese martial arts. They taught Karate, Judo, Kyudo, Iaijustsu, Kendo, Naginata, and Aikido.
It was non profit oriented. It was started by several Japanese immigrants so they could have a place to teach and learn. I lived in a military town, so there was a smallish community of Japanese who had married American military and moved to the US. It was pretty awesome, because for a small fee I could attend any of the classes. It was a great place to learn. It was all about martial arts, nothing else.

I spent about five years with Aikido. I won’t lie, I had fun and enjoyed it, but I don’t get much practical use out of it.

Aikido’s biggest flaw is most people don’t understand it, even the people who train it.

Aikido was originally intended to be a graduate school for martial arts. Students were originally expected to be a high rank in one or more martial art before practicing aikido. In other words, the students were expected to be badasses before they started Aikido.

The reason for this was Aikido techniques rely on a very high level of skill in something called Tai Sabaki. Tai Sabaki basically means “whole body movement”, but what it’s really about is strategic movement to avoid and setup attacks. It’s an understatement that Aikido techniques rely heavily on the Tai Sabaki. Without it Aikido is completely useless.

Gaining the sort of skill necessary takes years of hard work. Students need to be kicked, thrown, and punched for years to develop the abilities needed to pull off the techniques. I’m talking about more than a decade.

The best example of someone doing Tai Sabaki would be MMA fighters Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida. Watch this video of Anderson Silva fighting Chris Leben to see what I’m talking about. Notice how Silva allows Leben to overextend himself, which sets up Silva rather devastating follow up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=myRaxbkJN64

The fight between Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans would be a better example, but I couldn’t find it on youtube. Me and my friends joke that Machida uses “strategic boringness” in his fights. Honestly, a lot of people think he’s boring, but that’s how he lulls others into over committing to attacks.

This brings me to the second problem. Anderson Silva is a world class fighter who can make spectacular fighters look stupid. The same with Lyoto Machida. They have years of training in multiple martial arts and extremely high natural skill. The elite level of skill they possesses is not available to mere mortals. And it’s THAT level of skill that is needed to make Aikido work.

Talk to an older Aikidoka and you’ll learn that Aikido wasn’t meant for the masses. It was originally intended for the elite few who could cut the mustard.

Unfortunately someone figured out how to market it to noobs, so it got spread around in a way that it that was not intended.

Today almost ALL modern Aikido students have only done Aikido. They lack the skills and understanding to know what they’re doing. They in turn move up in ranks and are eventually allowed to teach something they can not understand and do not know how to apply.

The third problem is the cult like mentality of Aikido schools. Most Aikidoka drink their own kool-aid. Aikido is wrapped up in a bunch of stupid sudo-zen bullshit mysticism. They are conditioned to believe their teachings and philosophy are on a higher level and refuse to even consider they might be wrong about something. The close mindedness in Aikido dojos often leads to students who train for years and achieve nothing.

Fourth, the training is garbage. Aikdoka believe in not creating any conflict. Their whole belief system is about not meeting force with force, but stepping aside and allowing force to continue on its way. That sounds neat, but what it translates to is a bunch of limp wristed bullshit. The vast majority of Aikidoka do not spar or pressure test any of their techniques. Consequently they lack the skill to apply those techniques.

This leads me to the most important point I can make about any martial art. People who fight learn how to fight. People who don’t fight do not learn how to fight. It’s as simple as that. It doesn’t matter how much a person trains or practices or drills. If they don’t spar of do some sort of practice against a fully resistant opponent, they will not have the skills to apply what they are doing.

Some martial art schools spar, some don’t. Even within one specific style there will be individual schools that spar and some that don’t. Aikido is the worst usually. Most of the schools I have seen do not spar at all because of their belief system.

A lot of Martial artists who don’t spar try to say they don’t spar because their techniques are too dangerous. Anyone who says this is completely full of shit. This is just a smokescreen used by assholes who want to walk around and act like a baddass but don’t want to face reality.

I’m digressing here, but a lot of Women’s Self defense courses are like this. I have the utmost contempt for those courses. They end up getting women raped because they teach impressionable people bullshit that doesn’t work.

I honestly wouldn’t recommend taking ANY martial art for self defense. It’s simpler and easier to carry a stungun and some mace. Or better yet buy a gun and learn how to use it. Learn some common sense. Don’t walk down a dark alley alone. Stay in groups in well lit areas. Don’t be an asshole in public. Don’t take drinks from strangers at bars. Stay out of stupid codependent
relationships. Don’t take rides in your creepy uncle’s van. Only train martial arts if you think it’s fun and have an interest in it.

Digression over. Back to Aikido.

Many people complain about the techniques in Aikido. They say the techniques don’t work. I would disagree with this. I have used Aikido techniques in completion before. They work. They are very low percentage moves though. They only work in limited situation and a lot of times there are better techniques to use. I would opt to choke someone out before writlocking them. Additionally the relative skill of opponents matter. It is a lot easier to wristlock an untrained person than a trained person. When I was doing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I could wristlock the new students almost at will, but the completion percentage against anyone with a few months of training dropped to exactly zero.

Unfortunately 99% of Aikido Dojos do not train in a way that would make these techniques functional. I know, I’m beating a dead horse here.

Okay, rant over. Flame away.