@@dantae666 it’s much easier to achieve black belt in martial arts if you already have a few, and especially if those martial arts have some similarities. It’s kinda like learning a language. After learning three languages, the forth is easier than the first and second. You already have an algorithm for it, built in. Also, in many martial arts black belt is tells us that you’re in the beginning of the journey of being a committed student with very good basics.
@@alexytterdahl6289 yep, I know of a guy who was a 3rd Dan in Japanese Jiu jitsu (that school focused heavily on the ground game mind you), and got his brown belt in BJJ in no time.
I came here to make a witty joke about Aikido but ended up learning instead. Great video Seth! I still believe Akito is one of the more unpractical martial arts especially since most of techniques would be very hard if not impossible to successfully perform against an experienced grappler. I commend your ability to keep an open mind and giving it an honest shot though.
It's still a martial art, just one of the worst ones. And as a martial art someone who is good at it can still use it to some effect against an untrained opponent. But when pitted against another martial arts practitioner who knows one of the many more effective ones, it falls flat on its face. So it's not completely useless, but why would you spend your time learning it when you could spend that time learning something much better? If you want to throw people around take judo, for example.
I’m trying to think any techiques or fighting styles that are _easy_ to perform on an experienced grappler, even if you are an experienced grappler yourself. But yeah aikido moved away from combat or fighting like hundred years ago. It’s kinda like Iaido or Kenjutsu, a part of this rich historical and cultural tradition, but pretty impractical in the world where people don’t carry around swords anymore. If you accept it as what it is then cool, if you go around crying that you can totally win an MMA match with aikido, you don’t understand even the basic idea what you are studying yourself.
@@BigUriel I learned it for a very long time while growing up and where I went, using it in a genuine fight wasn't ever really implied. For me it was kind of a mind/body conditioning and that did help me get ahead for a while until I stopped going for other reasons Did end up learning other martial arts for practical application so that might say something lol
I'm impressed at how often you demonstrated that a fighter can be respectful while still having doubts about whether the technique being taught would actually work.
I think you hit on the key to making Aikido work: it's already being able to fight. If you can fight, good Aikido might give you the option of winning with a little less damage to your opponent. It's not a stand alone martial art, it's a module you can plug in to an already functioning skillset.
The other thing I think is often overlooked about aikido is that this is something that is done in self defense against an unsuspecting opponent. Hence self defense
The founder of Aikido had a base in Sumo wrestling. All of his first-generation students had a base in Judo and/or Kendo, and since Sumo was really common in Japan back then, a lot of them probably had some Sumo background as well. The whole idea of Aikido being a plug-in module is an interesting one.
It’s interesting, I did aikido for about 10 years-including as an uchideshi-and one of the things I almost never see discussed is what I learned as the difference between practice techniques (basically partnered forms, which is most of what you see in the videos) and applied techniques: how to use this stuff in a fight. Basically stated, you do all of the circular movements and such as a way of learning your body, building a repertoire of basic techniques, etc. in much the same way as kata are used. But you learn them with a partner to begin building the foundations of randori / sparring. Then you work on how to apply those techniques in more realistic situations; with a lot less dancing around (tenkan) and a lot more moving forward and taking someone’s center / centerline (irimi), and with a fair amount of close quarters strikes that we’re hidden in the moments of the basic forms-just like kata. You then begin practicing randori. This sounds like a long process, but I was practicing the basics of randori as soon as I graduated from the beginners class to the intermediate (about two months). All the while, working on the kinds of mobility and body-structure business that one finds in arts like Systema, Wing Chun, etc. I’m not arguing the aikido rules or anything, and I see a lot of non-combat applicable aikido out there. I just think that it’s worth mentioning that there is a logic to the aikido training system. I’ve trained in a number of martial arts over the last forty years, and carry rank in most of them, yet the few times I’ve had to deal with confrontations in the real world since my aikido training I’ve found that the basics of what I learned in aikido form the foundations of how I successfully responded to those confrontations. A final caveat: In the aikido system I trained in (which comes down the lineage from Fumio Toyoda), many of the senior Japanese instructors had a solid background in other arts before they started aikido and tended to explain aikido as “martial arts graduate school.” I think this is a fair signal of the pedagogical issues at play in a lot of how aikido is taught. And I have to recognize that a lot of my own success with aikido may in some part be due to having a solid background in striking and grappling before first stepping into an aikido dojo. Of late, I’ve bumped into a number of aikido instructors who have solid striking and grappling training and who are including more striking and grappling fundamentals in their aikido instruction to fill in those gaps, as JD in this video seems to be doing. I feel that including these fundamentals for students as they’re learning the basic partnered forms, and improving them as they move into applied technics-and really explicating these applications well-will improve aikido’s reputation in the coming years.
I believe your explanation is confirmed by the story of Mochizuki yoseikan aikijujitsu. In those postwar years all Japanese aikido practioners used to do other styles (judo, karate...) they applied to their aikido. The result is the wide range of aikido styles. Only practicing aikido in my opinion (and it's my personal shortcoming) does not give the practicality these Japanese masters had acquired through their solid budo experience.
@@marcoarrigo4466 I think this depends on the pedagogy at play; there are aikido lineages / teachers who have incorporated elements of other striking and grappling arts to fill this gap. However, as a general rule, it is best to assume one should cross train in striking and grappling to fill some of the holes in most available aikido. As a side note: This same issue is present in the Chinese internal arts, where, again, the IMA were understood as martial arts graduate schools. To wit, the primary form of bagua I’ve studied uses Northern Longfist and quite a lot of chin na grappling to fill the gaps of what bagua-only would leave untrained. I’ve found similar things in the forms of xingyi and taiji I’ve studied.
@@burritodog3634 Sure, of course. But again, the IMA, properly understood, should be trained as a kind of graduate school for martial artists. Not necessary for most purposes, but possibly necessary for others. Or, honestly, for the sheer nerdy joy of it. I hold rank (read: at least 3rd degree black belt or rough equivalent) in ten different combat arts. But at this point in my life (age 48), the only ones I find to be of continuing relevance and challenge, or even remotely interesting in their depth and complexity, are the IMA.
I've also trained Aikido for a fair amount of time (4 years) under the lineage of Fumio Toyoda Shihan and I can say that the fundamentals of Aikido has certainly helped me with other martial arts (Kickboxing, BJJ). The sensei I trained under also had a background in striking and grappling arts and always contextualized this within the framework of Aikido. Just my .02 cents, and it's certainly not the end all be all of martial arts, but I do think there's real value in the art as long as expectations are tempered.
Wrist locks really are great for ground fighting. They're not used much in bjj competition because most rule sets only allow them at high grade so they aren't practiced as early
As someone with a Japanese jujitsu background I think the biggest problem with aikido is its compliancy. The techniques all come from something working but through compliancy they don't apply them the right way to avoid hurting each other where as other aikijujitsu styles might use more hyper extension, more rough off balancing as oppososed to compliant throwing
@@me82sjm I think Aikido should use more sticks, hit each other with sticks, jjj guys hit each other with sticks and they are better grapplers and as good as wristlocks
So I started with Aikido when I was 8 years old, all the way up till I was 13. It might not be the best for combat, but it has ignited my love for fighting sports leading to boxing, kickboxing and lessons in some other disciplines aswell. Aikido also set me up with a good base for body balance, patience and discipline. My teacher was amazing, which really helped. It will always have a special place in my heart.
After watching this I really think you would enjoy a HEMA class covering Fiore. His whole system covers everything from grappling and striking to dagger, longsword, and pollaxe. Plus, each part of his system leads into the next. So his unarmed = his dagger =his longsword = his pollaxe. Plus, he loves armbars and groin kicks, so he's basically the Medieval Master Ken.
@aluisious honestly...for the fun of it. Not every martial art has to prepare you for THE STREETS!!!(TM). Sometimes, it's fun just to practice a martial art because you enjoy the history or the community or the aesthetics of it.
Like anything else, pressure test the techniques against active resistance. Keep what works in your repertoire, disregard the rest, and move onto the next martial arts discipline to absorb. Stay super jacked, Sensei Seth!
trust me, this stuff works against resisting opponents. just imagine in boxing. if all you learned was to jab, it would be hard to get anything done. but you learn hooks and crosses, you get a better c hance. then you take movement into consideration .than you are a formidable opponent. thats the issue iwth aikido. dude got a one day lesson, and literally only went over the 3 most basic techniques.
"Pressure testing" Aikido doesn't work, because in Aikido the attacker gives you the techinque, you don't take it. When you meet "resistance" you stop what you are doing and take what the attacker just gave you. You can't "pressure test" a certain technique, because once the technique meets pressure the art demands you flow with that pressure. It's paradox.
My issue with just that mindset is that some shot takes practice. Like you couldn't do anything more complex than a shitty punch on your first day of any art, but does that mean punches don't work? I think the biggest difficulty I've come across is just deciding what is worth it once the effort is put in. So that either means having trust in your teacher or gaining that trust initially through proof of concept (aka they use some of these techniques on you and you see if they work). Like I've only done a little bit of bjj, so if I just grab a bjj book off the shelf, try a triangle choke at full speed with a friend and it doesn't work, that's on me for not training it. Or the move is just shit, there's no way for me to know at that point. And then do I want it for self defense or sport? Cause a bjj person will prove it works to me in a dobohk and on mats with rules, which doesn't prove it'll work for self defense, just for sport. I just think this is more complex than you make it out to be 😅
@@nunninkav well I'd argue a bit there. I do hapkido btw, very similar stuff. But we do actually do pressure testing. But like you said, we don't fight force with force, we find another way. But pressure testing isn't just about fighting direct force, it's about making stuff work as it's supposed to. So I pressure test both with other hapkido people and all other types of people. Like with hapkido people I train against someone who knows how to escape techniques and I have to make something work. With untrained or others I have to deal with different struggles. But people don't always exactly counter your locks or give you the same response. Pressure testing means more of testing the system as a whole. Which is kinda hard to do early on, so instead you only use it when you have an opportunity or you just do your best trying like any white belt in something like bjj or karate.
I am a stage combat practitioner and choreographer and Aikido is used heavily in a lot of choreography mainly due to its cooperativeness and flashiness rather than in spite of
Above the law has my favorite fight choreography but outside of the earlier Steven Seagal films I really wish there was more films that had a more realistic or gritty application of a martial art in its fight scenes.
Yeah and its alot of mouvement , flow with leverage. In a coopérative environnement it look good and alot for a good movie. In real life, nothing work like intentéd and its short brutal
I started with Karate when I was 16 or so, just doing it for a few years until I had no more time for it in my army time. Later, I started studying Biology and looked for some sports at university. Found Aikido. Now the real kick was not only the combination of Karate and Aikido - any one of these alone is not the real burner. But in combination it works quite well. Karate did fill the gaps that Aikido leaves, but also vice versa. But, as I said, the real fun was that, as a Biologist, you know quite well how the human body, its bones, its nerves, its muscles and its joints work. And you know, as well, how it does not work. And this is what Aikido does: forcing the body into something it simply can't do. By the way - you can't do many Aikido techniques with clumsy boxing gloves. That explains your lack of success ;)
I'm not as anti-aikido as some people. When I was a young 20-something guy with (at the time) a mostly Muay Thai background, I had an older colleague (late 40s, early 50s) who was very good at a military combatives adaptation of Aikido/Aikijitsu/Jiujitsu and he worked me over real good. (It felt like I was like fighting a guy with three arms.) It can definitely work when the guy knows how to use it. I find the wrist locks in Aikido to be very valid for certain self-defense scenario (crowded bar, bus, subway, etc.) where you can anticipate the confrontation enough to use the technique as a surprise and squealch the fight before blows start flying. The mechanics and concepts are also a really good segue into things like weapon retention and disarms. I've also seen guys have success adding Aikido when they're working from a foundation of another Japanese art. (Like JD in the video has a foundation in karate, though I don't know what he studied first.) All that said...Aikido is not really something I would spend my training time on and I would not recommend it is a foundation for anyone. For most Aikido applications, even though they're valid, there always seems to me to be five or six other more reliable options from the other arts.
Barfights is where I saw it work the most, myself. They actually teach you a bunch of the wrist locks as a part of MCMAP. Stuffing a punch with your whole body, chicken winging the guy, and then feeding him his own hand (our instructor literally called the primary wrist and elbow lock "feeding them a hamburger" even) worked wonders for compliance and made it *INCREDIBLY* easy to put handcuffs on. If you think I'm FOS, just ask any Marine that worked primarily for the Provost Marshal or Shore Patrol that earned their green belt. They'll usually even be happy to show you most of them because of how much they hurt with so little effort. The throws are all something you can disregard because they are taught for the *STUDENTS* protection. In a real fight, you're just going to violently break the wrist/elbow/shoulder and then wreck them on the side they can no longer defend effectively. I think that's where Aikido instructors lose most people, because they don't make a point to explicitly tell people that.
@@sinenomine5379 wrist, elbow, and shoulder locks/manupulations/dislocations are *ALWAYS* going to be relevant. So much so that they don't allow "small joint manipulations" in most professional fights because you'd be constantly breaking everything. As is understanding balance and using opponents momentum against them. Essentially, you take the "art" out of the martial art, and focus on the "martial" skills with it. You're not there to show off. Youre there to control a fight or hurt someone to the point they no longer desire to fight and/or kill them in self defense. Anything that isn't making you better at doing that is a waste of time. As a result: you change them by not making them look pretty, and smooth, but by how effective they are at doing what you intend to do with them. Practicing against people willing to pop you in the face when you let them will help you figure out what is effective or not pretty fast, too.
A lot of Aikido is about momentum and body mechanics. Your opponent is often moving towards you and you are utilizing that momentum to naturally and purposefully step out of their way and keep them moving forward. As an old practitioner, Toyoda-sensei, used to say, "Avoid a falling rock. Water will always flow to lower places."
I'm really glad you did this, Seth. This makes perfect sense to me, because my Aikido experience was not at all traditional. I came from a Shotokan Karate background, and trained in Aikido with a small, informal group made up of people who were all accomplished in various traditional martial arts. We were all seasoned fighters, didn't accept anything as valid in its stylized form, and therefore tested the practical application of EVERYTHING. We worked each technique over and over for weeks at a time, in various ways, and under different conditions. We'd start off really light and cooperative, to learn the basic movements, but would progressively increase the resistance until we got to multi-attacker randori. The result was that our Aikido did not look like the seamless, swirling motions of demonstrations and traditional dojos, but it worked in the real world. I now know that's exactly what happens when you train any traditional art with live resistance - it has to change to become more functional. As a general rule, then, I don't argue when people trash Aikido. I get it. I've seen the lack of actual fighting ability that most Aikidokas display. But I also know that I've used Aikido effectively in the real world, that irimi and tenkan are legit footwork, and that the wrist locks absolutely work in a range of situations. Add to that, there's a lot of shared DNA between Aikido, Jujitsu, and Judo, and lots of opportunities for adopting and blending elements of them.
I find it neat that I don't think you're experience is "non-traditional" at all. I say this as someone who isn't interested in Akido but from what I've researched, the first students of the style's founder were all seasoned fighters in Karate and Judo at least. Generally speaking that's what I think Akido should be, something that isn't someone's first martial art, but instead something for a seasoned fighter to do. Not to mention I'm pretty sure the founder was a pacifist, which I could see being the cause of people trying to use it for a context that it was never meant to be for. But that's just the conclusion I came to and like I said, I ain't experienced with it so take it with a grain of salt.
The fact is the founder itself Morihei Ueshiba Sensei only accepts students that had experience on other Martial Arts or already Seasoned Fighters. Example his students such as Gozo Shioda, Kenji Tomiki, Koichi Tohei and Minuro Mochizuki are all seasoned Judoists prior to their Aikido training.
@@sinenomine5379 keep testing whatever you learn against real opposition. Our running joke in our group was that the acid test of a technique was how it worked against one particular member of the group - a very, very large guy whom we dubbed our sumo wrestler. There was no muscling through anything with him. If the biomechanics really worked, you would throw him. If not, it was going to be a long night.
I’m glad he made the distinction with it being against swords. It’s what I’ve always said. The part about when dude said “Wing Chun?” Aikido “close enough” hurt my heart 😭💔
I actually never knew that. But it makes a lot of sense. When looking at it as grappling-with-a-sword it immediatley makes a few things clear. 1. This is uncomplete. There's a lot of context happening around this martial art to make it make sense. 2. It reminded me A LOT about grappling and wrestling techniques with weapons from HEMA. Like the fact that there's a lot of wrist locks and wrist control.
@@SwordTune Pretty sure most martial arts have "raising a knee" and I've seen UFC fighters literally having their skills fractured because they did that takedown attempt to someone who lifted one leg slightly. I dunno why grapplers are always so arrogant claiming their style is the best when strikers long since got through it to the phase that it isn't the style but training.
Thank you for that bit at the end explaining why Aikido practitioners are always flying around. Flip over or broken wrist, I always chose flipping over. I think a lot of people miss the point. First, try to avoid a fight. Second, if someone is trying to hit you because you couldn't avoid the fight, try not to get hit (that's what all the big circular motions are for). Third, you're probably going to get hit, so fall down a lot at the dojo and condition your body to take a little abuse so that you can exploit your opponents momentum when they do hit you. All that being said, it's not meant to take into the octagon, and don't go picking fights with pros (or anybody, really. It's the way of harmony, be cool, bro). I've used the wrist locks and arm control stuff to escort a few rowdy drunks out of bars. They get REAL compliant when they think their hand is about to be removed, but it does no permanent harm.
Exactly. I don't understand all these people proclaiming that "MMA (or whatever) is superior". Superior for what? For cage fighting, sure, but people are constantly talking about real life. In real life there's no reason to fight if someone is in front of you bouncing up and down... just walk away from the idiot. You use Aikido when someone is actually coming at you with force.
@@krestonosets68 ..or it’s just Aikido that has ben well taught and well trained. Sadly not as common as it should be, to be sure, but Aikido still works. I’ve trained it, I’ve had to use it and in real life self defence situations, it turns out it that training in Aikido for a few years can train your reflexes and instincts in ways you didn’t realise. It’s NOT about applying set techniques in combat. If you think that, then of course you can’t see how it could work. Hence all the armchair experts and keyboard warriors with loads of opinions but no actual real world experience with it.
Aikido is an extremely effective form of self-defense. One that could save your life. The fact is, that we live in a world full of undesirable people, with uncertain intentions. Aikido teaches you not only how to be a happier and healthier person, but also to protect yourself in real life-threatening situations Aikido training is not only good for health, but also develops self-confidence naturally for daily life. In Aikido you learn techniques to defend against a variety of attacks such as kicks, punches, single-hand or two-hand grabs from the front or rear, chokes, multiple person attacks, and attacks with weapons The goal in Aikido is to defend yourself while trying to avoid hurting the attacker.
As a life long karateka, with experience in a bunch of other martial arts (including a couple of years of aikido training), I can confirm that aikido has taught me many useful things in terms of avoiding attacks and using some of its techniques as a surprise factor. In summary, by itself it’s not the best of arts, but useless it most certainly is not. Great video, Seth. Keep it up.
I studied Aikido under Amir Ardebeli, who taught it as part of his MMA class. I have trained at a few schools, but Amir teaches a very grounded and practical martial art. Although we did not do a lot of Aikido, the techniques I learned with hm have remained at the top of my kit for the last 20 years.
Thank you for making this video, as a former Aikido student [ among others ], you've provided the right information about the martial art. I also believe that most practioners today are in it cause its fun [ not for it's practicality ] , to be able to throw someone across the room knowing that they'd be alright, cause you trust that they know how to roll, to be able to do the techniques in a flowing "drilled in" way with a higher belt is very satisfying. The rolls and various joint locks has increased my durabilty to spar with other martial art styles like bjj and helped me with my evasiveness within other sports.
As an avid fan of aikido principles, I was glad to see where it ended up. The specific techniques we teach in Aikido are meant to teach principles of body mechanics and motion, not be the exact combative movement. I would say that after one class, he implemented what he learned pretty well. On the other hand, the principles in Aikido exist in most martial arts, including the one he already ranked in. So, it's really just a different way to prepare the same meal, if trained properly. Nice work Sensei Seth, and Olson Sensei.
@@OneLoneMan Aikido was developed from Daito-ryu and the techniques you used as a police are actually Daito-ryu techniques which are nearly 1000 years old.
well, when randori becomes e.g. yonningake and 4 attackers can choose their style of attack at random (or even using various weapons), it's not such a toothless zombie exercise anymore ;)
Good for you for being open-minded. Aikido is not for everyone. I studied/trained in it for a decade and loved it. By far , it was the toughest, most challenging martial art I ever tried to learn and also the one I found most fulfilling. As a LEO, my goal was to learn skills that did not require striking/kicking, more so control in close quarter situations. Aikido was perfect for that and I never injured any arrestee or myself- no broken knuckles or feet! I'd tie people into pretzels and eventually submission, generally w/out getting sweaty. As for the dramatic flying movements in aikido, that comes from the blending between partners so that we don't injure each other. If I slapped one of those techniques on an unknowing individual, chances are injury would occur.
I am glad you explained the "dramatic flying through the air" bit. I believe that is why most people thing this is a garbage martial art because of that. They teach the students to do that, because, as your instructor was say, "you can decide to do the break fall or get your shoulder dislocated". Its the same as spinning with an arm bar to relieve the pressure and hopefully get back to a better position or at least not get your arm broke. Its probably not the most practical martial art, but it does have some merits and you can pick and choose what works and what doesn't, just like any other martial art.
Most aikido locks are like that, they are breaks/dislocations on an unsuspecting opponent when used for defence. But in practice the opponent needs to flow with you to prevent injury. It's also almost all defence and the philosophy is respond, but disengage and leave as soon as you can. There's no intention of attacking with it, which is why you see virtually all aikido teachers have experience with other martial arts styles for a more rounded skill set.
@@Vincent_Beers This. Aikido is indeed more for disengagement. Working with the opponent's attack to prevent damage to yourself and get that opponent in a situation where you can control him/her and solve the situation, or get the opponent away from you so you can get the hell out of there. Also the breakfall and rolling will help a lot in preventing injuries when falling. They're basically comparable to how people in parkour soften their landings so they don't get injured in jumps. It's all about self defense, injury prevention and solving a fight as peacefully and quickly as possible. Rather than most martial arts which focus directly on the fighting aspect itself. Aikido is not meant to be used in a duel or war scenario. It's an 'oh shit someone attacks me, let's redirect his attack so I don't get damaged or get him off me and get the hell outta here' type of martial arts. I.O. self defense.
@@Vincent_Beers This is the sort of comment I was looking for... I know next to nothing about Aikido but the little I think I understand from reading is that is (or... was) intended exclusively for defence, from an attacker already committed to an attack. This is (partly) while all these all old demo videos involve people bum-rushing the old master and getting tossed (and I guess they just got increasingly fanciful as time went on, distance from roots, competition to look cool, etc.). A probably slightly reductionist understanding (but kinda how I see it) is that Judo, Aikido (and I guess ultimately BJJ, and presumably more obscure styles) occurred because in the Meiji-era (later-19th, early 20th centuries), anything traditional was out, anything Western or "modern" was in. So jujutsu masters and so on couldn't make a living, and the few wanting to learn it couldn't find teachers. The founder of Judo did manage to learn, but when it came to teaching he took his personal style, I'm guessing dropped a load of weaponry-based stuff (?) gave it a different name, and added some lifestyle-philosophy fluff to it (OK; this may be insulting; but I'm not familiar with the details). The founder of Aikido did the same thing: added some lifestyle-advice-philosophy (whatever the equivalent would be around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries), took the same path of Judo (as in, maximum efficiency, minimal energy expended) but also with the idea of minimising harm to the assailant. The aforementioned fluff (sorry) around the spirit of the art seems to me to be almost pacifistic. I guess if you can get some Aikido throws to work, maybe a selling point about the art is that, if you deck someone, least chance of a lawsuit/time spent explaining to police. He also mentions they vary the stance because the original was for blades and this is A Thing for a lot of the maligned older Asian arts (same in the Wing-Chun vid; probably many others). Guy charging with a pretend knife and gets flipped? And it looks like maybe 50/50 it would work; 50/50 he'd get stabbed/slashed? Well, at least some of the bread and butter was way-back-when intended for heavily-armoured samurai, who did not need to fear being stabbed or slashed (tackled and stabbed under the armpit or visor, moreso). And if you've suddenly found yourself fighting with your hands on a battlefield, 50/50 odds of emerging alive probably seem pretty good. Sorry for the TL;DR
I didn't think of it as a fighting art back when I lived in Japan for ten years. Ukemi is a great exercise for your core. I thought of Aikido more as dance. I loved it. Mainly I enjoy that the movement comes from kenjutsu. You did a very good job here and your choice of instructors was the right one. Best
JD's practice of pulling in BJJ guys to spar with his Aikido guys during the belt testing is pretty interesting. Presumably they can't be compliant if they don't know how. I'd love to see how it worked out in practice.
I like how all-anti-aikido people prove that it actually works as designed - as complementary style. Aikido has one crippling weakness built in - it uses small joint locks and levers, which when executed are painful and very difficult to heal and techniques start from position of being already attacked; therefore it is impossible to have near-full contact random sparring without risking SERIOUS injury to even trained sparring partner. Used alone it notoriously all-or-nothing - either technique will connect and there's either damage or bust. 11:40 - that's the whole idea; you do this 'flying' to AVOID injury. On untrained on unwilling person this will cause severe pain and damage.
As someone who did aikido for quite a while (I quit just before the black belt exam) and then moved on to other, more functional martial arts, I came up with this metaphor: aikido is like a pilot school that teaches you how to fly a plane and how to land a plane, but not how to take off and only in perfect weather. The main reason is the noble, but incredibly foolish idea that is the base of aikido: teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack. There is, deep down, the remnants of a functional martial art there (you can see a lot of similar things in jujitsu, judo and many types of use-of-force training), but years of this semi-pacifistic ideology and noncompetitiveness have caused it to become this outlandish and dance-like performance.
I have trained Aikido for 20 years, and I have never heard a better synthesis of the main problem (I know there are many) with Aikido... "Teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack." This is a jewel!
@Malus Odd question. Do martial arts teach you how to fight? Yes, and some do it better than others. To say no would imply that warriors have for thousands of years of history trained combat skills for no real reason.
I like your attempt but I don't think that metaphor is applicable here. If you compare Aikido to flying in perfect weather you would also have to compare real fights to bad weather and then I would argue that apart from military installations there are no flight schools that only teach flying in bad weather... I see what you're saying but Aikido is not meant to be a flight school to begin with, it just looks like it. It's a school that shows you ways around the desire to fly in the first place. Aikido, unlike most other martial arts, is non-competative. For a reason. It teaches the theory of how to not fight and still not getting instantly fu*ked. And yes, under very certain conditions and just as most other theories, it might only work under certain indefinable conditions. But it remains just what it is: just a theory. One that's fun to work with but not applicable for all situations and only very limited to a self defense situation...
>>The main reason is the noble, but incredibly foolish idea that is the base of aikido: teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack. --- I started practicing aikido about 16 years ago. Thanks to a bunch of (unrelated) injuries and other problems that I don't want to discuss here, I can only say I've practiced for about five years, but I have met a lot of masters from three continents. Literally not a single one of them has ever said something like this. Hell, my first instructor actually got some of his students with experience in karate and kickboxing to train us how to punch.
Seth, big props as always for your good-faith approach and curious mind! And while you may be a beginner with Aikido, 5:39 was some international grandmaster dad joke energy and absolutely sent me
That Sankyo/“you’re welcome” joke had me rolling. I really like their approach to applying aikido on the ground. Obviously grappling becomes much easier when your opponent is restricted by the ground, so it makes sense that you can apply aikido on the ground. That being said, I really don’t think aikido as a whole will ever hold up in full contact, consensual fighting. I think it depends too much on the opponent not reacting once you begin your technique. However, I don’t think aikido was meat to be done in that context anyway. I feel like it really shines in the “pre fight.” When you and a given opponent aren’t trading hands yet, but the fight is definitely about to happen. When they haven’t initiated yet and you get the drop on them, you can really make aikido shine. Then again, if you get the drop on somebody, pretty much anything will shine
Exactly!! Aikido is also meant for someone that is either trying to swing a sword at you or is overly comitting to one strike and thus putting to much power into it, something that good fighter will not do.
I think what you can get out of Aikido is some extra ways of control. Our grappling instructor always implements them in our routines. Not as a single tool but mostly something that complements the control you have of somebody. Like for example instead of grabbing only the wrist of someone, you can grab their hands, not to submit but to better control them. Instead of only grabbing the ankles for a guard pass grab the foot near the middle, it severely restricts the leg's range of motion.
Sensei Seth, great video and I want to tell you a short story. I am 51 years old and have practiced Karate (Shotokan) Wu Shu (Nan chuan) And then the 3 main bushido styles, Aikido, Iaido and Kendo. I have met 2 Aikido Sensei over the years, one mexican, one german. Both very big guys and have seen both being attacked by several styles of martial arts and every single time the opponent ended on the ground (including myself) Both have another martial art grade, one in Karate and the second in Judo, I am sure this made them better in their practice of Aikido but; Aikido is the martial art they both still love, practice and teach, they are both great fighters. I strongly believe that Aikido performed correctly is still a great MA, Cheers!
Good comment on the breakfalls. Most people out there make the mistake of criticizing Aikido as unrealistic because of the way ukes fly aroung during demonstrations, and while sometimes there is an element of flashiness to it, they miss the fact that breakfalls are actually a CHOICE and a defense against techniques that otherwise would result in injury. A well executed breakfall, even in a real situation would still be the correct choice for keeping you in the fight, albeit with a couple bruises, against the dislocation of a joint. This is one of the things that is hard to see from a spectator point of view and can usually only be understood in practice.
Great video, very interesting I’d love to see you pursue this a little further Maybe do an intense 5 day course of Aikido and try again? Or give us an update on your sparring in a few weeks to see if you kept the new techniques?
I'd love to see that too. I'm not an aikido guy at all, but I find this very interesting. What techniques could actually be adapted to more jiujitsu/kickboxing type of situations? There seems to be potential in certain techniques as we saw in this video. I'd like to see that potential uncovered some more.
@@krakulandia I think it might be an interesting alternative to Rokas' journey. Rokas is great, but he wasn't a serious fighter when he fought the MMA fighter. Seth doesn't seem very serious about much at all, but at least he would be coming to this from a fighting background, which is what the early Aikido practitioners were all rumored to be. Someone else mentioned that Aikido is like flight school: for beginners, focusing on perfect weather and very limited actual experience. But what if it's more like an 8000 grit sharpening stone: mostly unnecessary except as a way to perfect the edge of the skills taught elsewhere.
@@SenseiSeth you seem always such a goofball, but then you twist a muay thai -bag in half with a sidekick or your greatest feat yet, pulling some fuckin aikido against a resisting wrestler after studying it a one day. I don’t think people realise how hard that is, even most aikido black belts couldn’t do shit against even a beginner wrestler.
Wow this actually makes me want to learn some Aikido now! I train in Krav Maga (and BJJ + kickboxing) and I find alot of the Judo + Jiu Jitsu base that helped form Krav Maga also has alot of Aikido knowledge in it too. Not so much in the flashy moves, but the close grappling and wrist locks are a huge factor in some of the more self-defence stuff we learn in my classes. Loved this vid! It really goes to show that every martial art is an extension of another in the grand family of martial arts!
I dont recommend it. I was a green belt and learned nothing practical. The wrist locks were kind of cool but bjj is way better. I learned more in one bjj class than I did in a year of aikido.
@@Superplexmusic you were a green belt is telling. Everyone should cross train and learn from many arts. Bjj is excellent, however I wouldn't use it in a street fight against multiple attackers or against weapons. I've learned many arts over the years, but in this crazy world I now carry a firearm
Whenever people talk about Aikido I am reminded of my first martial arts instructor. He was a correctional‘s officer who worked part time as a bar bouncer and taught martial arts as his passion sign project. He told me that he absolutely loved aikido. He had a very similar body type as sensei Seth. The kind of person that could literally pick you up and throw you or drag you out of your car by your head through the windshield if he felt like it. Just somebody who has to literally defend their life as a part of their job it gave me a respect for aikido. I don’t know why he said he loved it so much but he did so there has to be some thing there. Of course there’s a big difference between the type of fighting that a correctional‘s officer has to do and the type of fighting that a MMA fighter has to do so I suppose it all is in the context
It's probably because as a big guy you can get away with more things and absorb more resistance. it means you can brute force your way into situations smaller people might need to finese. generally no one complains about the submissions of Aikido that I know of. mostly just how people implement them. somone that big might not have issues forcing it onto people whereas you're average sized man probably can't. I mean I could be totally wrong still, just a thought.
@@TGPDrunknHick oh no that’s definitely a thing. Also this man had 15 years of taekwondo under his belt. He actually wants to put a crack in a re-breakable board so he was definitely strong enough to make something work. He was also not limited to just aikido moves. I heard that the founder of Aikido used to weigh less experienced martial artist learn who had practiced in other disciplines. Of course there is information I learned from RUclips so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
My guess is that Aikido kept him out of trouble. If he's a CO, depending on where he is, he could face questions/consequences for hurting an inmate, even if its self-defense. Aikido gives you a lot of control using very little effort and protects both parties. Obv not a foundational martial art, but it has a lot of potential for trained fighters.
@@uptorest Well put! I'm reminded of the wedding reception scenario, where quietly putting a drunken relative into a joint-lock is less disruptive than kicking that same relative into the wedding cake.
As a blackbelt in aikido myself, its very interesting to see a style of aikido that is so fundamentally different from all that ive learned in my 12 years. Very cool video!
@@lukej7283 Styles can be different. Karate has many different styles, some without katas, others with. Then there are styles where head butts is integral to combos, like a 1-2-head butt combo. So i dont see how aikido cant also be like that
I took Aikido in college and it was awesome, so much of it is psychological and how you think about the situations. So much of what makes it work is your mindset behind the moves/situation. I wish more places taught it. One of the students who had the hardest time was an MMA fighter who was taking the class.
I come from a Karate, kickboxing and TaeKwondo background and did Aikido for a few months in my late teens - I have to say that in real life situations (I haven't had many) where you're up close in confined spaces, its base techniques have always been the ones I've used to greatest effect. You don't always want or need to KO someone, just stop or control them. It's getting the basics of joint manipulation and movement which seems to be the fundamental element, I had no time to learn it in depth but the essence of the techniques was enough to freestyle with. As others have said - it's a handy addition to the armoury rather than an all-round style.
yeah because if you just throw a legit skipping side kick to someone's chin in a street fight you might get a manslaughter charge. the fact that bruce lee's kicks make slapping sound effects instead of crunching is probably the most unbelievable part of those movies lol
I have done bjj judo and some aikido. The most effective in dangerous situations has been aikido. Fear in a confrontation creates one dimensional thinking when some useful aikido moves have worked. Not in a dojo when an athletic person is ready.
There is a wrist grip that my brother who is a black belt taught me. And all through my years in grade school I wasn't the biggest. But if someone wanted to wrestle or mouth me around a little bit i could usually get this wrist lock on and toss any 150 lb freak 13 year old to the ground. And even today in grappling I use it and it messes with people. But it's super dangerous because if they resist, it sprains and eventually will snap their wrist. But the pain is too real, nobody resists once it's in
@@robinbarrett6671 exactly this! In a gym it's not really easy to pull off. But some unsuspecting loser trying to be a bully never sees the wrist lock coming
@@roberjohnsmith just make sure they don't one punch murder you with the other hand. if i felt a sharp pain i would probably throw a 300 pounder at your face
The method of entering into sankyō that he teaches starting at about 5:40 is the most risky version of getting there, you usually need an atemi (strike) while entering underneath to limit the viability of your opponent using their free hand to stop you from doing the technique. You can also get to that same sankyō joint lock by first doing the elbow control technique, ikkyō (2:10), then transitioning to the joint lock (which is much safer).
@@jtilton5 Good tidbit on the bodycheck. I haven't really been a fan of the Saito-style reach-under transition (seems awkward), but I can see how a bodycheck during that would make it more viable. I like the transition Yamada-sensei uses where you keep elbow control, but fold the opponents hand back with your other hand then go to the 2-on-1 grip as the opponent rises. I acknowledge it might be less viable if opponent has unusually strong wrists and is savvy to the manipulation, but it's nothing a knee to the ribs can't fix! (Maybe I'm also partial to some of Chiba-sensei's approaches.)
well, he was technically doing uchikaiten sankyo... every technique like that requires some form of atemi, even if just to control ma'ai; the basic is indeed to go to ikkyo and from there either continue or move to nikkyo, sankyo, yonkyo etc; that being said... if you DO manage to apply uchikaiten sankyo, uke needs to very quickly tip-toe backwards or might get injured; sankyo is what I'm apparently quite good at, according to my colleagues...
I trained Aikido in high school and while I will never use it in a fight (mostly cause I dont really want to get to a point where I have to fight because if I do I am fucked), training it really helped me physically. Learning the breakfalls and doing the techniques helped me with mobility and generally helped me loose a lot of weight and gain a lot of confidence back then, as I was a bullied by everyone fat immobile kid. Now since the pandemic Ive gained a lot of it back, but I am still fairly mobile because of my former training. Granted that could have been any martial art with throwing but I did it with Aikido so I am thankful.
I had kind of a similar experience. One of my BJJ coaches has an Aikido background. I was a bit skeptical until he started throwing me around. I think, like a lot of classical martial arts, it has merits that can be incorporated into a bigger martial arts worldview but aren’t very complete on their own. Also, their training methods are maybe a bit too reliant on a compliant partner. But starting with a good grappling base like BJJ and wrestling, Aikido has a few moves that could enhance those arts particularly when trained under real grappling pressure.
Cool stuff Seth! It’s good to see people treating aikido with respect and trying it out instead of just hearing what people say about it and probably never had a single aikido class. Just took my black belt in aikido and love practicing it.
Definitely gotta get Rokas on the case. I think he's coming full circle now of finally figuring out a version of Aikido that works under pressure (personally opinion: it's pretty much judo)
@@Veepee92 Ushiba had a judo black belt and trained under one of the first people to be taught by Sensei Kano. So he would know. Also could you please send me a link of that, I’d love to see it.
Absolutely best video I've ever watched about Aikido! It shows that some MOVES in Aikido do make sense but as a Martial Art it is pretty ineffective! Great work! Thanks
I mean, the last 10ish minutes of the vid should be you fighting JD, and he using aikido to neutralize you, to see how effective it could be. I've never trained aikido, but I did like what I saw for BJJ. The block break/elbow lift looked quite usable as well
@@martialartsunlimited01 Would be great to see your experience put to the test in this way, I'm guessing we have a lot to learn regarding the true applications here
So my father was a police officer for over 30 years, he also had a 2nd degree black belt in Kempo Karate, a 3rd degree black belt in Tang So Do and a 2nd degree black belt in Aikido. He used Aikido the most out of all of them, especially the wrist locks. Apparently it's really good at subduing people without hurting them all that much
In many kokyo nage you want to go because you don't want a sword in to your inner thig etc. Bokken, Jo and tanto is still used in Aikido in many places/countries. That really opens technicques better! I used to train aikido as a kid, then moved to BJJ and MMA (and did pretty good job also), but eventually I decided to go practice Aikido again and now I understand the practice better and I love it! Aikido is also a martial art made for selfdefence so it is not made for struggling/grappling situations. In that moment when your opponent is having a good grab of you... You are late! 😉But there is always a counter move (you can also follow your opponents momevent to get away... That is one side of ukemi/following the throw to get in better position ). Great video Seth BTW!
Most Aikido techniques will work if preceded with atemi. That is, if you (say) strike someones eyes then they are going to miss what you are about to do with their arm/wrist etc
You are so kind to all martial arts. Even the ones you know have little application in real life. You are an example of the personality we should all strive to achieve.
absolutely being too nice to these fraurds is why we have 70% of martial arts schools if not way more full of utter bullshyte we have to call them out its dangerous industry of fraud lying to people and geting them hurt
@@SirPraiseSun I suppose... But we are all independently responsible for getting on the mat and seeing what works and what doesn't. If you are relying on your Dojo to ensure you are a skilled fighter, then you should probably re-evaluate your assessment process. The dojo teaches you technique, fighting teaches you fighting.
I believe Aikido originally is designed for the ancient battlefield. When the samurai lost his sword, techniques like Aikido were the last line of defense. I think that's the reason for the focus on wrist locks.
If anyone is interested in the tougher aikido forms closer to aikijujitsu I recommend Yoshinkan or takemusu. What makes Aikido work is the connection and the tension you can add to the body starting with joint manipulation but this is all steered by hip movement. To train this form weapon excercise really help. Also earlier styles involve a lot of atemi's and shouting (kiai). But I really appreciate the effort that he is exploring other martial arts.I recommend anyone to try at least a few before committing to one.
yes I agree, I'm doing Iwama ryu aikido which considered as 'the hard style/ryu' and also do karate. I found that the two martial arts are complementing each other...
To-shin-do taijutsu ninjutsu (which was what I did) is the PERFECT blend of aikido/aikijutsu, juijutsu, and karate. The different belt levels correspond to the move sets in each of those score mentioned martial arts. The branch of Ninjutsu I did was HEAVILLY focused on real-world self-defense, with many private security teams training at my dojo.
I've got some experience with Yoshinkan, and I'll second that. When we were first learning shomenuchi iriminage, some guys scoffed and said it would never work. Sensei pointed to one of them, a 6'4" rugby player, and said, "Come at me." It didn't go well for the kid. I've never seen an aikidoka move that fast before.
As a former student of aikido and only having a vague basis in boxing, I learned a lot from aikido in terms of unpredictability and genuinely any form of redirection, but I think the major thing you learn from aikido is how to take pain and make it work. It’s not just about the grabs and the locks and the throws. Those are the techniques, sure, but when it comes down to it, the fundamental principle revolves around moving the source of the pain. I can take some intense locks and bars like a champ and sometimes find a way out of really sticky situations simply by going limp or intentionally falling with the hits to lead into something else. The more you learn to just let the hit do its thing, the less the hits do their thing, ironically, and it gives you a strong basis to counter with pretty much any other style
Yes the best thing I learnt from Aikido was to relax, and this even worked on the street when some drink guys walked into me, I was like clay and they went flying. It was incredible and the guy turned around and said, what was that!?
No offense buddy, but the things you say are the reason people with different MA backgrounds are sceptical about aikido. "take some intense locks and bars like a champ", if someone has you in a proper lock or bar, you need to tap or they will literally do damage to you no matter how good you can "take" that pain. You being able to "take" the pain means you never have been in a situation someone had a proper hold of you. "just let the hit do its thing, the less the hits do their thing", if you let a person with any striking background hit your liver, chin, leg (or pretty much anything else) and "intentionally fall" with the hit or just soak up the power by moving with it, you will get knocked down or KO-ed. I think you should rephrase that sentence into: "Just let the hit do it's thing, wake up in a different universe". JD seems to be an instructor who is not selling those shenanigans, so cheers to him. Cheers to Sensei Seth for having an open mindset and trying to learn from different art forms.
When I did Aikido as a kid, the first thing they taught us about the falling and flipping was that the point is that you avoid getting hurt. The techniques don't require anyone to do a flip, the technique is trying to apply pain or damage on the wrist, elbow or shoulder until whatever is in that hand is no longer a threat. The flips are there only to make training safe and comfortable. Also every wrist lock from the standing position has a variant on the ground, so technically any technique could be done with or without the flip even in a training setting. The slower takedowns that lead to grounded wrist locks are more for show, to really emphasise where the lock is and how the wrist or elbow need to be in the actual standing lock. We also very often used wooden tanto knives, wooden boken swords or even staffs in training... usually in a way that the attacker has the weapon and the defender is unarmed. So under those circumstances it becomes very clear what the whole point is in each technique. When people were ceremoniously getting their new belts, the weapons wouldn't really be used. I don't really know why and in general I think the biggest problem with Aikido isn't the martial art itself but rather the presentation. Aikido isn't about hitting or getting hit, it's about disarming and punishing an attacker. So Aikido pretty much can't really have contests or tournaments because there is no winner or loser. There's just a threat (usually a melee weapon) and a potential solution to the threat (usually a wrist-lock concealed as a "throw")
@@daxasd3270 pretty much.. some drunk idiot charges me with a broken bottle and I really don't want him to hit me with it but I also really just want to leave the situation instead of fighting. That's the best utility for it.
I’d love to see a follow up video where someone is attacking with weapon you might actually run into like a baseball bat, crowbar, even Icy Mike’s favorite flashlight… and how effective it is when they can’t try to gain wrist control.
I love your content, Seth, it’s really fun and encouraging to see you openly explore so many avenues of martial arts. With the utmost respect I’d like to ask why is it that so many people analyze and criticize aikido while disregarding the underlying philosophy and wider social context of its formulation? Specifically, the notion of trying to make aikido “work” in the context of combat directly contradicts the principles on which aikido was formulated. I think that the words of the founder, Morihei Ueshiba, sums those principles up best: “The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.” To me, these strike me as the words of a former military man reconciling his experiences witnessing the atrocity of World War 2 and developing a martial art not meant to conquer others, but to conquer one’s the desire to conquer.
the one who invented Aikido is a martial art genius who have the speed of light thinking in how manipulate his opponents in a less agressive way. not many can master it
JD should have taught you techniques to be used in the types of sparrings that you did later. For example, once you put on gloves, the execution of ikkyo and other techniques changes. If you adapt the aiki principles to the situations then Aikido works, otherwise of course it doesn't. Also, learning minute techniques such as locks in one day is impossible but footwork and fight tactics is possible.
Yeah, the footwork and feett-hip-torso synergy exercises in Aikido are universally applicable. Even the basic "moves" in Aikido (1-kyou~5-kyou) end up mostly being training exercises that teach sub-black-belts how to move in combat.
Aikido saved my life. A crazy roomaate I had tried to choke me, but thanks to my training in aikido and some other styles I was able to get out of it. Kote gaieshi was the technique I used. I have had to use it more than once. When people say aikido doesn't work it doesn't really get me upset, it just makes me wonder where, or if they've even trained in it let alone use it in a real life situation. Thank you Sensei Seth for trying these styles with an open andunbiased mind.
I've used Aikido more times than I can count. It saved my life when I was hit by a car and I've slipped, slid and fell out of countless grips in what few bar fights I've found myself in. If I were to try to describe aikido to someone who has no concept of martial arts, I'd say it teaches you a form of fundamental body control that can best be described as the difference between when a kid who does want to be picked up vs when a kid doesn't want to be picked up and effectively becoming a puddle and possessing the ability to freely switch between both states.
I wish Seth Sensei could get to the point in Aikido where you start learning about using multiple force vectors at the same time. There's so much interesting physics that goes on there but it takes a lot of practice to get the body to the point you described (and described well, I might add).
Thank you for this thoughtful review of Aikido! The historical context is so important, and something else that isn't mentioned is that before a training session, one of the things you shout in unison is something like, 'I commit to do no harm against any living creature.' It's way more than 'just a set of moves.'
I'm enjoying this new step for martial arts online... For awhile it was a lot of just exposing a lot of the bad. But like yall are doing a great job of lifting all martial arts up by taking the traditional and pressure testing them. Rising tides raise all ships. No art exists in a bubble now. All the crossover and encouraging of crossover is only going to allow for better.
I appreciate your willingness to learn and understand with a natural and healthy skepticism. It is pretty important to notice that flashy ukeni in a demostration doesn't intent to show it as the way it will happend. It is just part ot the practice and specially on a demo. You were trying to do uchi kaiten sankyo without a successfull atemi to the face or ribcage, it won happen. In Aikido Atemi is vital for most techniques. Also, most Aikido Schools don't train Kihon wasa where uke will grab you strong and graunded. Power to you warrior!
🚨Would be helpful if there were REAL traditional Aikido sensei. This is NOT Traditional Aikido. You can do your own version, no problem for me; but don't sell it as " traditional Aikido. All the problems coming from this martial art exist only because people haven't learn from trusted teachers. To give examples: 1)"... there's not supposed to be any attack...", Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, said that ' Aikido is 90% hits(like punches and kicks), and 10% Aikido Techniques'. 2) 'Stance low because it should resemble how you hold a sword' . Almost. The stance is HIGHER than that( about the same height as karate) because your arms should mimic the blade of the sword. 3 and last point( but the list could go on), Aikido is a martial art complementary of other martial arts. Like, you can't have a master degree if you don't finish high school first. It's important to understand that even Morihei Ueshiba didn't allow people to become students if didn't already know another martial art. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW= Aikido teaches a lot of useful stuff, but using it alone, without learning how to fight (Punches, kicks, grapple, etc.) ITS USELESS. Only helps you if Your opponent doesn't know how to fight and you have to be really good at it( if you have a black belt doesn't necessarily mean your good). Every one is free to do whatever you want, I just wanted to explain why Aikido "doesn't work". If you have other opinions or want to discuss, fell free to respond. Thank you for the patience.
From someone who trained and loved aikido, this video is very good. I feel like you were fair and didn't just make fun of it, while also pointing out where it's not actually that useful. For me, I never believed aikido would be useful, but I always trained it because it was fun and the people in my dojo were amazing and some other things too. Thanks and take care
First off, I want to thank you for being real! Like a lot of questionable Martial Arts out there( no sparring Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, flowery Kung Fu styles etc) you openly spoke about how gimmicky they seemed. As the old saying goes if those arts were useless, they would not still be here. Aikido from my observation ( I am no expert nor do I have experience with Aikido) Aikido is not a stand alone art. Nor is it a dueling 🤺 art. It is for all out fighting. The art was made by a Master. Meaning he already had experience in fighting and had the knowledge to be practical with his art. The pre WW2 version anyway. Aikido( also Hapkido and other Aiki arts) can be used very effectively with a base in a combat sport/ fighting martial art. Thank you again for making videos about finding out for yourself. Instead of putting down an Art without experiencing it.
"if those arts were useless, they would not still be here." They can be useless and still be here, people who want to learn to fight is a much smaller market than people who want to be sold the myth they know how to fight.
I'm very glad you're finally taking an HONEST look FOR YOURSELF into Aiki. AND it looks like you found the right person for it...he's teaching you like my sensei, C.J. Bader, taught me back in the 90s...it's more Aiki-Jitsu than Aiki-do. I noticed once when you were discussing Aikido with Jesse, that he DID NOT chuckle when you mentioned Aikido because he, and many others, knows its value. And now YOU...after just a short time are also beginning to see the value as well. I hope you keep digging because I know you're a smart guy and you will see it as well. /deep bow
Hey man, do you think this style of Aikido you've learned is more or less practical than To-Shin Do (the "Ninjutsu" you've recently learned as well.) I'm curious as to what you think would be more effective since you seemed to have learned them both pretty recently, and Bujinkan/To-Shin Do is pretty looked down upon in the martial arts community for essentially being an newer art that's being toted as an ancient Japanese martial art, which it is not. Aikido and Ninjutsu(Bujinkan/To-Shin Do) both share a heavy stigma in the martial arts community and I'm curious what your take is on the subject as well. Thanks man! Love the videos!
having a history of 12 years of aikido. It takes a long time to master but if you do really understand what you are doing it can be really useful. I still remember one of the first workshops I ever attended with one of the top sensei. A guy who was even missing a leg due to diabetes. I attacked the guy and next thing I rembered I was face down on the floor not knowing how I got there. This level of mastery takes many decades of practice but it is truly great. How can you fight what you can't see or feel. A lot of the more elaborate motions in Aikido are more training tools than actual practical work. The big turns and throws teach you a lot about stance, position, timing and so much more. this is not stuff to apply in the street. But with the right teacher you quickly distinguish the lesson from the technique. for one thing Aikido is a masterclass. You learn to master joint locks like no other. In the end I became so adept but also so insensitive to others that I had a few bjj guys breaking their heads. They could throw any of their locks on me and i couldn't be budged. Then I showed them how to properly do it or even how to move te stress from the wrist right down to their spine. Always great fun.
nice part of your "learning from other martial arts" series, the context of stuff is oh so important. started with aikido and karate-sized hema, now training kickboxing and bjj ... and your experience mirrors a thing i heard over and over again from the people i trained with: subset of armed grappling, deliberate non-violence because the founder was a war vet, og aikidoka were already proficient in other arts and viewed it as more of an enhancer or "principles, not techniques" kinda deal, working things in sparring is important otherwise you get basically throwing partner dancing (which is also ok as long as this is communicated properly, we also have kata in the olympics after all). i do love that guard wristlock, will try that next rolling :D
Interesting that you found Ikkyo (”First Principle” in English, essentially an elbow control from which you can throw, takedown, punch or escape) the most useful, because it’s not a huge flashy move or a complex wrist lock, but to me it’s the essence of the whole art. Tenkan btw, is basically same as pivoting in boxing. I really liked you trying aikido in a wrestling class, because that’s what aikidokas should do. Back in the day it was basically just catch wrestling with weapons, then it was turned into kinda meditative spiritual thing by the founder and today it’s pretty much just a load of shite.
I like your genuine approach. It’s hard to seperate out your biases with this sort of thing but I can see you really trying to question yourself as much as the technique.
Aikido is legit. I was coming out of a McDonald’s and 3 guys attacked me with Samurai swords. I blocked the first guy from fully drawing his sword and then redirected it into his face. Then I grabbed the second guy by the loose sleeves on his robe and spun him into the third guy. Aikido is number 1 ☝🏼
The first minute of the video with the practice falling reminded me of my Judo lessons back in the sixties. I always felt like it kept me from major injuries while racing motocross from '77' till 2001.
Interesting take on Aikido. You should really explore the weapons side of things more though. I've made it work in sparring. Doors are open if you ever want to come to train?
9:35 Wing chun, the style that overemphasizes "just keep punching them" vs Aikido, the style that overemphasizes not punching at all. A wrestler: "Can they stop my takedown? No? Then what's the difference?"
What a nice video. I always laugh when people say Aikido isn’t good. There isn’t a perfect martial art that works for everything. That’s why we have mixed martial arts. What is great about aikido is its ability to fight multiple opponents and ability to blend with an opponents energy. I studied karate for 4 years and aikido for only two years and if I was dealing with a multiple attacker situation I would definitely draw upon my aikido training. I also love the peaceful spirit of aikido and its very rich history rooted in Samurai culture. Thanks for doing a thoughtful video on the topic. One last thought - any “Do” from Japan is first and foremost a method of personal growth. The best martial arts in this context is the one that challenges you to grow to become the best person you can be. I think Aikido is a great martial arts for doing that. I was lucky to have great karate-do and Aikido teachers that become great role models of being a wonderful human being. You might never get in a fight your whole life but you will be a human being every moment of the day. It’s this path that makes martial arts an art and not just a fighting style.
Love your videos, they're fun. Depends why you're doing aikido. For most people, the ability to fall, to use aikido principles in conflict resolution, positional awareness... will help more people. Apart from fights not that many people get involved in self defense situations. There's another dimension to aikido that I didn't really appreciate until a few years in , and it led to me doing taiji chuan,which along with qigong is more likely to increase your longevity, amd help pretty much any form of movement, than fighting arts (with some rare exceptions). Comes down to what's important to you and what's going to provide the most benefits that matter to you
As a wrestler, all of the moves you showed are effective in wrestling. I used them, regularly. Two on one left wrist, shoot without hands outside left leg. Just can't do it much in practice 'cause you'll rip your partners shoulder to shreds. Sadly this also means most wrestlers already know and defend against these moves, lols.
Exactly, Aikido techniques work!! What doesn't work a lot is the way they train. Their mentality is also not so good for combat sports but it sure could work for a street fight
I trained in karate, tai Kwan do, kenpo, and aikido for years and after about four years of daily aikido training I found that I took a lot less trauma in normal street fights. You just learn to get hit a lot less and those wrist locks with sweeping hip movements and redirection will send an opponent flying in directions they never knew existed. It just takes lots of practice. My sensei would say only two things prevent people from being successful at Aikido 1) fear; 2) concrete. Do a couple standing flips to get out of a wrist lock and you will understand.
Very nice balanced reporting !! All the Japanese pioneers of aikido already had a background in something else that involved sparring BTW.. Aikido on its own is not a practical art, but it’s a good vehicle for self discovery and improvement (can say that of martial sports and other martial ways)
I did aikido for several years and I think this is a very fair video on it. Definitely a lot of people don't realize that the dramatic falls and flips are an intentional safety choice--flying breakfalls are a nice alternative to breaking your wrist. I don't think it's the "greatest" martial art, but I learned a lot about movement, joint manipulation, and flow, so I consider it a win.
As someone who did both Aikido and MMA, I largely agree with this. In combat sports, Aikido is good for movement and some unusual locks. Gloves make most of it difficult. In real life, many self defense situations involve an attacker grabbing you. My sister was able to drop a guy at a bar with Aikido and leave when he grabbed her. And the throws are mostly for the fun of it, we regularly joked about making each other look good by launching ourselves.
To that last point: my original sensei made a point of telling each and everyone: 'do NOT fall down or flip unless you have to... this is NOT ' ; it the technique doesn't work, then it doesn't work and tori needs to study some more, it doesn't help if uke just launches himself to humour tori, even if he's a higher ranking aikidoka
Just want to say a big thank you to Sensei Seth for picking me to help him with this project.
ruclips.net/user/MartialArtsUnlimitedAssociation
Kudos to you for being willing to work with a skeptic and give Sensei Seth the opportunity to learn despite initial perceptions!
How do you get so many Black belts. I sense your lying for marketing purposes
@@dantae666 it’s much easier to achieve black belt in martial arts if you already have a few, and especially if those martial arts have some similarities. It’s kinda like learning a language. After learning three languages, the forth is easier than the first and second. You already have an algorithm for it, built in. Also, in many martial arts black belt is tells us that you’re in the beginning of the journey of being a committed student with very good basics.
Have Seth back for more, he picked it up quick. If he gets the concepts behind the circular nature of Aikido, he may unlock the code.
@@alexytterdahl6289 yep, I know of a guy who was a 3rd Dan in Japanese Jiu jitsu (that school focused heavily on the ground game mind you), and got his brown belt in BJJ in no time.
I came here to make a witty joke about Aikido but ended up learning instead. Great video Seth! I still believe Akito is one of the more unpractical martial arts especially since most of techniques would be very hard if not impossible to successfully perform against an experienced grappler. I commend your ability to keep an open mind and giving it an honest shot though.
It's still a martial art, just one of the worst ones. And as a martial art someone who is good at it can still use it to some effect against an untrained opponent. But when pitted against another martial arts practitioner who knows one of the many more effective ones, it falls flat on its face.
So it's not completely useless, but why would you spend your time learning it when you could spend that time learning something much better? If you want to throw people around take judo, for example.
I’m trying to think any techiques or fighting styles that are _easy_ to perform on an experienced grappler, even if you are an experienced grappler yourself. But yeah aikido moved away from combat or fighting like hundred years ago. It’s kinda like Iaido or Kenjutsu, a part of this rich historical and cultural tradition, but pretty impractical in the world where people don’t carry around swords anymore. If you accept it as what it is then cool, if you go around crying that you can totally win an MMA match with aikido, you don’t understand even the basic idea what you are studying yourself.
@@BigUriel I learned it for a very long time while growing up and where I went, using it in a genuine fight wasn't ever really implied. For me it was kind of a mind/body conditioning and that did help me get ahead for a while until I stopped going for other reasons
Did end up learning other martial arts for practical application so that might say something lol
Thanks man!! I would call it one of the hardest to do right for sure. There’s ways it can work, but definitely not as easy as most others
Holy shit, it's Jouston Hones
I'm impressed at how often you demonstrated that a fighter can be respectful while still having doubts about whether the technique being taught would actually work.
That's Karate training for you ;) Respect, rules of the dojo, rules of life
I think you hit on the key to making Aikido work: it's already being able to fight. If you can fight, good Aikido might give you the option of winning with a little less damage to your opponent. It's not a stand alone martial art, it's a module you can plug in to an already functioning skillset.
The other thing I think is often overlooked about aikido is that this is something that is done in self defense against an unsuspecting opponent. Hence self defense
I like that thought!
But it is indeed a stand alone martial art. It's just not a stand alone self defense...
Aikido was originally only taught it to people who already had a black belt in another martial art
@@Red80008 I'm not sure any martial art is "stand alone".
The founder of Aikido had a base in Sumo wrestling. All of his first-generation students had a base in Judo and/or Kendo, and since Sumo was really common in Japan back then, a lot of them probably had some Sumo background as well. The whole idea of Aikido being a plug-in module is an interesting one.
It’s interesting, I did aikido for about 10 years-including as an uchideshi-and one of the things I almost never see discussed is what I learned as the difference between practice techniques (basically partnered forms, which is most of what you see in the videos) and applied techniques: how to use this stuff in a fight. Basically stated, you do all of the circular movements and such as a way of learning your body, building a repertoire of basic techniques, etc. in much the same way as kata are used. But you learn them with a partner to begin building the foundations of randori / sparring. Then you work on how to apply those techniques in more realistic situations; with a lot less dancing around (tenkan) and a lot more moving forward and taking someone’s center / centerline (irimi), and with a fair amount of close quarters strikes that we’re hidden in the moments of the basic forms-just like kata. You then begin practicing randori.
This sounds like a long process, but I was practicing the basics of randori as soon as I graduated from the beginners class to the intermediate (about two months).
All the while, working on the kinds of mobility and body-structure business that one finds in arts like Systema, Wing Chun, etc.
I’m not arguing the aikido rules or anything, and I see a lot of non-combat applicable aikido out there. I just think that it’s worth mentioning that there is a logic to the aikido training system. I’ve trained in a number of martial arts over the last forty years, and carry rank in most of them, yet the few times I’ve had to deal with confrontations in the real world since my aikido training I’ve found that the basics of what I learned in aikido form the foundations of how I successfully responded to those confrontations.
A final caveat: In the aikido system I trained in (which comes down the lineage from Fumio Toyoda), many of the senior Japanese instructors had a solid background in other arts before they started aikido and tended to explain aikido as “martial arts graduate school.” I think this is a fair signal of the pedagogical issues at play in a lot of how aikido is taught. And I have to recognize that a lot of my own success with aikido may in some part be due to having a solid background in striking and grappling before first stepping into an aikido dojo. Of late, I’ve bumped into a number of aikido instructors who have solid striking and grappling training and who are including more striking and grappling fundamentals in their aikido instruction to fill in those gaps, as JD in this video seems to be doing. I feel that including these fundamentals for students as they’re learning the basic partnered forms, and improving them as they move into applied technics-and really explicating these applications well-will improve aikido’s reputation in the coming years.
I believe your explanation is confirmed by the story of Mochizuki yoseikan aikijujitsu.
In those postwar years all Japanese aikido practioners used to do other styles (judo, karate...) they applied to their aikido.
The result is the wide range of aikido styles.
Only practicing aikido in my opinion (and it's my personal shortcoming) does not give the practicality these Japanese masters had acquired through their solid budo experience.
@@marcoarrigo4466 I think this depends on the pedagogy at play; there are aikido lineages / teachers who have incorporated elements of other striking and grappling arts to fill this gap. However, as a general rule, it is best to assume one should cross train in striking and grappling to fill some of the holes in most available aikido.
As a side note: This same issue is present in the Chinese internal arts, where, again, the IMA were understood as martial arts graduate schools. To wit, the primary form of bagua I’ve studied uses Northern Longfist and quite a lot of chin na grappling to fill the gaps of what bagua-only would leave untrained. I’ve found similar things in the forms of xingyi and taiji I’ve studied.
yeah so all that or just do a different martial art
@@burritodog3634 Sure, of course. But again, the IMA, properly understood, should be trained as a kind of graduate school for martial artists. Not necessary for most purposes, but possibly necessary for others. Or, honestly, for the sheer nerdy joy of it. I hold rank (read: at least 3rd degree black belt or rough equivalent) in ten different combat arts. But at this point in my life (age 48), the only ones I find to be of continuing relevance and challenge, or even remotely interesting in their depth and complexity, are the IMA.
I've also trained Aikido for a fair amount of time (4 years) under the lineage of Fumio Toyoda Shihan and I can say that the fundamentals of Aikido has certainly helped me with other martial arts (Kickboxing, BJJ). The sensei I trained under also had a background in striking and grappling arts and always contextualized this within the framework of Aikido. Just my .02 cents, and it's certainly not the end all be all of martial arts, but I do think there's real value in the art as long as expectations are tempered.
Wrist locks really are great for ground fighting. They're not used much in bjj competition because most rule sets only allow them at high grade so they aren't practiced as early
As someone with a Japanese jujitsu background I think the biggest problem with aikido is its compliancy. The techniques all come from something working but through compliancy they don't apply them the right way to avoid hurting each other where as other aikijujitsu styles might use more hyper extension, more rough off balancing as oppososed to compliant throwing
Always impressed when you try new things
@@me82sjm I think Aikido should use more sticks, hit each other with sticks, jjj guys hit each other with sticks and they are better grapplers and as good as wristlocks
I don't think sticks have anything to do with grappling proefficiency but sticks are fun
@@cahallo5964 lol
So I started with Aikido when I was 8 years old, all the way up till I was 13. It might not be the best for combat, but it has ignited my love for fighting sports leading to boxing, kickboxing and lessons in some other disciplines aswell. Aikido also set me up with a good base for body balance, patience and discipline. My teacher was amazing, which really helped. It will always have a special place in my heart.
After watching this I really think you would enjoy a HEMA class covering Fiore. His whole system covers everything from grappling and striking to dagger, longsword, and pollaxe. Plus, each part of his system leads into the next. So his unarmed = his dagger =his longsword = his pollaxe. Plus, he loves armbars and groin kicks, so he's basically the Medieval Master Ken.
Why would anyone spend time training pole axes? I'm pretty sure 99% of people have never seen a pole ax.
@aluisious honestly...for the fun of it. Not every martial art has to prepare you for THE STREETS!!!(TM). Sometimes, it's fun just to practice a martial art because you enjoy the history or the community or the aesthetics of it.
@@aluisiousin self denfense if you improvised a mop or something as a weapon.
Like anything else, pressure test the techniques against active resistance. Keep what works in your repertoire, disregard the rest, and move onto the next martial arts discipline to absorb. Stay super jacked, Sensei Seth!
trust me, this stuff works against resisting opponents. just imagine in boxing. if all you learned was to jab, it would be hard to get anything done. but you learn hooks and crosses, you get a better c hance.
then you take movement into consideration .than you are a formidable opponent.
thats the issue iwth aikido. dude got a one day lesson, and literally only went over the 3 most basic techniques.
"Pressure testing" Aikido doesn't work, because in Aikido the attacker gives you the techinque, you don't take it. When you meet "resistance" you stop what you are doing and take what the attacker just gave you. You can't "pressure test" a certain technique, because once the technique meets pressure the art demands you flow with that pressure. It's paradox.
@@dbspaceoditty,
Aikido by itself is almost useless. Deal with it.
My issue with just that mindset is that some shot takes practice. Like you couldn't do anything more complex than a shitty punch on your first day of any art, but does that mean punches don't work? I think the biggest difficulty I've come across is just deciding what is worth it once the effort is put in. So that either means having trust in your teacher or gaining that trust initially through proof of concept (aka they use some of these techniques on you and you see if they work). Like I've only done a little bit of bjj, so if I just grab a bjj book off the shelf, try a triangle choke at full speed with a friend and it doesn't work, that's on me for not training it. Or the move is just shit, there's no way for me to know at that point. And then do I want it for self defense or sport? Cause a bjj person will prove it works to me in a dobohk and on mats with rules, which doesn't prove it'll work for self defense, just for sport. I just think this is more complex than you make it out to be 😅
@@nunninkav well I'd argue a bit there. I do hapkido btw, very similar stuff. But we do actually do pressure testing. But like you said, we don't fight force with force, we find another way. But pressure testing isn't just about fighting direct force, it's about making stuff work as it's supposed to. So I pressure test both with other hapkido people and all other types of people. Like with hapkido people I train against someone who knows how to escape techniques and I have to make something work. With untrained or others I have to deal with different struggles. But people don't always exactly counter your locks or give you the same response. Pressure testing means more of testing the system as a whole. Which is kinda hard to do early on, so instead you only use it when you have an opportunity or you just do your best trying like any white belt in something like bjj or karate.
I am a stage combat practitioner and choreographer and Aikido is used heavily in a lot of choreography mainly due to its cooperativeness and flashiness rather than in spite of
Above the law has my favorite fight choreography but outside of the earlier Steven Seagal films I really wish there was more films that had a more realistic or gritty application of a martial art in its fight scenes.
Yeah and its alot of mouvement , flow with leverage. In a coopérative environnement it look good and alot for a good movie. In real life, nothing work like intentéd and its short brutal
It IS good for that!
It looks great!
@@aikidoboynj I recognise a lot of aikido moves in the john wick films too
I personally like aikido, every martial art has something good to learn.
Thank you for sharing ☺️.
I started with Karate when I was 16 or so, just doing it for a few years until I had no more time for it in my army time. Later, I started studying Biology and looked for some sports at university. Found Aikido. Now the real kick was not only the combination of Karate and Aikido - any one of these alone is not the real burner. But in combination it works quite well. Karate did fill the gaps that Aikido leaves, but also vice versa. But, as I said, the real fun was that, as a Biologist, you know quite well how the human body, its bones, its nerves, its muscles and its joints work. And you know, as well, how it does not work. And this is what Aikido does: forcing the body into something it simply can't do.
By the way - you can't do many Aikido techniques with clumsy boxing gloves. That explains your lack of success ;)
I'm not as anti-aikido as some people. When I was a young 20-something guy with (at the time) a mostly Muay Thai background, I had an older colleague (late 40s, early 50s) who was very good at a military combatives adaptation of Aikido/Aikijitsu/Jiujitsu and he worked me over real good. (It felt like I was like fighting a guy with three arms.) It can definitely work when the guy knows how to use it.
I find the wrist locks in Aikido to be very valid for certain self-defense scenario (crowded bar, bus, subway, etc.) where you can anticipate the confrontation enough to use the technique as a surprise and squealch the fight before blows start flying. The mechanics and concepts are also a really good segue into things like weapon retention and disarms. I've also seen guys have success adding Aikido when they're working from a foundation of another Japanese art. (Like JD in the video has a foundation in karate, though I don't know what he studied first.)
All that said...Aikido is not really something I would spend my training time on and I would not recommend it is a foundation for anyone. For most Aikido applications, even though they're valid, there always seems to me to be five or six other more reliable options from the other arts.
Barfights is where I saw it work the most, myself. They actually teach you a bunch of the wrist locks as a part of MCMAP. Stuffing a punch with your whole body, chicken winging the guy, and then feeding him his own hand (our instructor literally called the primary wrist and elbow lock "feeding them a hamburger" even) worked wonders for compliance and made it *INCREDIBLY* easy to put handcuffs on.
If you think I'm FOS, just ask any Marine that worked primarily for the Provost Marshal or Shore Patrol that earned their green belt. They'll usually even be happy to show you most of them because of how much they hurt with so little effort.
The throws are all something you can disregard because they are taught for the *STUDENTS* protection. In a real fight, you're just going to violently break the wrist/elbow/shoulder and then wreck them on the side they can no longer defend effectively. I think that's where Aikido instructors lose most people, because they don't make a point to explicitly tell people that.
@@formdoggie5
Hi
What do you think is the key to using Aikido effectively ?
How to change techniques to make them more useful?
@@sinenomine5379 wrist, elbow, and shoulder locks/manupulations/dislocations are *ALWAYS* going to be relevant. So much so that they don't allow "small joint manipulations" in most professional fights because you'd be constantly breaking everything. As is understanding balance and using opponents momentum against them.
Essentially, you take the "art" out of the martial art, and focus on the "martial" skills with it.
You're not there to show off.
Youre there to control a fight or hurt someone to the point they no longer desire to fight and/or kill them in self defense.
Anything that isn't making you better at doing that is a waste of time.
As a result: you change them by not making them look pretty, and smooth, but by how effective they are at doing what you intend to do with them.
Practicing against people willing to pop you in the face when you let them will help you figure out what is effective or not pretty fast, too.
A lot of Aikido is about momentum and body mechanics. Your opponent is often moving towards you and you are utilizing that momentum to naturally and purposefully step out of their way and keep them moving forward. As an old practitioner, Toyoda-sensei, used to say, "Avoid a falling rock. Water will always flow to lower places."
I'm really glad you did this, Seth. This makes perfect sense to me, because my Aikido experience was not at all traditional. I came from a Shotokan Karate background, and trained in Aikido with a small, informal group made up of people who were all accomplished in various traditional martial arts. We were all seasoned fighters, didn't accept anything as valid in its stylized form, and therefore tested the practical application of EVERYTHING. We worked each technique over and over for weeks at a time, in various ways, and under different conditions. We'd start off really light and cooperative, to learn the basic movements, but would progressively increase the resistance until we got to multi-attacker randori. The result was that our Aikido did not look like the seamless, swirling motions of demonstrations and traditional dojos, but it worked in the real world. I now know that's exactly what happens when you train any traditional art with live resistance - it has to change to become more functional. As a general rule, then, I don't argue when people trash Aikido. I get it. I've seen the lack of actual fighting ability that most Aikidokas display. But I also know that I've used Aikido effectively in the real world, that irimi and tenkan are legit footwork, and that the wrist locks absolutely work in a range of situations. Add to that, there's a lot of shared DNA between Aikido, Jujitsu, and Judo, and lots of opportunities for adopting and blending elements of them.
Yeah basically sparring makes it work ....that good you have this in your school
I find it neat that I don't think you're experience is "non-traditional" at all. I say this as someone who isn't interested in Akido but from what I've researched, the first students of the style's founder were all seasoned fighters in Karate and Judo at least. Generally speaking that's what I think Akido should be, something that isn't someone's first martial art, but instead something for a seasoned fighter to do. Not to mention I'm pretty sure the founder was a pacifist, which I could see being the cause of people trying to use it for a context that it was never meant to be for. But that's just the conclusion I came to and like I said, I ain't experienced with it so take it with a grain of salt.
The fact is the founder itself Morihei Ueshiba Sensei only accepts students that had experience on other Martial Arts or already Seasoned Fighters. Example his students such as Gozo Shioda, Kenji Tomiki, Koichi Tohei and Minuro Mochizuki are all seasoned Judoists prior to their Aikido training.
Hi
I am going through a similar process.
Do you have any advice in making aikido more functional ?
@@sinenomine5379 keep testing whatever you learn against real opposition. Our running joke in our group was that the acid test of a technique was how it worked against one particular member of the group - a very, very large guy whom we dubbed our sumo wrestler. There was no muscling through anything with him. If the biomechanics really worked, you would throw him. If not, it was going to be a long night.
JD seems like a humble guy and it’s good to see aikido looked at with an open mind
bullshido fraud
I’m glad he made the distinction with it being against swords. It’s what I’ve always said. The part about when dude said “Wing Chun?” Aikido “close enough” hurt my heart 😭💔
I actually never knew that. But it makes a lot of sense. When looking at it as grappling-with-a-sword it immediatley makes a few things clear. 1. This is uncomplete. There's a lot of context happening around this martial art to make it make sense. 2. It reminded me A LOT about grappling and wrestling techniques with weapons from HEMA. Like the fact that there's a lot of wrist locks and wrist control.
Neither styles can stop a blast double, and that's all that matters to the wrestler.
sorry but no. aikido is not samurai grappling with a sword and never was its somewhat based on that but its only make it more unpractical ;)
@@SwordTune Pretty sure most martial arts have "raising a knee" and I've seen UFC fighters literally having their skills fractured because they did that takedown attempt to someone who lifted one leg slightly. I dunno why grapplers are always so arrogant claiming their style is the best when strikers long since got through it to the phase that it isn't the style but training.
@@swietoslaw but that isn't what was said though. Aikido is just that, Aikido
As an Aikido practitioner, this video was super fun to watch! Thanks for the effort!
Thank you for that bit at the end explaining why Aikido practitioners are always flying around. Flip over or broken wrist, I always chose flipping over. I think a lot of people miss the point. First, try to avoid a fight. Second, if someone is trying to hit you because you couldn't avoid the fight, try not to get hit (that's what all the big circular motions are for). Third, you're probably going to get hit, so fall down a lot at the dojo and condition your body to take a little abuse so that you can exploit your opponents momentum when they do hit you.
All that being said, it's not meant to take into the octagon, and don't go picking fights with pros (or anybody, really. It's the way of harmony, be cool, bro). I've used the wrist locks and arm control stuff to escort a few rowdy drunks out of bars. They get REAL compliant when they think their hand is about to be removed, but it does no permanent harm.
Exactly. I don't understand all these people proclaiming that "MMA (or whatever) is superior". Superior for what? For cage fighting, sure, but people are constantly talking about real life. In real life there's no reason to fight if someone is in front of you bouncing up and down... just walk away from the idiot. You use Aikido when someone is actually coming at you with force.
@@DoctorZisIN Aikido that works is Daito Ryu Aikijutsu.
@@krestonosets68 ..or it’s just Aikido that has ben well taught and well trained. Sadly not as common as it should be, to be sure, but Aikido still works. I’ve trained it, I’ve had to use it and in real life self defence situations, it turns out it that training in Aikido for a few years can train your reflexes and instincts in ways you didn’t realise. It’s NOT about applying set techniques in combat. If you think that, then of course you can’t see how it could work. Hence all the armchair experts and keyboard warriors with loads of opinions but no actual real world experience with it.
Aikido is an extremely effective form of self-defense. One that could save your life. The fact is, that we live in a world full of undesirable people, with uncertain intentions. Aikido teaches you not only how to be a happier and healthier person, but also to protect yourself in real life-threatening situations
Aikido training is not only good for health, but also develops self-confidence naturally for daily life. In Aikido you learn techniques to defend against a variety of attacks such as kicks, punches, single-hand or two-hand grabs from the front or rear, chokes, multiple person attacks, and attacks with weapons
The goal in Aikido is to defend yourself while trying to avoid hurting the attacker.
As a life long karateka, with experience in a bunch of other martial arts (including a couple of years of aikido training), I can confirm that aikido has taught me many useful things in terms of avoiding attacks and using some of its techniques as a surprise factor. In summary, by itself it’s not the best of arts, but useless it most certainly is not.
Great video, Seth. Keep it up.
True
Only those with poor understanding of Martial Arts say that any art is useless. They all have value.
@@revariox189 well.... Of the real martial arts anyway 😂
I studied Aikido under Amir Ardebeli, who taught it as part of his MMA class. I have trained at a few schools, but Amir teaches a very grounded and practical martial art. Although we did not do a lot of Aikido, the techniques I learned with hm have remained at the top of my kit for the last 20 years.
He probably taught you Daito Ryu Aikijutsu.
Thank you for making this video, as a former Aikido student [ among others ], you've provided the right information about the martial art. I also believe that most practioners today are in it cause its fun [ not for it's practicality ] , to be able to throw someone across the room knowing that they'd be alright, cause you trust that they know how to roll, to be able to do the techniques in a flowing "drilled in" way with a higher belt is very satisfying. The rolls and various joint locks has increased my durabilty to spar with other martial art styles like bjj and helped me with my evasiveness within other sports.
As an avid fan of aikido principles, I was glad to see where it ended up. The specific techniques we teach in Aikido are meant to teach principles of body mechanics and motion, not be the exact combative movement. I would say that after one class, he implemented what he learned pretty well. On the other hand, the principles in Aikido exist in most martial arts, including the one he already ranked in. So, it's really just a different way to prepare the same meal, if trained properly. Nice work Sensei Seth, and Olson Sensei.
Yeah but it doesnt do anything for real life. It's fun to dance though and play dance fight :)
@@OneLoneMan Aikido that works against an enemy is Daito Ryu Aikijutsu.
@@OneLoneMan Aikido was developed from Daito-ryu and the techniques you used as a police are actually Daito-ryu techniques which are nearly 1000 years old.
@@OneLoneMan stop it.
Stopppppp
@@ammagnolia..actually it does work in real life.
I really love your breakdown of randori (zombie martial arts fighting)
well, when randori becomes e.g. yonningake and 4 attackers can choose their style of attack at random (or even using various weapons), it's not such a toothless zombie exercise anymore ;)
Good for you for being open-minded. Aikido is not for everyone. I studied/trained in it for a decade and loved it. By far , it was the toughest, most challenging martial art I ever tried to learn and also the one I found most fulfilling.
As a LEO, my goal was to learn skills that did not require striking/kicking, more so control in close quarter situations. Aikido was perfect for that and I never injured any arrestee or myself- no broken knuckles or feet! I'd tie people into pretzels and eventually submission, generally w/out getting sweaty.
As for the dramatic flying movements in aikido, that comes from the blending between partners so that we don't injure each other. If I slapped one of those techniques on an unknowing individual, chances are injury would occur.
I am glad you explained the "dramatic flying through the air" bit. I believe that is why most people thing this is a garbage martial art because of that. They teach the students to do that, because, as your instructor was say, "you can decide to do the break fall or get your shoulder dislocated". Its the same as spinning with an arm bar to relieve the pressure and hopefully get back to a better position or at least not get your arm broke. Its probably not the most practical martial art, but it does have some merits and you can pick and choose what works and what doesn't, just like any other martial art.
Most aikido locks are like that, they are breaks/dislocations on an unsuspecting opponent when used for defence. But in practice the opponent needs to flow with you to prevent injury. It's also almost all defence and the philosophy is respond, but disengage and leave as soon as you can.
There's no intention of attacking with it, which is why you see virtually all aikido teachers have experience with other martial arts styles for a more rounded skill set.
@@Vincent_Beers This. Aikido is indeed more for disengagement. Working with the opponent's attack to prevent damage to yourself and get that opponent in a situation where you can control him/her and solve the situation, or get the opponent away from you so you can get the hell out of there. Also the breakfall and rolling will help a lot in preventing injuries when falling. They're basically comparable to how people in parkour soften their landings so they don't get injured in jumps. It's all about self defense, injury prevention and solving a fight as peacefully and quickly as possible. Rather than most martial arts which focus directly on the fighting aspect itself.
Aikido is not meant to be used in a duel or war scenario. It's an 'oh shit someone attacks me, let's redirect his attack so I don't get damaged or get him off me and get the hell outta here' type of martial arts. I.O. self defense.
@@Vincent_Beers This is the sort of comment I was looking for... I know next to nothing about Aikido but the little I think I understand from reading is that is (or... was) intended exclusively for defence, from an attacker already committed to an attack. This is (partly) while all these all old demo videos involve people bum-rushing the old master and getting tossed (and I guess they just got increasingly fanciful as time went on, distance from roots, competition to look cool, etc.).
A probably slightly reductionist understanding (but kinda how I see it) is that Judo, Aikido (and I guess ultimately BJJ, and presumably more obscure styles) occurred because in the Meiji-era (later-19th, early 20th centuries), anything traditional was out, anything Western or "modern" was in. So jujutsu masters and so on couldn't make a living, and the few wanting to learn it couldn't find teachers. The founder of Judo did manage to learn, but when it came to teaching he took his personal style, I'm guessing dropped a load of weaponry-based stuff (?) gave it a different name, and added some lifestyle-philosophy fluff to it (OK; this may be insulting; but I'm not familiar with the details).
The founder of Aikido did the same thing: added some lifestyle-advice-philosophy (whatever the equivalent would be around the turn of the 19th/20th centuries), took the same path of Judo (as in, maximum efficiency, minimal energy expended) but also with the idea of minimising harm to the assailant. The aforementioned fluff (sorry) around the spirit of the art seems to me to be almost pacifistic. I guess if you can get some Aikido throws to work, maybe a selling point about the art is that, if you deck someone, least chance of a lawsuit/time spent explaining to police.
He also mentions they vary the stance because the original was for blades and this is A Thing for a lot of the maligned older Asian arts (same in the Wing-Chun vid; probably many others). Guy charging with a pretend knife and gets flipped? And it looks like maybe 50/50 it would work; 50/50 he'd get stabbed/slashed? Well, at least some of the bread and butter was way-back-when intended for heavily-armoured samurai, who did not need to fear being stabbed or slashed (tackled and stabbed under the armpit or visor, moreso). And if you've suddenly found yourself fighting with your hands on a battlefield, 50/50 odds of emerging alive probably seem pretty good.
Sorry for the TL;DR
I didn't think of it as a fighting art back when I lived in Japan for ten years. Ukemi is a great exercise for your core. I thought of Aikido more as dance. I loved it. Mainly I enjoy that the movement comes from kenjutsu. You did a very good job here and your choice of instructors was the right one. Best
JD's practice of pulling in BJJ guys to spar with his Aikido guys during the belt testing is pretty interesting. Presumably they can't be compliant if they don't know how. I'd love to see how it worked out in practice.
Def, I think it would be great to see
a lot a broken arms or choked out guys haha, matters if the Aiki is doing the brutal version " gotta snap this guys arm so he cannot use his sword".
I like how all-anti-aikido people prove that it actually works as designed - as complementary style. Aikido has one crippling weakness built in - it uses small joint locks and levers, which when executed are painful and very difficult to heal and techniques start from position of being already attacked; therefore it is impossible to have near-full contact random sparring without risking SERIOUS injury to even trained sparring partner. Used alone it notoriously all-or-nothing - either technique will connect and there's either damage or bust. 11:40 - that's the whole idea; you do this 'flying' to AVOID injury. On untrained on unwilling person this will cause severe pain and damage.
As someone who did aikido for quite a while (I quit just before the black belt exam) and then moved on to other, more functional martial arts, I came up with this metaphor: aikido is like a pilot school that teaches you how to fly a plane and how to land a plane, but not how to take off and only in perfect weather. The main reason is the noble, but incredibly foolish idea that is the base of aikido: teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack. There is, deep down, the remnants of a functional martial art there (you can see a lot of similar things in jujitsu, judo and many types of use-of-force training), but years of this semi-pacifistic ideology and noncompetitiveness have caused it to become this outlandish and dance-like performance.
@Malus Yes quite a lot of them
I have trained Aikido for 20 years, and I have never heard a better synthesis of the main problem (I know there are many) with Aikido...
"Teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack." This is a jewel!
@Malus Odd question. Do martial arts teach you how to fight? Yes, and some do it better than others. To say no would imply that warriors have for thousands of years of history trained combat skills for no real reason.
I like your attempt but I don't think that metaphor is applicable here.
If you compare Aikido to flying in perfect weather you would also have to compare real fights to bad weather and then I would argue that apart from military installations there are no flight schools that only teach flying in bad weather...
I see what you're saying but Aikido is not meant to be a flight school to begin with, it just looks like it. It's a school that shows you ways around the desire to fly in the first place.
Aikido, unlike most other martial arts, is non-competative. For a reason. It teaches the theory of how to not fight and still not getting instantly fu*ked.
And yes, under very certain conditions and just as most other theories, it might only work under certain indefinable conditions.
But it remains just what it is: just a theory. One that's fun to work with but not applicable for all situations and only very limited to a self defense situation...
>>The main reason is the noble, but incredibly foolish idea that is the base of aikido: teaching self-defense without giving someone the ability to attack.
---
I started practicing aikido about 16 years ago. Thanks to a bunch of (unrelated) injuries and other problems that I don't want to discuss here, I can only say I've practiced for about five years, but I have met a lot of masters from three continents. Literally not a single one of them has ever said something like this. Hell, my first instructor actually got some of his students with experience in karate and kickboxing to train us how to punch.
Seth, big props as always for your good-faith approach and curious mind! And while you may be a beginner with Aikido, 5:39 was some international grandmaster dad joke energy and absolutely sent me
That Sankyo/“you’re welcome” joke had me rolling.
I really like their approach to applying aikido on the ground. Obviously grappling becomes much easier when your opponent is restricted by the ground, so it makes sense that you can apply aikido on the ground.
That being said, I really don’t think aikido as a whole will ever hold up in full contact, consensual fighting. I think it depends too much on the opponent not reacting once you begin your technique.
However, I don’t think aikido was meat to be done in that context anyway. I feel like it really shines in the “pre fight.” When you and a given opponent aren’t trading hands yet, but the fight is definitely about to happen. When they haven’t initiated yet and you get the drop on them, you can really make aikido shine.
Then again, if you get the drop on somebody, pretty much anything will shine
Exactly!! Aikido is also meant for someone that is either trying to swing a sword at you or is overly comitting to one strike and thus putting to much power into it, something that good fighter will not do.
Sanyo! I had the delayed hour before I got it. !
I think what you can get out of Aikido is some extra ways of control. Our grappling instructor always implements them in our routines. Not as a single tool but mostly something that complements the control you have of somebody. Like for example instead of grabbing only the wrist of someone, you can grab their hands, not to submit but to better control them. Instead of only grabbing the ankles for a guard pass grab the foot near the middle, it severely restricts the leg's range of motion.
Sensei Seth, great video and I want to tell you a short story. I am 51 years old and have practiced Karate (Shotokan) Wu Shu (Nan chuan) And then the 3 main bushido styles, Aikido, Iaido and Kendo. I have met 2 Aikido Sensei over the years, one mexican, one german. Both very big guys and have seen both being attacked by several styles of martial arts and every single time the opponent ended on the ground (including myself) Both have another martial art grade, one in Karate and the second in Judo, I am sure this made them better in their practice of Aikido but; Aikido is the martial art they both still love, practice and teach, they are both great fighters. I strongly believe that Aikido performed correctly is still a great MA, Cheers!
Good comment on the breakfalls. Most people out there make the mistake of criticizing Aikido as unrealistic because of the way ukes fly aroung during demonstrations, and while sometimes there is an element of flashiness to it, they miss the fact that breakfalls are actually a CHOICE and a defense against techniques that otherwise would result in injury. A well executed breakfall, even in a real situation would still be the correct choice for keeping you in the fight, albeit with a couple bruises, against the dislocation of a joint. This is one of the things that is hard to see from a spectator point of view and can usually only be understood in practice.
Great video, very interesting
I’d love to see you pursue this a little further
Maybe do an intense 5 day course of Aikido and try again? Or give us an update on your sparring in a few weeks to see if you kept the new techniques?
I'd love to see that too. I'm not an aikido guy at all, but I find this very interesting. What techniques could actually be adapted to more jiujitsu/kickboxing type of situations? There seems to be potential in certain techniques as we saw in this video. I'd like to see that potential uncovered some more.
@@krakulandia I think it might be an interesting alternative to Rokas' journey. Rokas is great, but he wasn't a serious fighter when he fought the MMA fighter. Seth doesn't seem very serious about much at all, but at least he would be coming to this from a fighting background, which is what the early Aikido practitioners were all rumored to be.
Someone else mentioned that Aikido is like flight school: for beginners, focusing on perfect weather and very limited actual experience. But what if it's more like an 8000 grit sharpening stone: mostly unnecessary except as a way to perfect the edge of the skills taught elsewhere.
Seems like the next thing for me is to do more than a day
@@krakulandia yeah I’m not an Aikido guy either, I’d rather offer @SenseiSeth as tribute
And see how he fairs 😂
@@SenseiSeth you seem always such a goofball, but then you twist a muay thai -bag in half with a sidekick or your greatest feat yet, pulling some fuckin aikido against a resisting wrestler after studying it a one day. I don’t think people realise how hard that is, even most aikido black belts couldn’t do shit against even a beginner wrestler.
Wow this actually makes me want to learn some Aikido now! I train in Krav Maga (and BJJ + kickboxing) and I find alot of the Judo + Jiu Jitsu base that helped form Krav Maga also has alot of Aikido knowledge in it too. Not so much in the flashy moves, but the close grappling and wrist locks are a huge factor in some of the more self-defence stuff we learn in my classes. Loved this vid! It really goes to show that every martial art is an extension of another in the grand family of martial arts!
I dont recommend it. I was a green belt and learned nothing practical. The wrist locks were kind of cool but bjj is way better. I learned more in one bjj class than I did in a year of aikido.
@@Superplexmusic you were a green belt is telling. Everyone should cross train and learn from many arts. Bjj is excellent, however I wouldn't use it in a street fight against multiple attackers or against weapons. I've learned many arts over the years, but in this crazy world I now carry a firearm
Whenever people talk about Aikido I am reminded of my first martial arts instructor. He was a correctional‘s officer who worked part time as a bar bouncer and taught martial arts as his passion sign project. He told me that he absolutely loved aikido. He had a very similar body type as sensei Seth. The kind of person that could literally pick you up and throw you or drag you out of your car by your head through the windshield if he felt like it. Just somebody who has to literally defend their life as a part of their job it gave me a respect for aikido. I don’t know why he said he loved it so much but he did so there has to be some thing there. Of course there’s a big difference between the type of fighting that a correctional‘s officer has to do and the type of fighting that a MMA fighter has to do so I suppose it all is in the context
It's probably because as a big guy you can get away with more things and absorb more resistance. it means you can brute force your way into situations smaller people might need to finese.
generally no one complains about the submissions of Aikido that I know of. mostly just how people implement them. somone that big might not have issues forcing it onto people whereas you're average sized man probably can't.
I mean I could be totally wrong still, just a thought.
@@TGPDrunknHick oh no that’s definitely a thing. Also this man had 15 years of taekwondo under his belt. He actually wants to put a crack in a re-breakable board so he was definitely strong enough to make something work. He was also not limited to just aikido moves.
I heard that the founder of Aikido used to weigh less experienced martial artist learn who had practiced in other disciplines. Of course there is information I learned from RUclips so it should be taken with a grain of salt.
My guess is that Aikido kept him out of trouble. If he's a CO, depending on where he is, he could face questions/consequences for hurting an inmate, even if its self-defense. Aikido gives you a lot of control using very little effort and protects both parties. Obv not a foundational martial art, but it has a lot of potential for trained fighters.
@@uptorest Well put! I'm reminded of the wedding reception scenario, where quietly putting a drunken relative into a joint-lock is less disruptive than kicking that same relative into the wedding cake.
As a blackbelt in aikido myself, its very interesting to see a style of aikido that is so fundamentally different from all that ive learned in my 12 years. Very cool video!
That tells me Aikido is fake af
@@lukej7283 wdym fake?
@@sirprise9548 how can two different aikido be fundamentally different unless one of those schools is fake.
@@lukej7283 1. What fo you mean with fake?
2. You can have 2 different interpretations of something with bith of them being correct
@@lukej7283 Styles can be different. Karate has many different styles, some without katas, others with. Then there are styles where head butts is integral to combos, like a 1-2-head butt combo. So i dont see how aikido cant also be like that
Love these videos of you trying other arts. 🔥
I took Aikido in college and it was awesome, so much of it is psychological and how you think about the situations. So much of what makes it work is your mindset behind the moves/situation. I wish more places taught it. One of the students who had the hardest time was an MMA fighter who was taking the class.
For the record I'm wearing wrestling shoes due to a cut on my foot
I do judo and we always preach safety first! Good of you to keep everyone safe and healthy.
How did you find time to get that many belts
I thought they were Jordan's loll
I thought it was a metaphorical. Sensei has the hakama and gi on, but under the hakama you can see his real colours.
@@MrNickW123 been training consistently for the majority of my life. Just never stop
I come from a Karate, kickboxing and TaeKwondo background and did Aikido for a few months in my late teens - I have to say that in real life situations (I haven't had many) where you're up close in confined spaces, its base techniques have always been the ones I've used to greatest effect. You don't always want or need to KO someone, just stop or control them. It's getting the basics of joint manipulation and movement which seems to be the fundamental element, I had no time to learn it in depth but the essence of the techniques was enough to freestyle with. As others have said - it's a handy addition to the armoury rather than an all-round style.
yeah because if you just throw a legit skipping side kick to someone's chin in a street fight you might get a manslaughter charge. the fact that bruce lee's kicks make slapping sound effects instead of crunching is probably the most unbelievable part of those movies lol
I have done bjj judo and some aikido. The most effective in dangerous situations has been aikido. Fear in a confrontation creates one dimensional thinking when some useful aikido moves have worked. Not in a dojo when an athletic person is ready.
There is a wrist grip that my brother who is a black belt taught me. And all through my years in grade school I wasn't the biggest. But if someone wanted to wrestle or mouth me around a little bit i could usually get this wrist lock on and toss any 150 lb freak 13 year old to the ground. And even today in grappling I use it and it messes with people. But it's super dangerous because if they resist, it sprains and eventually will snap their wrist. But the pain is too real, nobody resists once it's in
@@robinbarrett6671 exactly this! In a gym it's not really easy to pull off. But some unsuspecting loser trying to be a bully never sees the wrist lock coming
@@roberjohnsmith just make sure they don't one punch murder you with the other hand. if i felt a sharp pain i would probably throw a 300 pounder at your face
The method of entering into sankyō that he teaches starting at about 5:40 is the most risky version of getting there, you usually need an atemi (strike) while entering underneath to limit the viability of your opponent using their free hand to stop you from doing the technique. You can also get to that same sankyō joint lock by first doing the elbow control technique, ikkyō (2:10), then transitioning to the joint lock (which is much safer).
The Saito Sensei version is like that, though in his style they use a body check to lock the arm down during the transition from IKKYO to SANKYO.
@@jtilton5 Good tidbit on the bodycheck. I haven't really been a fan of the Saito-style reach-under transition (seems awkward), but I can see how a bodycheck during that would make it more viable.
I like the transition Yamada-sensei uses where you keep elbow control, but fold the opponents hand back with your other hand then go to the 2-on-1 grip as the opponent rises. I acknowledge it might be less viable if opponent has unusually strong wrists and is savvy to the manipulation, but it's nothing a knee to the ribs can't fix! (Maybe I'm also partial to some of Chiba-sensei's approaches.)
Agree! I would train this more as a transition from a failed shihonage to take advantage of the pulling motion.
well, he was technically doing uchikaiten sankyo... every technique like that requires some form of atemi, even if just to control ma'ai; the basic is indeed to go to ikkyo and from there either continue or move to nikkyo, sankyo, yonkyo etc; that being said... if you DO manage to apply uchikaiten sankyo, uke needs to very quickly tip-toe backwards or might get injured; sankyo is what I'm apparently quite good at, according to my colleagues...
I trained Aikido in high school and while I will never use it in a fight (mostly cause I dont really want to get to a point where I have to fight because if I do I am fucked), training it really helped me physically. Learning the breakfalls and doing the techniques helped me with mobility and generally helped me loose a lot of weight and gain a lot of confidence back then, as I was a bullied by everyone fat immobile kid.
Now since the pandemic Ive gained a lot of it back, but I am still fairly mobile because of my former training. Granted that could have been any martial art with throwing but I did it with Aikido so I am thankful.
I had kind of a similar experience. One of my BJJ coaches has an Aikido background. I was a bit skeptical until he started throwing me around. I think, like a lot of classical martial arts, it has merits that can be incorporated into a bigger martial arts worldview but aren’t very complete on their own. Also, their training methods are maybe a bit too reliant on a compliant partner. But starting with a good grappling base like BJJ and wrestling, Aikido has a few moves that could enhance those arts particularly when trained under real grappling pressure.
Cool stuff Seth! It’s good to see people treating aikido with respect and trying it out instead of just hearing what people say about it and probably never had a single aikido class. Just took my black belt in aikido and love practicing it.
Definitely gotta get Rokas on the case. I think he's coming full circle now of finally figuring out a version of Aikido that works under pressure (personally opinion: it's pretty much judo)
Ueshiba actually wrote down a list of techniques specifically designed against Judoka. He really didn't think very much of it.
Yes. Rokas is a very experienced Aikido practitioner, and a great martial artist overall.
@@Veepee92 Ushiba had a judo black belt and trained under one of the first people to be taught by Sensei Kano. So he would know.
Also could you please send me a link of that, I’d love to see it.
Um, no he didn't.
Haha right. Why do Akido when you can just do Judo...
Absolutely best video I've ever watched about Aikido! It shows that some MOVES in Aikido do make sense but as a Martial Art it is pretty ineffective!
Great work! Thanks
I mean, the last 10ish minutes of the vid should be you fighting JD, and he using aikido to neutralize you, to see how effective it could be.
I've never trained aikido, but I did like what I saw for BJJ. The block break/elbow lift looked quite usable as well
Hmmmmm, a part II perhaps
@@martialartsunlimited01 Would be great to see your experience put to the test in this way, I'm guessing we have a lot to learn regarding the true applications here
So my father was a police officer for over 30 years, he also had a 2nd degree black belt in Kempo Karate, a 3rd degree black belt in Tang So Do and a 2nd degree black belt in Aikido.
He used Aikido the most out of all of them, especially the wrist locks. Apparently it's really good at subduing people without hurting them all that much
Yep, that's exactly the purpose of Aikido
Hey Seth, concerning your being super jacked, it's not bragging if it's true!😂 Love the "Learning with Seth" series! More please and thank you Sensei!
In many kokyo nage you want to go because you don't want a sword in to your inner thig etc. Bokken, Jo and tanto is still used in Aikido in many places/countries. That really opens technicques better! I used to train aikido as a kid, then moved to BJJ and MMA (and did pretty good job also), but eventually I decided to go practice Aikido again and now I understand the practice better and I love it! Aikido is also a martial art made for selfdefence so it is not made for struggling/grappling situations. In that moment when your opponent is having a good grab of you... You are late! 😉But there is always a counter move (you can also follow your opponents momevent to get away... That is one side of ukemi/following the throw to get in better position ). Great video Seth BTW!
My vote on yesterday's community post worked.
I have the power!
I'm sad it wasn't TKD.
@@MarcuustheMoose I think he already did TKD at least once in the past. It's where he learned that badass side kick.
@@BlakeMcCringleberry idk what you're talking about. But Ok!
Most Aikido techniques will work if preceded with atemi. That is, if you (say) strike someones eyes then they are going to miss what you are about to do with their arm/wrist etc
You are so kind to all martial arts. Even the ones you know have little application in real life. You are an example of the personality we should all strive to achieve.
absolutely being too nice to these fraurds is why we have 70% of martial arts schools if not way more full of utter bullshyte we have to call them out its dangerous industry of fraud lying to people and geting them hurt
@@SirPraiseSun I suppose... But we are all independently responsible for getting on the mat and seeing what works and what doesn't. If you are relying on your Dojo to ensure you are a skilled fighter, then you should probably re-evaluate your assessment process. The dojo teaches you technique, fighting teaches you fighting.
I believe Aikido originally is designed for the ancient battlefield. When the samurai lost his sword, techniques like Aikido were the last line of defense. I think that's the reason for the focus on wrist locks.
Finally. I found this one and only person (besides myself) on the Internet who understands that. Thank you, sir.
If anyone is interested in the tougher aikido forms closer to aikijujitsu I recommend Yoshinkan or takemusu. What makes Aikido work is the connection and the tension you can add to the body starting with joint manipulation but this is all steered by hip movement. To train this form weapon excercise really help. Also earlier styles involve a lot of atemi's and shouting (kiai). But I really appreciate the effort that he is exploring other martial arts.I recommend anyone to try at least a few before committing to one.
yes I agree, I'm doing Iwama ryu aikido which considered as 'the hard style/ryu' and also do karate. I found that the two martial arts are complementing each other...
To-shin-do taijutsu ninjutsu (which was what I did) is the PERFECT blend of aikido/aikijutsu, juijutsu, and karate. The different belt levels correspond to the move sets in each of those score mentioned martial arts. The branch of Ninjutsu I did was HEAVILLY focused on real-world self-defense, with many private security teams training at my dojo.
I've got some experience with Yoshinkan, and I'll second that. When we were first learning shomenuchi iriminage, some guys scoffed and said it would never work. Sensei pointed to one of them, a 6'4" rugby player, and said, "Come at me." It didn't go well for the kid. I've never seen an aikidoka move that fast before.
As a former student of aikido and only having a vague basis in boxing, I learned a lot from aikido in terms of unpredictability and genuinely any form of redirection, but I think the major thing you learn from aikido is how to take pain and make it work. It’s not just about the grabs and the locks and the throws. Those are the techniques, sure, but when it comes down to it, the fundamental principle revolves around moving the source of the pain. I can take some intense locks and bars like a champ and sometimes find a way out of really sticky situations simply by going limp or intentionally falling with the hits to lead into something else. The more you learn to just let the hit do its thing, the less the hits do their thing, ironically, and it gives you a strong basis to counter with pretty much any other style
Yes the best thing I learnt from Aikido was to relax, and this even worked on the street when some drink guys walked into me, I was like clay and they went flying. It was incredible and the guy turned around and said, what was that!?
No offense buddy, but the things you say are the reason people with different MA backgrounds are sceptical about aikido.
"take some intense locks and bars like a champ", if someone has you in a proper lock or bar, you need to tap or they will literally do damage to you no matter how good you can "take" that pain. You being able to "take" the pain means you never have been in a situation someone had a proper hold of you.
"just let the hit do its thing, the less the hits do their thing", if you let a person with any striking background hit your liver, chin, leg (or pretty much anything else) and "intentionally fall" with the hit or just soak up the power by moving with it, you will get knocked down or KO-ed. I think you should rephrase that sentence into: "Just let the hit do it's thing, wake up in a different universe".
JD seems to be an instructor who is not selling those shenanigans, so cheers to him. Cheers to Sensei Seth for having an open mindset and trying to learn from different art forms.
The very little aikido training i have i picked up was finding angels and body mechanics
When I did Aikido as a kid, the first thing they taught us about the falling and flipping was that the point is that you avoid getting hurt.
The techniques don't require anyone to do a flip, the technique is trying to apply pain or damage on the wrist, elbow or shoulder until whatever is in that hand is no longer a threat. The flips are there only to make training safe and comfortable. Also every wrist lock from the standing position has a variant on the ground, so technically any technique could be done with or without the flip even in a training setting. The slower takedowns that lead to grounded wrist locks are more for show, to really emphasise where the lock is and how the wrist or elbow need to be in the actual standing lock.
We also very often used wooden tanto knives, wooden boken swords or even staffs in training... usually in a way that the attacker has the weapon and the defender is unarmed. So under those circumstances it becomes very clear what the whole point is in each technique.
When people were ceremoniously getting their new belts, the weapons wouldn't really be used. I don't really know why and in general I think the biggest problem with Aikido isn't the martial art itself but rather the presentation. Aikido isn't about hitting or getting hit, it's about disarming and punishing an attacker. So Aikido pretty much can't really have contests or tournaments because there is no winner or loser. There's just a threat (usually a melee weapon) and a potential solution to the threat (usually a wrist-lock concealed as a "throw")
basically Aikido is "what to do when some maniac is running towards me with a sword and I've left mine at the restaurant entrance".
@@daxasd3270 pretty much.. some drunk idiot charges me with a broken bottle and I really don't want him to hit me with it but I also really just want to leave the situation instead of fighting. That's the best utility for it.
I dig this a lot. The big sweeping movements make a lot more sense in an armed context and a bunch of it mirrors what I know about Rondel dagger.
I’d love to see a follow up video where someone is attacking with weapon you might actually run into like a baseball bat, crowbar, even Icy Mike’s favorite flashlight… and how effective it is when they can’t try to gain wrist control.
From what I've seen it makes it slightly easier because it creates a bigger circle of attack with more momentum
I love your content, Seth, it’s really fun and encouraging to see you openly explore so many avenues of martial arts. With the utmost respect I’d like to ask why is it that so many people analyze and criticize aikido while disregarding the underlying philosophy and wider social context of its formulation? Specifically, the notion of trying to make aikido “work” in the context of combat directly contradicts the principles on which aikido was formulated.
I think that the words of the founder, Morihei Ueshiba, sums those principles up best:
“The Way of the Warrior has been misunderstood. It is not a means to kill and destroy others. Those who seek to compete and better one another are making a terrible mistake. To smash, injure, or destroy is the worst thing a human being can do. The real Way of a Warrior is to prevent such slaughter - it is the Art of Peace, the power of love.”
To me, these strike me as the words of a former military man reconciling his experiences witnessing the atrocity of World War 2 and developing a martial art not meant to conquer others, but to conquer one’s the desire to conquer.
the one who invented Aikido is a martial art genius who have the speed of light thinking in how manipulate his opponents in a less agressive way. not many can master it
JD should have taught you techniques to be used in the types of sparrings that you did later. For example, once you put on gloves, the execution of ikkyo and other techniques changes. If you adapt the aiki principles to the situations then Aikido works, otherwise of course it doesn't.
Also, learning minute techniques such as locks in one day is impossible but footwork and fight tactics is possible.
Yeah, the footwork and feett-hip-torso synergy exercises in Aikido are universally applicable. Even the basic "moves" in Aikido (1-kyou~5-kyou) end up mostly being training exercises that teach sub-black-belts how to move in combat.
Aikido saved my life. A crazy roomaate I had tried to choke me, but thanks to my training in aikido and some other styles I was able to get out of it. Kote gaieshi was the technique I used. I have had to use it more than once. When people say aikido doesn't work it doesn't really get me upset, it just makes me wonder where, or if they've even trained in it let alone use it in a real life situation. Thank you Sensei Seth for trying these styles with an open andunbiased mind.
I've used Aikido more times than I can count. It saved my life when I was hit by a car and I've slipped, slid and fell out of countless grips in what few bar fights I've found myself in.
If I were to try to describe aikido to someone who has no concept of martial arts, I'd say it teaches you a form of fundamental body control that can best be described as the difference between when a kid who does want to be picked up vs when a kid doesn't want to be picked up and effectively becoming a puddle and possessing the ability to freely switch between both states.
I wish Seth Sensei could get to the point in Aikido where you start learning about using multiple force vectors at the same time. There's so much interesting physics that goes on there but it takes a lot of practice to get the body to the point you described (and described well, I might add).
Thank you for this thoughtful review of Aikido! The historical context is so important, and something else that isn't mentioned is that before a training session, one of the things you shout in unison is something like, 'I commit to do no harm against any living creature.' It's way more than 'just a set of moves.'
A series where you take more time in each system to really get some basics in would be nice. You'd become the Sensei Seth the Ultimate Disciple ;)
Like a less culturally invasive version of that show from the early 2000s fight quest, where 2 guys traveled practicing different martial arts.
I'm enjoying this new step for martial arts online...
For awhile it was a lot of just exposing a lot of the bad.
But like yall are doing a great job of lifting all martial arts up by taking the traditional and pressure testing them. Rising tides raise all ships. No art exists in a bubble now. All the crossover and encouraging of crossover is only going to allow for better.
Be curious to see Sensei Seth do japanese jujitsu
I appreciate your willingness to learn and understand with a natural and healthy skepticism. It is pretty important to notice that flashy ukeni in a demostration doesn't intent to show it as the way it will happend. It is just part ot the practice and specially on a demo. You were trying to do uchi kaiten sankyo without a successfull atemi to the face or ribcage, it won happen. In Aikido Atemi is vital for most techniques. Also, most Aikido Schools don't train Kihon wasa where uke will grab you strong and graunded. Power to you warrior!
🚨Would be helpful if there were REAL traditional Aikido sensei. This is NOT Traditional Aikido. You can do your own version, no problem for me; but don't sell it as " traditional Aikido. All the problems coming from this martial art exist only because people haven't learn from trusted teachers. To give examples: 1)"... there's not supposed to be any attack...", Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido, said that ' Aikido is 90% hits(like punches and kicks), and 10% Aikido Techniques'. 2) 'Stance low because it should resemble how you hold a sword' . Almost. The stance is HIGHER than that( about the same height as karate) because your arms should mimic the blade of the sword. 3 and last point( but the list could go on), Aikido is a martial art complementary of other martial arts. Like, you can't have a master degree if you don't finish high school first. It's important to understand that even Morihei Ueshiba didn't allow people to become students if didn't already know another martial art. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO KNOW= Aikido teaches a lot of useful stuff, but using it alone, without learning how to fight (Punches, kicks, grapple, etc.) ITS USELESS. Only helps you if Your opponent doesn't know how to fight and you have to be really good at it( if you have a black belt doesn't necessarily mean your good). Every one is free to do whatever you want, I just wanted to explain why Aikido "doesn't work". If you have other opinions or want to discuss, fell free to respond. Thank you for the patience.
From someone who trained and loved aikido, this video is very good. I feel like you were fair and didn't just make fun of it, while also pointing out where it's not actually that useful. For me, I never believed aikido would be useful, but I always trained it because it was fun and the people in my dojo were amazing and some other things too. Thanks and take care
First off, I want to thank you for being real! Like a lot of questionable Martial Arts out there( no sparring Japanese Jiu Jitsu, Aikido, flowery Kung Fu styles etc) you openly spoke about how gimmicky they seemed. As the old saying goes if those arts were useless, they would not still be here. Aikido from my observation ( I am no expert nor do I have experience with Aikido) Aikido is not a stand alone art. Nor is it a dueling 🤺 art. It is for all out fighting. The art was made by a Master. Meaning he already had experience in fighting and had the knowledge to be practical with his art. The pre WW2 version anyway. Aikido( also Hapkido and other Aiki arts) can be used very effectively with a base in a combat sport/ fighting martial art. Thank you again for making videos about finding out for yourself. Instead of putting down an Art without experiencing it.
"if those arts were useless, they would not still be here."
They can be useless and still be here, people who want to learn to fight is a much smaller market than people who want to be sold the myth they know how to fight.
@@j.murphy4884 definitely true, but fewer still, I suspect, are those who actually end up using their skills in a ‘real world fight’.
I'm very glad you're finally taking an HONEST look FOR YOURSELF into Aiki. AND it looks like you found the right person for it...he's teaching you like my sensei, C.J. Bader, taught me back in the 90s...it's more Aiki-Jitsu than Aiki-do. I noticed once when you were discussing Aikido with Jesse, that he DID NOT chuckle when you mentioned Aikido because he, and many others, knows its value. And now YOU...after just a short time are also beginning to see the value as well. I hope you keep digging because I know you're a smart guy and you will see it as well. /deep bow
Hey man, do you think this style of Aikido you've learned is more or less practical than To-Shin Do (the "Ninjutsu" you've recently learned as well.)
I'm curious as to what you think would be more effective since you seemed to have learned them both pretty recently, and Bujinkan/To-Shin Do is pretty looked down upon in the martial arts community for essentially being an newer art that's being toted as an ancient Japanese martial art, which it is not.
Aikido and Ninjutsu(Bujinkan/To-Shin Do) both share a heavy stigma in the martial arts community and I'm curious what your take is on the subject as well. Thanks man! Love the videos!
having a history of 12 years of aikido. It takes a long time to master but if you do really understand what you are doing it can be really useful. I still remember one of the first workshops I ever attended with one of the top sensei. A guy who was even missing a leg due to diabetes. I attacked the guy and next thing I rembered I was face down on the floor not knowing how I got there. This level of mastery takes many decades of practice but it is truly great. How can you fight what you can't see or feel. A lot of the more elaborate motions in Aikido are more training tools than actual practical work. The big turns and throws teach you a lot about stance, position, timing and so much more. this is not stuff to apply in the street. But with the right teacher you quickly distinguish the lesson from the technique. for one thing Aikido is a masterclass. You learn to master joint locks like no other. In the end I became so adept but also so insensitive to others that I had a few bjj guys breaking their heads. They could throw any of their locks on me and i couldn't be budged. Then I showed them how to properly do it or even how to move te stress from the wrist right down to their spine. Always great fun.
So glad you did this Seth. Aikido was my first art I ever trained.
nice part of your "learning from other martial arts" series, the context of stuff is oh so important. started with aikido and karate-sized hema, now training kickboxing and bjj ... and your experience mirrors a thing i heard over and over again from the people i trained with: subset of armed grappling, deliberate non-violence because the founder was a war vet, og aikidoka were already proficient in other arts and viewed it as more of an enhancer or "principles, not techniques" kinda deal, working things in sparring is important otherwise you get basically throwing partner dancing (which is also ok as long as this is communicated properly, we also have kata in the olympics after all). i do love that guard wristlock, will try that next rolling :D
Uh oh Sensei JD is gonna be the next Rokas?
Alol, thanks Ed.
Interesting that you found Ikkyo (”First Principle” in English, essentially an elbow control from which you can throw, takedown, punch or escape) the most useful, because it’s not a huge flashy move or a complex wrist lock, but to me it’s the essence of the whole art. Tenkan btw, is basically same as pivoting in boxing. I really liked you trying aikido in a wrestling class, because that’s what aikidokas should do. Back in the day it was basically just catch wrestling with weapons, then it was turned into kinda meditative spiritual thing by the founder and today it’s pretty much just a load of shite.
You can just as easily turn it into waki-gatame
@@milty66 I think that’s called Rokkyo in aikido, yeah you can turn it into all kinds of stuff.
I like your genuine approach. It’s hard to seperate out your biases with this sort of thing but I can see you really trying to question yourself as much as the technique.
Aikido is legit. I was coming out of a McDonald’s and 3 guys attacked me with Samurai swords. I blocked the first guy from fully drawing his sword and then redirected it into his face. Then I grabbed the second guy by the loose sleeves on his robe and spun him into the third guy. Aikido is number 1 ☝🏼
The first minute of the video with the practice falling reminded me of my Judo lessons back in the sixties. I always felt like it kept me from major injuries while racing motocross from '77' till 2001.
Interesting take on Aikido. You should really explore the weapons side of things more though. I've made it work in sparring. Doors are open if you ever want to come to train?
9:35
Wing chun, the style that overemphasizes "just keep punching them" vs Aikido, the style that overemphasizes not punching at all.
A wrestler: "Can they stop my takedown? No? Then what's the difference?"
If it was so useless I can't imagine riot and special forces would have to attend grueling course of akido
What a nice video. I always laugh when people say Aikido isn’t good. There isn’t a perfect martial art that works for everything. That’s why we have mixed martial arts. What is great about aikido is its ability to fight multiple opponents and ability to blend with an opponents energy. I studied karate for 4 years and aikido for only two years and if I was dealing with a multiple attacker situation I would definitely draw upon my aikido training. I also love the peaceful spirit of aikido and its very rich history rooted in Samurai culture. Thanks for doing a thoughtful video on the topic. One last thought - any “Do” from Japan is first and foremost a method of personal growth. The best martial arts in this context is the one that challenges you to grow to become the best person you can be. I think Aikido is a great martial arts for doing that. I was lucky to have great karate-do and Aikido teachers that become great role models of being a wonderful human being. You might never get in a fight your whole life but you will be a human being every moment of the day. It’s this path that makes martial arts an art and not just a fighting style.
Doesn't aikido work? I believe it does
Love your videos, they're fun.
Depends why you're doing aikido. For most people, the ability to fall, to use aikido principles in conflict resolution, positional awareness... will help more people. Apart from fights not that many people get involved in self defense situations.
There's another dimension to aikido that I didn't really appreciate until a few years in , and it led to me doing taiji chuan,which along with qigong is more likely to increase your longevity, amd help pretty much any form of movement, than fighting arts (with some rare exceptions). Comes down to what's important to you and what's going to provide the most benefits that matter to you
As a wrestler, all of the moves you showed are effective in wrestling. I used them, regularly. Two on one left wrist, shoot without hands outside left leg. Just can't do it much in practice 'cause you'll rip your partners shoulder to shreds.
Sadly this also means most wrestlers already know and defend against these moves, lols.
Exactly, Aikido techniques work!! What doesn't work a lot is the way they train. Their mentality is also not so good for combat sports but it sure could work for a street fight
A day of training?
ABSURD!
I trained in karate, tai Kwan do, kenpo, and aikido for years and after about four years of daily aikido training I found that I took a lot less trauma in normal street fights. You just learn to get hit a lot less and those wrist locks with sweeping hip movements and redirection will send an opponent flying in directions they never knew existed. It just takes lots of practice. My sensei would say only two things prevent people from being successful at Aikido 1) fear; 2) concrete. Do a couple standing flips to get out of a wrist lock and you will understand.
"normal" street fights ? just stop getting into street fights wtf dude
Very nice balanced reporting !!
All the Japanese pioneers of aikido already had a background in something else that involved sparring BTW..
Aikido on its own is not a practical art, but it’s a good vehicle for self discovery and improvement (can say that of martial sports and other martial ways)
I did aikido for several years and I think this is a very fair video on it. Definitely a lot of people don't realize that the dramatic falls and flips are an intentional safety choice--flying breakfalls are a nice alternative to breaking your wrist. I don't think it's the "greatest" martial art, but I learned a lot about movement, joint manipulation, and flow, so I consider it a win.
Great video Seth thank you. You seemed genuinely honest in your approach and did well to leave any preconceptions behind. Well done.
As someone who did both Aikido and MMA, I largely agree with this. In combat sports, Aikido is good for movement and some unusual locks. Gloves make most of it difficult. In real life, many self defense situations involve an attacker grabbing you. My sister was able to drop a guy at a bar with Aikido and leave when he grabbed her. And the throws are mostly for the fun of it, we regularly joked about making each other look good by launching ourselves.
To that last point: my original sensei made a point of telling each and everyone: 'do NOT fall down or flip unless you have to... this is NOT ' ; it the technique doesn't work, then it doesn't work and tori needs to study some more, it doesn't help if uke just launches himself to humour tori, even if he's a higher ranking aikidoka
All these wrist locks shown and used in sparing, we were taught in TDK. I loved Aikido as a kid, damn Steven was everywhere on TV back in the days