I walked into my first Aikido dojo at the age of 51 - with no previous martial arts experience. I was really looking for some health and fitness instruction without paying for a personal trainer. Aikido has given me so much more than I was seeking - balance, coordination, humility, relief from a life long battle with depression. I tell those who inquire - if you want to fight, go to fight school. If you want to live, I mean really live, find an aikido dojo and learn to avoid the fight. Practicing the principles of aikido will make you stronger as you age.
This is the best talk on Aikido I’ve seen. Really illuminating. The art is mysterious, almost a meta-art. I trained in it for a year and was perplexed by it, by the fact the founder was an exceptional fighter who in his later years wanted to make an art that was an “expression of love.” A bunch of fight-sportsman criticise it because they want to compare it to their sport. But there is real wisdom in it. Thanks for making these videos.
I'm a 2nd dan in Japanese Kempo, have competed in Judo, Kickboxing interclubs and done a fair bit of MMA and in my view this is one of the best videos I've seen on Aikido. You've given me a new perspective on the art and a new found interest in it.
Thank you for sharing your journey from Aikido, through other martial arts, and back to Aikido. I have learned more from your videos than from many Aikido Seminars I have attended. What has been most helpful is your exploration of the context for Aikido. Although there is much talk about it being a Peaceful Martial Art, there has not been much discussion about the context in which Aikido is most effective.
My pleasure! Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words and support! It always makes me happy to know that I can be helpful to others traveling this path! Keep watching, there's much more coming!
Dear Chris, it was such a nice surprise to find this video. It’s refreshing to see someone taking a mature approach to studying martial arts. When I started Aikido in my early teens, I never expected it would have all the answers to my combat questions (that’s why I went into weapons training, judo, boxing, kung fu…), but I loved it and I wanted to be good at it. All the people I looked up to in martial arts, learned many systems, so I never understood this modern stance of people expecting any system to solve all their expectations about fighting - and if it doesn’t answer to their needs, them it must be the worst martial art ever. Whilst other people like to point their fingers at and blame a system they barely became proficient at it, your continuous study clearly led to a deeper understanding of our art and of other valuable systems too. That’s pretty cool and a good example to our community! Wishing you all the best!
ive been studying for 25 years , what you have discussed was a breath of fresh air , well done , so stimulating andmotivating to me , I was so over aikido but your videos have reallt inspired me. thank you Chris , mark from australia.
I trained in aikido for a while in the early 90´s and have often thought about going back. Therefore I have watched quite a lot of videos on aikido and read stuff but nothing I've seen or read compares with your stuff. Thanks so much for this awesome content.
Excellent. Really enjoyed hearing about your journey and experiences. Very informative and it has given me much to think about. Having a similar journey i.e. practicing Aikido for a number of years, trying other fighting styles (karate and judo), I have arrived at the conclusion that Aikido is the art of not fighting. This makes it a very useful art that complements any of the fighting arts. Thanks for sharing.
I gotta say, that is game changing. I have given up on learning aikido, but you changed my mind. Please keep spreading the ways to use aikido effectively, since not all of us can go to your academy
Beautifully put! I was never a 'fighter' and would love to learn more about fighting by practicing the relevant arts. But I now realize that Aikido mindset has actually helped me being safer by helping me avoid violence.
I've been training for a long time , your explaining a lot that I've never heard before. Very well done. Helps me as well understand my past training. You can always learn!
I feel it is important to know the difference between a "peace keeper" and a "peace maker". A peace keeper will bend all matter of morales and conviction to maintain short term "peace". A peace maker will go to war if need be to preserve their morales and convictions in pursuit of long term peace.
The whole getting ahead sounds interesting. In a lot of Aikido videos I see techniques that work when the opponent can't see them coming and is easily put into a vulnerable position. A lot of joint locks and throws need that in my experience. When the opponent tenses up then it gets hard. Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
I enjoyed this series - made me smile - I remember you from the shenwu discussion board back in the day - it's great to see the evolution of approach/understanding
Excellent Christopher! You have just created the ‘Why Aikido?’ Video that I needed to show corporate clients. I would like every company to have a dojo. Thank you 🙏.
First, great jazz music in the beginning. Keep it up. I just started Aikido and have had similar questions on it's effectiveness. I think you answer it by stating that by being aware of our surroundings, and our distance we are ahead of the fight. If it becomes necessary we have tools at our disposal to use. At least that's how I envision it. I've also studied other martial arts that involved sparring and felt confident if I needed to use something I could. However, after working in Chicago for over 36 years as a paramedic and having been in some very tight situations involving weapons and no weapons the BEST weapon I have successfully used in EVERY encounter was... be polite, respectful, don't raise your voice or antagonize people and you'll be fine. You can fight if you want to but you will get hurt no matter what you have studied. Great videos!!
Very similar to my take on aikido - an unfighting unsystem. Sure there are systematic ways learn aikido but in the end its like jazz improvisation... which I feel you have an appreciation for too, if the theme tune is anything to go by? Practising scales and chords gives the basis of jazz but its the flowing and changing between those rudimentary elements (techniques) which allows you (tori) to play whatever you want over the more fixed form (uke's attack which you can't stop) of the jazz standard. Making accords... yes! 😊 Thanks so much for making these videos, they're some of the best aikido videos currently on RUclips, and you convey the subtleties of aikido in a really accessible way. 🙏
Thank you for these toughs. This gave me lots of ideas to see martial arts differently. Im new to train aikido but veteran on full-contact arts and sports. I still have lots to learn and thats what i love about on whole thing
I truly like your take on Aikido and your videos. Thank you for your thorough thought and work, that opens new perspectives. Insipired by your work, I am now practicing Aikido again (after 30 years break) in addition to other TMA stuff I am doing. One day, I would like to visit your dojo and practice there, but living on the other side of Atlantic and the pandemic situation being what it is, that's not likely to happen in this life. :)
I' ve been checking about diferent points of view on ju jutsu, aikido and other arts that are known to be unpractical. Your points are good and made me think a lot. Congratulations from Brasil.
Very clever, your speech. Thanks for sharing. I am an Aikido practionioner in Brazil and your conclusions are precise. Also Aikido is a very good practice for keepimg the body in shape on flexibility and equilibrium and also for the mind too. It is about relationship, too.
I’ve practiced Aikido for over 30 years, teaching much of that time. I began in a fairly physical dojo known for tough but effective practice. Although I can’t say I had the same journey as you I can say (humbly), I/we have come to the same understanding about Aikido. You’ve done a great job of summarizing the bottom line and underpinning of love (as contradictory as it sounds to have a martial art with the underpinning of love). I look forward to hearing more about that journey. I still get ah-ha moments fairly often that increase the depth of my understanding of this art. That’s exciting!
This series was fantastic, gave brand new insight into aikido. Could you perhaps investigate how aikijutsu would be different since philosophy is completely different
No wonder there was a schism in aikido. I was going to ask about Tomiki Aikido which also emphasizes live training, pressure testing, and fights. I expected throughout the series that you may come close to a conclusion to that kind of aikido, but this series made me learn even more. I'm honestly very intrigued in this philosophical adventure that Aikido isn't meant for fighting, I mean it can be and it may become one based on context (like how you contextualized Aikido as an armed art or a mobile weapon platform, or how Tomiki contextualizes it as fighting in the most efficient techniques). In this case, Aikido really is a grand scale art with many segments and I've grown more appreciative of your approach, or maybe the principle approach of Aikido.
I think 'schism' is maybe a little over-dramatic. But clearly O'Sensei's different students at different times took very different things from him, and taught them in very different ways. And people being people, that continues to the present...
Hats off! This is the most sensible and insightful speech on aikido I have ever heard.Not a single doubt about it. Your metaphor about a "mobile weapon platform" does make a lot of sense. I really hope that it will succeed in reaching as many people as possible. What else to say... Your experience and point of view match mine: aikido is a lot about anticipation and you are supposed to carry weapons. Two basic truths that keep being ignored. How comes that, generally speaking, people do not think and empirically check their beliefs?!? Final thought: it highly depends on the aikido style but I would also add that aikido also aims at prompting attacks so that they will follow a predictable path. It is a very sophisticated approach based on selected "openings" of the body and other ways to "present your body" to the attacker. I am not claiming that it this "prompting" approach works but it was taught in a couple of dojos I used to attend.
Excellent insights, thank you! I dabbled , quite involvedly, in may martial arts in my youth. Too much at once and in got a bit jumbled at times. I then fell in love with one Aikido style in particular. Perhaps also because I knew the more aggressive and destructive versions of the techniques, lerning them in a more refined way was refreshing. What caught my attention was indeed the goal to de-escalate, and doing things very subtly so all involved, at least yourself would not be in a fighting mind. One technique (tenkan kokyu nage) was especially explained as avoiding conflict, seeing the other person’s point of view, literally taking their side, then explaining yours. You’re nearly healing the other. Now when thinking about actual real life applications I often throw in some other variations and ad defense from eg Escrima and aiki jujitsu. Cautioning about striking as making uke angry again, while pointing out where atemi would fit. Strategically, Aikido teaches you how to reposition yourself wisely, even against a group of people, your point about perception is very true. We train to feel the attack coming. You reposition, so you are in balance, in a good alignment, uke ideally exposed and even out of balance… which is tough against striking artists. Here you really need psychology. 🙂… still tough. It’s largely about psychology though. These principles work well in verbal conflicts or other struggles as well. If you can use these principles , then Aikido is valuable, nobody said you can’t augment in the moment with whatever the situation calls for. Thank you again for sharing this journey. 🙏
I have spent the last week researching martial arts to decide which would be the right one for me to start (I don't do any at the moment.) At the beginning of the week, I felt like my research was quickly funnelling me towards Aikido because of the peaceful philosophy behind it and the focus on all-round personal development. I then started to read and watch more videos about Aikido, and inevitably ran into all the negativity about it from all directions - from Joe Rogan to Aikido black belts themselves (like yourself and Rokas from My Martial Arts Journey) who had become disillusioned with it. While I have no intention of ever trying to get into a fight (that's not what attracts me to taking up a martial art), I did start to wonder what the point was in training in fighting techniques at all if I knew they weren't very effective in an actual fight. It feels silly to spend time training in something that doesn't work. I started to think maybe I am looking in the wrong place for what I am hoping to get from martial arts. Maybe they aren't for me if the one that actually appeals to me the most and fits with my worldview is considered so ineffective. Thankfully, I think this video has won me over. The position you arrived at about the purpose and function of Aikido is exactly what I hoped it would be, and the way you arrived at that position has convinced me that I am being drawn to the right martial art for me. I hope I am correct in thinking that the point in training the fighting techniques of Aikido is as much to build your awareness of your own body, your reactions and your perception of the way people move as it is to actually train for specific combat situations. It seems that it is to make you nimble enough to stay out of trouble and do whatever you can to de-escalate a fight, and that is how I would want to approach a fight. Will Aikido help me if a rogue MMA fighter attacks me in the street, despite zero provocation and clear signals that I do not want to fight him? Probably not. Will that situation ever actually happen to me? Very probably not. Will Aikido help me be better at dealing with confrontations the way I would naturally want to deal with them? I think it would.
Go try a few martial arts and see which one sits well with you. I trained in Judo, KungFu, BJJ, Muay Tai and 'Ninjitsu'. But I love Aikido because it sits well with me. I was not good at it for a very long time but I persevered and now feel it's 'my' martial art.
Great stuff on all 3 parts, but one thing I would like to add is in part 1 of the garage battle is that I think using a punch for a armed person, and even an unarmed person could facilitate the ability to get away with a technique. But I know in a dojo setting we are not trying hurt each other. But in a real situation adding a punch could help. Thanks again for your knowledge
That last sentence was beautiful. I could see someone who came from an akijutsu mobile weapon fighting background arriving at that conclusion. They've fought enough, they've maybe killed enough, and now want to turn those skills towards just living a peaceful life. Which raises a question of can you start your journey in Aikido or do you need to go through the fighting, come out the other side and then decide you want to figure out how to find your peace.
I think many of us neglect what the meaning of the Ai in aikido is. We get caught up sometimes in what our concept of the art is vs. it actually was supposed to be. There seems to be an element of wanting to emulate Steven Segal forgetting that that is scripted fiction. I really enjoyed this video, as someone that has branched out much later in life to another form of martial arts, I am starting to see similarities between it and aikido. Perhaps not to the extent you have but I’m starting to get the idea and that is where we truly start to learn. Osu Sensei!
Attention and awareness, yes. I speculate this is what O Sensei was talking about with his emphasis on "nen". Also a basis for his challenge to his students. He was teaching about awareness. And LOL a shoutout to Peter Sellers for his sendup of the concept in several Pink Panther movies.
In some way, this reminds me of the art of war too. Sun Tzu says that the best way of winning is by winning without going into battle. Battles are waist of resources and energy. If you can just move smartly around and avoid the attacks, opponents will mostly hurt themselves trying to hit you or get tired and stop fighting. I feel like randori is one of the most important things in aikido if you practice it by focusing on evading attacks, staying aware of the surroundings and learn to move around in a dangerous situation.
Fully agree. Even though, Iwama Ryu is similar to Daito ryu in appearance they actually train a different approach to conflict resolution. And both arts are deep and beautiful for their own sake.
I've been practicing Aikido for 6 years and completely agree with this message. One time I was waiting to be served at a bar, and some muscular bully came up to me and ordered me to get out of his way so that he would be served before me. I politely told him no. The guy then wrapped his arms around my legs and tried to lift me up out of the way...but thanks to years of Aikido training I simply relaxed my centre of gravity into the ground by releasing the tension in my body, so the guy could not lift me with his muscular strength. He was utterly perplexed as to how I became an immovable object and did not bother me ever again. Had I not trained in Aikido, I would have been combative, told the guy to f*ck off, gotten injured in a brawl and dragged out of the club by security. So yeah Aikido may not train you to be some insane fighter, but if practiced correctly is a brilliant system for self defence, which includes not fighting in the first place. Aikido alone works beautifully, just not if you try to apply it in the wrong context such as an MMA fight because it is a "self defence" system, which is NOT the same as fighting.
Hello Sensei Hein, being a life long Karate practitioner who dabbled in other martial arts I have found that as I get older and my body doesn’t do what it once did, that the goal is closer to Aikido than anything else. We are told in karate that we do certain things so we can facilitate a type of “one hit, one kill” approach to self defense. However context is key, because as we get older and regardless of conditioning our bodies break down, our stamina being one of the first things to go. So as we spend time learning more and more efficient ways of moving through years of training… you eventually realize it isn’t about fighting or competing. Don’t get me wrong those things have their place, but in the end it’s about survival and the goal in karate is to survive and get out of the situation with as few techniques as possible, if you have to use any at all. What helped me personally understand this was the time I spent learning Aikido. A little bit of a side note and I really don’t expect you to remember me, but I trained with you for a few months in 2007-2008 at your house and before that when you were running a couple classes at Aikido of Fresno. All of that to say you are an awesome teacher and for anyone reading this comment, if you are in the Fresno, CA area and have the opportunity, seriously go learn from this man.
Maybe it's just a misunderstanding and Aikido is not the art of peace, but a piece of art? Just kidding. I just stumbled across your videos. I really admire your inquiring mind and your analytical and experimental approach and the way you think and talk about Aikido. This is really great, thank you very much! Even though I am not an aikidoka, I enjoyed your videos and learned a lot.
So essentially it’s pretty much what good self defense is. Do you practice de-escalation techniques as well in aikido? I’ve subscribed because Im interested in seeing more about this weapons platform claim you’ve made. I’d like to learn more about that as someone who does some training in kali (among other things). I like this series you’ve done. It’s given me something to ponder and challenged my previous view of this art. (I saw it as something you’d supplement with IF you already were good at other arts, not a primary art, and probably not the first choice for a supplemental). Looking forward to hearing and seeing more :)
Glad you enjoyed the series. We have a number of mental exercises- self control, relationship, mindfulness. These things don't look like modern de-escalation- but they work similarly in practice. Thanks for subscribing!
this was a good series. I tried to study Aikido once but didn't last but two weeks. at that time it just didn't seem practical. I like the philosophy but it didn't seem to be applicable in a fight in which you had to defend yourself. it seemed the moves were too complicated and only applied to certain situations. now though I think Aikido could be a good supplement to another art or something to study after you studied other Arts. maybe before you studied some but I would not depend on it just by itself unless I studied it for about 20 30 years.
Making a comment because that helps get the algorithms attention and I think what you share warrants wider consideration. On the basis of what I have seen in your videos over the last few days and then THIS one, if I lived in your city I would be on my way to your dojo. I did once investigate an Aikido school here in Australia and I went there specifically asking about "defending me and those I love" - the answer I got was honest but wrong - "Aikido is really more about the training and maybe won't give you what you are looking for." I was disappointed because what I had READ about the art suggested great congruence with my desires - to be safe without being dangerous or threatening to others. I've not done other martial arts despite dipping my toe in a few - because they were just consistently about "over powering the other" even if the path to 'overpowering' was "using their energy against them" - all this aggro energy simply did not appeal to me, even if it was disciplined and boundaried well. Thank you for going on your journey and for sharing it here. I hope you are spreading seeds that take root widely.
Short question: was it not a „requirement“ in the early days to be a black belt outside of aikido in order to start aikido? This makes sense after listening to your conclusions
Interesting interpretation but I don't understand how aikido practically teaches you how to prevent or stop fights. We are within a virtual fight in all the cooperative forms we practice in pairs, so how aikido is supposed to teach stopping fights?
@@ChuShinTani yeah. I found his basic bio online though it skipped pre-japan. So you started in 98 and took over his dojo in Fresno what year? Probably in your video so apologies for being lazy. 🙏
As far as I am concerned, that "mobile weapon platform" goes for Okinawan Karate too. One defense one counter doesn't make sense unless that counter "tsuki" is done with a knife, bo or sai. And successful takedown means I have time to draw my weapon. So "Tsuki" is really just a replacement for "thrust with whatever is available", but the kata often practices it with nothing in the hand. So some people see "dance with empty hands", but what's really behind is evading, avoiding weapon grabs (e.g. in Wanshu), performing weapon grabs (e.g. in Seienchin), takedowns (e.g. Passai, Wankan), weapon thrusts, etc. It's more like the common principles of how to move the body around its center to turn, evade, face the opponent, keep balance, and be able to support whatever technique from the core. Sometimes a "defense movement" with the hand is only needed for balance and speed when stepping out or to setup the following weapon thrust. I would assume that Aikido is more a complement for a sword, where Karate evolved with cheaper weapons. So there's a couple of movements around "what are you going to do when you can't or don't want to pull your weapon (because then somebody dies)".
You made also point, that if you want defende yourself - efficient way to do it, is to have weapon. Good is also to know how to use it. Making harmonies does not necessarily need any training in MA. But put together it is, what Ueashiba was teaching: loving protection of all things. But, that is not, why people want from MA, ways and skills to dominate a person, to give them feel of power.
Great video. Do you think aikido started with your concept, or did it adopt it later? I wonder because Ueshiba sensei’s first students seemed more of the fighter type, who wanted to learn more fighting.
I think that this is a complex question- which hinges on when did "Aikido" start. Ueshiba said that Aikido started in 1925 after his enlightenment experience with the kendo instructor. Some say Aikido never changed from Daito Ryu- so there really is no Aikido only watered down Daito. Some argue that the majority of what we call Aikido today wouldn't exist without "X" instructor who really improved/organized "Aikido". To me all of this is really here nor there. Personally I care more about how the body of technical work that is recognized as "Aikido" fits with the "Aikido Zeitgeist"(the general feeling of what Aikido is supposed to be about). As a student of the technical work, and a teacher of the art (meaning I am constantly answering questions that others have about "Aikido"). This is what I've found and makes the most sense to me. Sorry if that answer didn't really get at your question- but as I said it's complex and hinges on what each individual sees as "Aikido".
How do Aikido techniques work when you have a weapon in at least one hand? I haven't done much Aikido, but the techniques I've learned require both hands free. Perhaps my impression is wrong. Would love to hear an explanation of the Mobile Weapons Platform idea.
My teacher offered an uchi deshi program to me. I did it two different times, the first time I saved up and didn't have to work. The second time I had to work while I was uchi deshi, I just worked when there were no classes. I lived in the Dojo.
I am an Aikidoka since 27 years, and I have been slightly frustrated with many RUclips bashings of Aikido, while so few, if any, of the bashers did not even consider looking at what the founder of Aikido said about the art, which is, that its goal is not to win over an opponent but to reconcile the world. AND I absolutely love when someone, like you, really investigates and tests what works and what does not work in martial arts. So thank you for these three videos. I hope they help in letting people understand and appreciate the path of Aikido a little more. Every martial art has its place and purpose, I think. To me martial art is about respect, curiosity and essentially life and social interaction without judgement. Something we all need to practice. All the best to you!
Ok so, I have now watched all three of these videos, and they make me want to practice a weapon based martial art. Which one would you say goes best with aikido?
Great video and it's not about the fight it's about control and self awareness. I look forward to more videos from you in the future. Even though I'm in Hapkido we are sister arts. Everyone has something to learn from this video.
Liked your other videos. I don't practice Aikido, and I've always looked down on it, however, especially in the second video I kinda see the point you were making. However this just doesn't track for me--the idea that Aikido is about learning how not to fight. Learning how not to fight is a full time endeavor, like, there's simply just no way to train "not being surprised" except to just live in near paranoia and not sleep. For example, see prison inmates or veterans of actual real combat because they're great at navigating how not get surprised by an attacker. However, they usually walk around like they got ptsd because living in that way is incredibly stressful. You're simply never going to learn this skill by going to an aikido class for an hour a two a night--even if you attend all 7 days which very few people actually do. However, if you don't mean that Aikido is about instilling ptsd into its students, and its just about trying to get people aware on a "basic level" that they actually don't want to fight, that's kinda dumb too because all that requires is just sitting someone down for 30 minutes and telling them to pay attention and not to get in fights because its dangerous. I'm not trying to insult your conclusions here because you made some great points in the first two videos, but this is definitely where I fall off the wagon. This is just another over promise of Aikido instructors.
I think I see what you're saying, and thank you for your comment! So I believe being aware of the world is a learned skill- the more you are stressed to pay attention, the more you can do it. Like your example of war veterans, they pay a lot of attention to what is going on around them- because they had to to survive. But they did that through extreme trauma. I disagree that teaching someone to handle conflict is as simple as sitting them down and telling them what's what for a half hour. Learning to do this is practiced skills- no different then if you say someone down for a half hour and explained BJJ sweeps to them, they would be better at sweeps then before the half hour talk, it's a learned skill. I'm not promising anything- I'm just explaining what it is thati think Aikido is trying to do- how good you can get at doing that, I really don't know. Thank you for your thoughtful response!
@@ChuShinTani I appreciate your explanation, and I totally agree that sitting someone down and telling them to be more aware for half an hour is far too deficient to aid people in avoiding conflict, and completely agree that its a life long skill. What it sounds to me is that you're saying that Aikido is one piece of the puzzle toward that goal. Living as an Aikido student in a school full time could potentially approach what we're talking about, but even that--you have to live the life to learn the life at some point. I still think Aikido should be seen as a system to fight and defeat opponents, and if I might offer a solution--Aikido is about fighting, and you must learn how to fight before you can learn how to not fight. Just how you were inverting Aikido assuming that your opponent has the weapon, if you're trying to avoid the fight you have to be proficient in fighting before you can avoid the conflicts. Similar to the Machiavellian maxim that (I'm about to do violence to the quotation) "in order to be good you must be a little bit evil." Thank you for your insights.
No bell to save you, No ref to jump between you, No judges scoring points, No trainer to throw in a towel, No paramedics waiting to rush you to the hospital, No ring and no cage to constrain your movements, Conflict and a fight are two different things.
I've been in three real life situations in the street where I used aikido. The time I used it the most successfully was during a time I was training regularly. I was walking down the street with a date late at night. I saw a guy approaching from a block away. He stepped behind a retaining wall. "Something's not right about this" sounded in my brain. I simply took my date by the arm and we walked out into the middle of the street and continued walking. Sure enough, that guy was waiting for us, but he was so surprised that he stood there and did nothing.
A very interesting video. Maybe I have misunderstood some things. If Aikido is to assume that the Aikidoka has the weapon the attacker would have to be insane to attack. Also consider this, I am British (although I no longer live in Britain) we don't have guns and you can't walk around the streets with a concealed knife, you would be arrested. So it has to be that the bad guy has the weapon. Are you saying that Aikido doesn't work in this scenario? I saw another video about functional Aikido where it was mentioned that Ueshiba said that 90% of Aikido is atemi, yet the school I went to never mentioned it except as something to defend against. This appears to be a missing link. I have just recently taken up Hapkido, which, as a novice, appears to be a blend of Aikido and Tae Kwon do. I have a feeling this may work. Time will tell.
I kinda think you're painting yourself into a corner here. Aikido is a martial art designed to teach you how to make accords instead of fighting to achieve physical dominance. If you're good at it you'll never need a weapon. If however you are facing someone who is physically much more dominant than you, in a situation where physical struggle would otherwise be unavailable- using a weapon may be your last possible option for survival. In a life or death situation as I am describing above, punching, kicking or wrestling are not going to give you the advantage a weapon does. As far as legal ramifications go, the system as I describe it would suggest taking care of those things well in advance (don't go to dangerous places, don't get into fights, move away from the fight, surprise and position, use a weapon is the last thing on the list). Atemi IS weapon use. Hitting someone with a fist is Atemi, so is hitting someone with a stick, or blade or bullet. The only difference is that hitting someone with a fist is way less effective, and likely hurts your hand (the thing you need to open doors, get your keys out of your pocket, hop a fence or hold a weapon ( the things that will get you out of a bad situation).
Do you think aikido is effective for learning how to avoid fighting? The emphasis always seems to be on physical technique, not verbal skills, spotting dangerous situations or realistic elements like casual clothes, etc. And is it possible to square this idea with the quote that "atemi is 90% of aikido"?
I do think that Aikido is an effective way to learn how to stop fighting. It helped me learn how to do that. I believe you are right, that the outward appearance of Aikido seems focused on physical techniques- but that is not the heart of Aikido- it's more that I can get into here but I have videos talking about it. Aikido is 90% Atemi squares really nicely with this- if you understand it to mean being contacted- ukemi. To receive a blow with the body. Again difficult to get into here- but I have a video titled that, which goes into more detail.
@@ChuShinTani Thanks. I can appreciate where you're coming from. To be honest, I have always felt that it's a difficult sell to say the "heart" of aikido is different to what seems to be the emphasis of its core practices. If we have to go on a decades long journey to piece together what it's really supposed to have been about all along, it does make me wonder if our answer is a complicated rationalisation of something that could have been more simply explained as the art simply not fulfilling the apparent purpose of its core practices.
Great points that you're making. I still agree that to be a martial arts instructor, whether it be Aikido or HEMA, you need to know the basics of how to fight. At least how to do basic punching combinations, grappling takedowns and escapes. Ueshiha himself wouldn't allow anyone to train unless they had mastered one "hard" art I believe
Ueshiba would allow anyone to practice aikido. There is this idea floating around that aikido is something to do after "something else". Not much empirical basis for it, except that some of Ueshiba's students did Judo at some point in there life (not surprising for Japan at the time). But maybe, just maybe it is because they got old, and that aikido can be practiced older than Judo... I find that a very simple explanation, but that doesn't entail that aikido would be something to put on top of other martial arts, just that at some point in your life, your body prefers it...
I walked into my first Aikido dojo at the age of 51 - with no previous martial arts experience. I was really looking for some health and fitness instruction without paying for a personal trainer. Aikido has given me so much more than I was seeking - balance, coordination, humility, relief from a life long battle with depression.
I tell those who inquire - if you want to fight, go to fight school. If you want to live, I mean really live, find an aikido dojo and learn to avoid the fight. Practicing the principles of aikido will make you stronger as you age.
I'm no aikido guy, but I think this series gave me a new appreciation of the art.
That gives me great joy! Thank you!
@@ChuShinTani huge respect to you for teaching the right stuff
This is the best talk on Aikido I’ve seen. Really illuminating. The art is mysterious, almost a meta-art. I trained in it for a year and was perplexed by it, by the fact the founder was an exceptional fighter who in his later years wanted to make an art that was an “expression of love.” A bunch of fight-sportsman criticise it because they want to compare it to their sport. But there is real wisdom in it. Thanks for making these videos.
I'm a 2nd dan in Japanese Kempo, have competed in Judo, Kickboxing interclubs and done a fair bit of MMA and in my view this is one of the best videos I've seen on Aikido. You've given me a new perspective on the art and a new found interest in it.
Thank you for sharing your journey from Aikido, through other martial arts, and back to Aikido. I have learned more from your videos than from many Aikido Seminars I have attended. What has been most helpful is your exploration of the context for Aikido. Although there is much talk about it being a Peaceful Martial Art, there has not been much discussion about the context in which Aikido is most effective.
My pleasure! Thank you so much! I really appreciate your kind words and support! It always makes me happy to know that I can be helpful to others traveling this path! Keep watching, there's much more coming!
Dear Chris, it was such a nice surprise to find this video. It’s refreshing to see someone taking a mature approach to studying martial arts. When I started Aikido in my early teens, I never expected it would have all the answers to my combat questions (that’s why I went into weapons training, judo, boxing, kung fu…), but I loved it and I wanted to be good at it. All the people I looked up to in martial arts, learned many systems, so I never understood this modern stance of people expecting any system to solve all their expectations about fighting - and if it doesn’t answer to their needs, them it must be the worst martial art ever. Whilst other people like to point their fingers at and blame a system they barely became proficient at it, your continuous study clearly led to a deeper understanding of our art and of other valuable systems too. That’s pretty cool and a good example to our community! Wishing you all the best!
I very glad you enjoyed! Thank you!
Beautifully insightful.
Glad you enjoyed it
ive been studying for 25 years , what you have discussed was a breath of fresh air , well done , so stimulating andmotivating to me , I was so over aikido but your videos have reallt inspired me. thank you Chris , mark from australia.
Thanks Mark! I really appreciate it!
The last sentence is powerful. If you want to learn to stop fighting, maybe you should join aikido. Excellent!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
I trained in aikido for a while in the early 90´s and have often thought about going back. Therefore I have watched quite a lot of videos on aikido and read stuff but nothing I've seen or read compares with your stuff. Thanks so much for this awesome content.
Great to hear! Happy it's benefitted you!
Excellent. Really enjoyed hearing about your journey and experiences. Very informative and it has given me much to think about. Having a similar journey i.e. practicing Aikido for a number of years, trying other fighting styles (karate and judo), I have arrived at the conclusion that Aikido is the art of not fighting. This makes it a very useful art that complements any of the fighting arts. Thanks for sharing.
I gotta say, that is game changing. I have given up on learning aikido, but you changed my mind. Please keep spreading the ways to use aikido effectively, since not all of us can go to your academy
Beautifully put! I was never a 'fighter' and would love to learn more about fighting by practicing the relevant arts. But I now realize that Aikido mindset has actually helped me being safer by helping me avoid violence.
I've been training for a long time , your explaining a lot that I've never heard before. Very well done. Helps me as well understand my past training. You can always learn!
Glad to help! Thanks for the comment!
I feel it is important to know the difference between a "peace keeper" and a "peace maker". A peace keeper will bend all matter of morales and conviction to maintain short term "peace". A peace maker will go to war if need be to preserve their morales and convictions in pursuit of long term peace.
you conviced me to try aikido. that whole insight about it made me think that maybe it's the art for me. thanks!
Going full circle as a martial artist. Beautiful presentation
The whole getting ahead sounds interesting. In a lot of Aikido videos I see techniques that work when the opponent can't see them coming and is easily put into a vulnerable position. A lot of joint locks and throws need that in my experience. When the opponent tenses up then it gets hard. Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts and experience.
I enjoyed this series - made me smile - I remember you from the shenwu discussion board back in the day - it's great to see the evolution of approach/understanding
Thanks! I learned so much on that board!
Excellent Christopher! You have just created the ‘Why Aikido?’ Video that I needed to show corporate clients. I would like every company to have a dojo. Thank you 🙏.
Corporate stuff isn't really my bag, but I'm glad you enjoyed it!
First, great jazz music in the beginning. Keep it up. I just started Aikido and have had similar questions on it's effectiveness. I think you answer it by stating that by being aware of our surroundings, and our distance we are ahead of the fight. If it becomes necessary we have tools at our disposal to use. At least that's how I envision it. I've also studied other martial arts that involved sparring and felt confident if I needed to use something I could. However, after working in Chicago for over 36 years as a paramedic and having been in some very tight situations involving weapons and no weapons the BEST weapon I have successfully used in EVERY encounter was... be polite, respectful, don't raise your voice or antagonize people and you'll be fine. You can fight if you want to but you will get hurt no matter what you have studied. Great videos!!
Glad you enjoyed it, sounds like you get it! Thanks!
This series of yours is very compelling.
Very similar to my take on aikido - an unfighting unsystem.
Sure there are systematic ways learn aikido but in the end its like jazz improvisation... which I feel you have an appreciation for too, if the theme tune is anything to go by? Practising scales and chords gives the basis of jazz but its the flowing and changing between those rudimentary elements (techniques) which allows you (tori) to play whatever you want over the more fixed form (uke's attack which you can't stop) of the jazz standard. Making accords... yes! 😊
Thanks so much for making these videos, they're some of the best aikido videos currently on RUclips, and you convey the subtleties of aikido in a really accessible way. 🙏
Thank you for these toughs. This gave me lots of ideas to see martial arts differently. Im new to train aikido but veteran on full-contact arts and sports. I still have lots to learn and thats what i love about on whole thing
I truly like your take on Aikido and your videos. Thank you for your thorough thought and work, that opens new perspectives. Insipired by your work, I am now practicing Aikido again (after 30 years break) in addition to other TMA stuff I am doing. One day, I would like to visit your dojo and practice there, but living on the other side of Atlantic and the pandemic situation being what it is, that's not likely to happen in this life. :)
If you ever make it out this way, you will be very welcomed! Glad you're training in Aikido again!
Sir, thank you for sharing this journey with us!
Really enjoyed this series. I have always sensed that there was more to Aikido than what we typically see. Thank you for sharing your journey.
I' ve been checking about diferent points of view on ju jutsu, aikido and other arts that are known to be unpractical. Your points are good and made me think a lot. Congratulations from Brasil.
Can you link me to some videos of ju jitsu points?
@@เด็กพเนจร-ฝ4ษ ruclips.net/video/GXO9FrZ1N9s/видео.html
ruclips.net/user/Chadisearch?query=jujutsu
Also my congratulations from Brazil
This was really good series! Thank you! 😊
Woohoo! Have been waiting for this 3rd installment.
Very clever, your speech. Thanks for sharing. I am an Aikido practionioner in Brazil and your conclusions are precise. Also Aikido is a very good practice for keepimg the body in shape on flexibility and equilibrium and also for the mind too. It is about relationship, too.
Thank you! This is a great version of what I have always felt.
I’ve practiced Aikido for over 30 years, teaching much of that time. I began in a fairly physical dojo known for tough but effective practice. Although I can’t say I had the same journey as you I can say (humbly), I/we have come to the same understanding about Aikido. You’ve done a great job of summarizing the bottom line and underpinning of love (as contradictory as it sounds to have a martial art with the underpinning of love). I look forward to hearing more about that journey. I still get ah-ha moments fairly often that increase the depth of my understanding of this art. That’s exciting!
This is very insightful and helpful.
I'm glad to hear it, thanks for the comment!
Excellent explanation! And also the editing of the video is getting better and better! Well done! I’m eager to see the next one…
Thanks!
This series was fantastic, gave brand new insight into aikido. Could you perhaps investigate how aikijutsu would be different since philosophy is completely different
Thank you Sensei. A very enlightening insight indeed!
No wonder there was a schism in aikido. I was going to ask about Tomiki Aikido which also emphasizes live training, pressure testing, and fights. I expected throughout the series that you may come close to a conclusion to that kind of aikido, but this series made me learn even more. I'm honestly very intrigued in this philosophical adventure that Aikido isn't meant for fighting, I mean it can be and it may become one based on context (like how you contextualized Aikido as an armed art or a mobile weapon platform, or how Tomiki contextualizes it as fighting in the most efficient techniques). In this case, Aikido really is a grand scale art with many segments and I've grown more appreciative of your approach, or maybe the principle approach of Aikido.
I'm glad you found the series useful!
I think 'schism' is maybe a little over-dramatic. But clearly O'Sensei's different students at different times took very different things from him, and taught them in very different ways. And people being people, that continues to the present...
Hats off! This is the most sensible and insightful speech on aikido I have ever heard.Not a single doubt about it. Your metaphor about a "mobile weapon platform" does make a lot of sense. I really hope that it will succeed in reaching as many people as possible. What else to say... Your experience and point of view match mine: aikido is a lot about anticipation and you are supposed to carry weapons. Two basic truths that keep being ignored. How comes that, generally speaking, people do not think and empirically check their beliefs?!? Final thought: it highly depends on the aikido style but I would also add that aikido also aims at prompting attacks so that they will follow a predictable path. It is a very sophisticated approach based on selected "openings" of the body and other ways to "present your body" to the attacker. I am not claiming that it this "prompting" approach works but it was taught in a couple of dojos I used to attend.
Excellent insights, thank you! I dabbled , quite involvedly, in may martial arts in my youth. Too much at once and in got a bit jumbled at times. I then fell in love with one Aikido style in particular. Perhaps also because I knew the more aggressive and destructive versions of the techniques, lerning them in a more refined way was refreshing.
What caught my attention was indeed the goal to de-escalate, and doing things very subtly so all involved, at least yourself would not be in a fighting mind. One technique (tenkan kokyu nage) was especially explained as avoiding conflict, seeing the other person’s point of view, literally taking their side, then explaining yours. You’re nearly healing the other.
Now when thinking about actual real life applications I often throw in some other variations and ad defense from eg Escrima and aiki jujitsu. Cautioning about striking as making uke angry again, while pointing out where atemi would fit.
Strategically, Aikido teaches you how to reposition yourself wisely, even against a group of people, your point about perception is very true. We train to feel the attack coming. You reposition, so you are in balance, in a good alignment, uke ideally exposed and even out of balance… which is tough against striking artists. Here you really need psychology. 🙂… still tough.
It’s largely about psychology though. These principles work well in verbal conflicts or other struggles as well.
If you can use these principles , then Aikido is valuable, nobody said you can’t augment in the moment with whatever the situation calls for.
Thank you again for sharing this journey. 🙏
Thanks for sharing! 🙏
I have spent the last week researching martial arts to decide which would be the right one for me to start (I don't do any at the moment.) At the beginning of the week, I felt like my research was quickly funnelling me towards Aikido because of the peaceful philosophy behind it and the focus on all-round personal development. I then started to read and watch more videos about Aikido, and inevitably ran into all the negativity about it from all directions - from Joe Rogan to Aikido black belts themselves (like yourself and Rokas from My Martial Arts Journey) who had become disillusioned with it.
While I have no intention of ever trying to get into a fight (that's not what attracts me to taking up a martial art), I did start to wonder what the point was in training in fighting techniques at all if I knew they weren't very effective in an actual fight. It feels silly to spend time training in something that doesn't work. I started to think maybe I am looking in the wrong place for what I am hoping to get from martial arts. Maybe they aren't for me if the one that actually appeals to me the most and fits with my worldview is considered so ineffective.
Thankfully, I think this video has won me over. The position you arrived at about the purpose and function of Aikido is exactly what I hoped it would be, and the way you arrived at that position has convinced me that I am being drawn to the right martial art for me. I hope I am correct in thinking that the point in training the fighting techniques of Aikido is as much to build your awareness of your own body, your reactions and your perception of the way people move as it is to actually train for specific combat situations. It seems that it is to make you nimble enough to stay out of trouble and do whatever you can to de-escalate a fight, and that is how I would want to approach a fight.
Will Aikido help me if a rogue MMA fighter attacks me in the street, despite zero provocation and clear signals that I do not want to fight him? Probably not. Will that situation ever actually happen to me? Very probably not. Will Aikido help me be better at dealing with confrontations the way I would naturally want to deal with them? I think it would.
That makes me happy to hear! Best of luck to you on your journey!
Go try a few martial arts and see which one sits well with you. I trained in Judo, KungFu, BJJ, Muay Tai and 'Ninjitsu'. But I love Aikido because it sits well with me. I was not good at it for a very long time but I persevered and now feel it's 'my' martial art.
Great stuff on all 3 parts, but one thing I would like to add is in part 1 of the garage battle is that I think using a punch for a armed person, and even an unarmed person could facilitate the ability to get away with a technique. But I know in a dojo setting we are not trying hurt each other. But in a real situation adding a punch could help. Thanks again for your knowledge
Love your videos bro, keep doing it.
That last sentence was beautiful. I could see someone who came from an akijutsu mobile weapon fighting background arriving at that conclusion. They've fought enough, they've maybe killed enough, and now want to turn those skills towards just living a peaceful life. Which raises a question of can you start your journey in Aikido or do you need to go through the fighting, come out the other side and then decide you want to figure out how to find your peace.
It's nice to hear that
I just became a fan and a subscriber because of this series. Thanks...*deep bow*
Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
Thanks for putting some context around your practise of Aikido. An enjoyable video.
I think many of us neglect what the meaning of the Ai in aikido is. We get caught up sometimes in what our concept of the art is vs. it actually was supposed to be. There seems to be an element of wanting to emulate Steven Segal forgetting that that is scripted fiction. I really enjoyed this video, as someone that has branched out much later in life to another form of martial arts, I am starting to see similarities between it and aikido. Perhaps not to the extent you have but I’m starting to get the idea and that is where we truly start to learn. Osu Sensei!
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!
Perfect explaining for aikido 👍🏻
Attention and awareness, yes. I speculate this is what O Sensei was talking about with his emphasis on "nen". Also a basis for his challenge to his students. He was teaching about awareness.
And LOL a shoutout to Peter Sellers for his sendup of the concept in several Pink Panther movies.
Not now, Cato !
Very good explanation what Aikido can offer. Tada sensei used to say the same in his seminar.
Fantastic lesson. 👍
Great explanation. Thank you!
In some way, this reminds me of the art of war too. Sun Tzu says that the best way of winning is by winning without going into battle. Battles are waist of resources and energy. If you can just move smartly around and avoid the attacks, opponents will mostly hurt themselves trying to hit you or get tired and stop fighting. I feel like randori is one of the most important things in aikido if you practice it by focusing on evading attacks, staying aware of the surroundings and learn to move around in a dangerous situation.
You nailed it. Salute.
Shout out to Josh and Maya.😁
Thank you!
Fully agree. Even though, Iwama Ryu is similar to Daito ryu in appearance they actually train a different approach to conflict resolution. And both arts are deep and beautiful for their own sake.
Great video!!
I've been practicing Aikido for 6 years and completely agree with this message.
One time I was waiting to be served at a bar, and some muscular bully came up to me and ordered me to get out of his way so that he would be served before me. I politely told him no.
The guy then wrapped his arms around my legs and tried to lift me up out of the way...but thanks to years of Aikido training I simply relaxed my centre of gravity into the ground by releasing the tension in my body, so the guy could not lift me with his muscular strength.
He was utterly perplexed as to how I became an immovable object and did not bother me ever again.
Had I not trained in Aikido, I would have been combative, told the guy to f*ck off, gotten injured in a brawl and dragged out of the club by security.
So yeah Aikido may not train you to be some insane fighter, but if practiced correctly is a brilliant system for self defence, which includes not fighting in the first place.
Aikido alone works beautifully, just not if you try to apply it in the wrong context such as an MMA fight because it is a "self defence" system, which is NOT the same as fighting.
Hello Sensei Hein, being a life long Karate practitioner who dabbled in other martial arts I have found that as I get older and my body doesn’t do what it once did, that the goal is closer to Aikido than anything else. We are told in karate that we do certain things so we can facilitate a type of “one hit, one kill” approach to self defense. However context is key, because as we get older and regardless of conditioning our bodies break down, our stamina being one of the first things to go. So as we spend time learning more and more efficient ways of moving through years of training… you eventually realize it isn’t about fighting or competing. Don’t get me wrong those things have their place, but in the end it’s about survival and the goal in karate is to survive and get out of the situation with as few techniques as possible, if you have to use any at all. What helped me personally understand this was the time I spent learning Aikido.
A little bit of a side note and I really don’t expect you to remember me, but I trained with you for a few months in 2007-2008 at your house and before that when you were running a couple classes at Aikido of Fresno. All of that to say you are an awesome teacher and for anyone reading this comment, if you are in the Fresno, CA area and have the opportunity, seriously go learn from this man.
I do remember you! Thank you for the comments!
Maybe it's just a misunderstanding and Aikido is not the art of peace, but a piece of art?
Just kidding. I just stumbled across your videos. I really admire your inquiring mind and your analytical and experimental approach and the way you think and talk about Aikido. This is really great, thank you very much!
Even though I am not an aikidoka, I enjoyed your videos and learned a lot.
Kind of you to say. Glad you enjoyed the videos!
So essentially it’s pretty much what good self defense is. Do you practice de-escalation techniques as well in aikido?
I’ve subscribed because Im interested in seeing more about this weapons platform claim you’ve made. I’d like to learn more about that as someone who does some training in kali (among other things).
I like this series you’ve done. It’s given me something to ponder and challenged my previous view of this art. (I saw it as something you’d supplement with IF you already were good at other arts, not a primary art, and probably not the first choice for a supplemental).
Looking forward to hearing and seeing more :)
Glad you enjoyed the series. We have a number of mental exercises- self control, relationship, mindfulness. These things don't look like modern de-escalation- but they work similarly in practice.
Thanks for subscribing!
Do you still train it from time to time as a mobile weapon platform?
Constantly- it's a part of the system.
this was a good series. I tried to study Aikido once but didn't last but two weeks. at that time it just didn't seem practical. I like the philosophy but it didn't seem to be applicable in a fight in which you had to defend yourself. it seemed the moves were too complicated and only applied to certain situations. now though I think Aikido could be a good supplement to another art or something to study after you studied other Arts. maybe before you studied some but I would not depend on it just by itself unless I studied it for about 20 30 years.
Making a comment because that helps get the algorithms attention and I think what you share warrants wider consideration. On the basis of what I have seen in your videos over the last few days and then THIS one, if I lived in your city I would be on my way to your dojo. I did once investigate an Aikido school here in Australia and I went there specifically asking about "defending me and those I love" - the answer I got was honest but wrong - "Aikido is really more about the training and maybe won't give you what you are looking for." I was disappointed because what I had READ about the art suggested great congruence with my desires - to be safe without being dangerous or threatening to others. I've not done other martial arts despite dipping my toe in a few - because they were just consistently about "over powering the other" even if the path to 'overpowering' was "using their energy against them" - all this aggro energy simply did not appeal to me, even if it was disciplined and boundaried well. Thank you for going on your journey and for sharing it here. I hope you are spreading seeds that take root widely.
Thanks, glad you're enjoying my work!
Short question: was it not a „requirement“ in the early days to be a black belt outside of aikido in order to start aikido? This makes sense after listening to your conclusions
As far as I know, that is a myth. I can think of several famous Aikido Sensei that didnt have rank in other systems when they started Aikido.
Great videos :)
Interesting interpretation but I don't understand how aikido practically teaches you how to prevent or stop fights. We are within a virtual fight in all the cooperative forms we practice in pairs, so how aikido is supposed to teach stopping fights?
We may be in a virtual fight- but we are in a real relationship. The cooperative forms teach- cooperation.
Yo, awesome intro.
Thanks!
thoughtful. who was your teacher at Aikido Fresno and when did you begin? 🙏
I started under Patrick Cassidy in 98
@@ChuShinTani 👍Thank you. And who taught Patrick? 🙏
He was both uch deshi and Soto deshi for Morihero Saito for seven years in Iwama.
@@ChuShinTani yeah. I found his basic bio online though it skipped pre-japan. So you started in 98 and took over his dojo in Fresno what year? Probably in your video so apologies for being lazy. 🙏
2011
Nailed it 🙇♂️
As far as I am concerned, that "mobile weapon platform" goes for Okinawan Karate too. One defense one counter doesn't make sense unless that counter "tsuki" is done with a knife, bo or sai. And successful takedown means I have time to draw my weapon. So "Tsuki" is really just a replacement for "thrust with whatever is available", but the kata often practices it with nothing in the hand. So some people see "dance with empty hands", but what's really behind is evading, avoiding weapon grabs (e.g. in Wanshu), performing weapon grabs (e.g. in Seienchin), takedowns (e.g. Passai, Wankan), weapon thrusts, etc. It's more like the common principles of how to move the body around its center to turn, evade, face the opponent, keep balance, and be able to support whatever technique from the core. Sometimes a "defense movement" with the hand is only needed for balance and speed when stepping out or to setup the following weapon thrust. I would assume that Aikido is more a complement for a sword, where Karate evolved with cheaper weapons. So there's a couple of movements around "what are you going to do when you can't or don't want to pull your weapon (because then somebody dies)".
Excellent 👌
Thanks, Rashid!
You made also point, that if you want defende yourself - efficient way to do it, is to have weapon. Good is also to know how to use it. Making harmonies does not necessarily need any training in MA. But put together it is, what Ueashiba was teaching: loving protection of all things. But, that is not, why people want from MA, ways and skills to dominate a person, to give them feel of power.
Great video. Do you think aikido started with your concept, or did it adopt it later? I wonder because Ueshiba sensei’s first students seemed more of the fighter type, who wanted to learn more fighting.
I think that this is a complex question- which hinges on when did "Aikido" start. Ueshiba said that Aikido started in 1925 after his enlightenment experience with the kendo instructor. Some say Aikido never changed from Daito Ryu- so there really is no Aikido only watered down Daito. Some argue that the majority of what we call Aikido today wouldn't exist without "X" instructor who really improved/organized "Aikido". To me all of this is really here nor there.
Personally I care more about how the body of technical work that is recognized as "Aikido" fits with the "Aikido Zeitgeist"(the general feeling of what Aikido is supposed to be about).
As a student of the technical work, and a teacher of the art (meaning I am constantly answering questions that others have about "Aikido"). This is what I've found and makes the most sense to me.
Sorry if that answer didn't really get at your question- but as I said it's complex and hinges on what each individual sees as "Aikido".
@@ChuShinTani That's a good answer. Thank you!
How do Aikido techniques work when you have a weapon in at least one hand? I haven't done much Aikido, but the techniques I've learned require both hands free. Perhaps my impression is wrong. Would love to hear an explanation of the Mobile Weapons Platform idea.
You should look through my videos, I have a few where I'm showing this. It's actually a lot easier than you might think.
as I read many years ago :"Aikido is the art of getting out of there(thw danger)"
But you have lost sight of one important fact.
Old style jujitsu is the mother of akido. The founder never said dismiss aikido's mother.
BRILLIANT!
How did you become an uchi deshi? Were you working on top of training full time? Where did you live?
My teacher offered an uchi deshi program to me. I did it two different times, the first time I saved up and didn't have to work. The second time I had to work while I was uchi deshi, I just worked when there were no classes. I lived in the Dojo.
I am an Aikidoka since 27 years, and I have been slightly frustrated with many RUclips bashings of Aikido, while so few, if any, of the bashers did not even consider looking at what the founder of Aikido said about the art, which is, that its goal is not to win over an opponent but to reconcile the world. AND I absolutely love when someone, like you, really investigates and tests what works and what does not work in martial arts. So thank you for these three videos. I hope they help in letting people understand and appreciate the path of Aikido a little more. Every martial art has its place and purpose, I think. To me martial art is about respect, curiosity and essentially life and social interaction without judgement. Something we all need to practice. All the best to you!
Thank you for your kind words.
Fighting the ego and overcoming is the first opponent to master. All external foes are already defeated.
Ok so, I have now watched all three of these videos, and they make me want to practice a weapon based martial art. Which one would you say goes best with aikido?
If you''re interested in weapons- look into HEMA. As for a tradition, German or Italian you can't go wrong.
Great video and it's not about the fight it's about control and self awareness. I look forward to more videos from you in the future. Even though I'm in Hapkido we are sister arts. Everyone has something to learn from this video.
Liked your other videos. I don't practice Aikido, and I've always looked down on it, however, especially in the second video I kinda see the point you were making. However this just doesn't track for me--the idea that Aikido is about learning how not to fight. Learning how not to fight is a full time endeavor, like, there's simply just no way to train "not being surprised" except to just live in near paranoia and not sleep. For example, see prison inmates or veterans of actual real combat because they're great at navigating how not get surprised by an attacker. However, they usually walk around like they got ptsd because living in that way is incredibly stressful. You're simply never going to learn this skill by going to an aikido class for an hour a two a night--even if you attend all 7 days which very few people actually do.
However, if you don't mean that Aikido is about instilling ptsd into its students, and its just about trying to get people aware on a "basic level" that they actually don't want to fight, that's kinda dumb too because all that requires is just sitting someone down for 30 minutes and telling them to pay attention and not to get in fights because its dangerous.
I'm not trying to insult your conclusions here because you made some great points in the first two videos, but this is definitely where I fall off the wagon. This is just another over promise of Aikido instructors.
I think I see what you're saying, and thank you for your comment! So I believe being aware of the world is a learned skill- the more you are stressed to pay attention, the more you can do it. Like your example of war veterans, they pay a lot of attention to what is going on around them- because they had to to survive. But they did that through extreme trauma.
I disagree that teaching someone to handle conflict is as simple as sitting them down and telling them what's what for a half hour. Learning to do this is practiced skills- no different then if you say someone down for a half hour and explained BJJ sweeps to them, they would be better at sweeps then before the half hour talk, it's a learned skill.
I'm not promising anything- I'm just explaining what it is thati think Aikido is trying to do- how good you can get at doing that, I really don't know.
Thank you for your thoughtful response!
@@ChuShinTani I appreciate your explanation, and I totally agree that sitting someone down and telling them to be more aware for half an hour is far too deficient to aid people in avoiding conflict, and completely agree that its a life long skill. What it sounds to me is that you're saying that Aikido is one piece of the puzzle toward that goal. Living as an Aikido student in a school full time could potentially approach what we're talking about, but even that--you have to live the life to learn the life at some point.
I still think Aikido should be seen as a system to fight and defeat opponents, and if I might offer a solution--Aikido is about fighting, and you must learn how to fight before you can learn how to not fight. Just how you were inverting Aikido assuming that your opponent has the weapon, if you're trying to avoid the fight you have to be proficient in fighting before you can avoid the conflicts. Similar to the Machiavellian maxim that (I'm about to do violence to the quotation) "in order to be good you must be a little bit evil."
Thank you for your insights.
No bell to save you,
No ref to jump between you,
No judges scoring points,
No trainer to throw in a towel,
No paramedics waiting to rush you to the hospital,
No ring and no cage to constrain your movements,
Conflict and a fight are two different things.
I've been in three real life situations in the street where I used aikido. The time I used it the most successfully was during a time I was training regularly. I was walking down the street with a date late at night. I saw a guy approaching from a block away. He stepped behind a retaining wall. "Something's not right about this" sounded in my brain. I simply took my date by the arm and we walked out into the middle of the street and continued walking. Sure enough, that guy was waiting for us, but he was so surprised that he stood there and did nothing.
Is there a technique or method to avoiding harmful situations?
Kokyu and zanshin
Now you've mentioned the essence of Aikido as it was intended.
That journey though...
I agree 🎉
A very interesting video. Maybe I have misunderstood some things. If Aikido is to assume that the Aikidoka has the weapon the attacker would have to be insane to attack. Also consider this, I am British (although I no longer live in Britain) we don't have guns and you can't walk around the streets with a concealed knife, you would be arrested. So it has to be that the bad guy has the weapon. Are you saying that Aikido doesn't work in this scenario?
I saw another video about functional Aikido where it was mentioned that Ueshiba said that 90% of Aikido is atemi, yet the school I went to never mentioned it except as something to defend against. This appears to be a missing link. I have just recently taken up Hapkido, which, as a novice, appears to be a blend of Aikido and Tae Kwon do. I have a feeling this may work. Time will tell.
I kinda think you're painting yourself into a corner here. Aikido is a martial art designed to teach you how to make accords instead of fighting to achieve physical dominance. If you're good at it you'll never need a weapon. If however you are facing someone who is physically much more dominant than you, in a situation where physical struggle would otherwise be unavailable- using a weapon may be your last possible option for survival. In a life or death situation as I am describing above, punching, kicking or wrestling are not going to give you the advantage a weapon does.
As far as legal ramifications go, the system as I describe it would suggest taking care of those things well in advance (don't go to dangerous places, don't get into fights, move away from the fight, surprise and position, use a weapon is the last thing on the list).
Atemi IS weapon use. Hitting someone with a fist is Atemi, so is hitting someone with a stick, or blade or bullet. The only difference is that hitting someone with a fist is way less effective, and likely hurts your hand (the thing you need to open doors, get your keys out of your pocket, hop a fence or hold a weapon ( the things that will get you out of a bad situation).
5:20 Austin Dunham, spotted.
Do you think aikido is effective for learning how to avoid fighting? The emphasis always seems to be on physical technique, not verbal skills, spotting dangerous situations or realistic elements like casual clothes, etc. And is it possible to square this idea with the quote that "atemi is 90% of aikido"?
I do think that Aikido is an effective way to learn how to stop fighting. It helped me learn how to do that. I believe you are right, that the outward appearance of Aikido seems focused on physical techniques- but that is not the heart of Aikido- it's more that I can get into here but I have videos talking about it.
Aikido is 90% Atemi squares really nicely with this- if you understand it to mean being contacted- ukemi. To receive a blow with the body. Again difficult to get into here- but I have a video titled that, which goes into more detail.
@@ChuShinTani Thanks. I can appreciate where you're coming from. To be honest, I have always felt that it's a difficult sell to say the "heart" of aikido is different to what seems to be the emphasis of its core practices.
If we have to go on a decades long journey to piece together what it's really supposed to have been about all along, it does make me wonder if our answer is a complicated rationalisation of something that could have been more simply explained as the art simply not fulfilling the apparent purpose of its core practices.
this guy should be called "professor"
Great!
Most mature upcoming there is
Great points that you're making. I still agree that to be a martial arts instructor, whether it be Aikido or HEMA, you need to know the basics of how to fight. At least how to do basic punching combinations, grappling takedowns and escapes. Ueshiha himself wouldn't allow anyone to train unless they had mastered one "hard" art I believe
Ueshiba would allow anyone to practice aikido. There is this idea floating around that aikido is something to do after "something else". Not much empirical basis for it, except that some of Ueshiba's students did Judo at some point in there life (not surprising for Japan at the time). But maybe, just maybe it is because they got old, and that aikido can be practiced older than Judo... I find that a very simple explanation, but that doesn't entail that aikido would be something to put on top of other martial arts, just that at some point in your life, your body prefers it...
So you’re saying Aikido is like yoga with arm and wrist locks 😅?
Maybe give these videos a second watching.