Really good stuff thank you. As a practitioner for 35 years who has never studied the history, your summary is thought-provoking. As for where we should take the art - I’m doubling down on conflict resolution, how cool it is to be move and be moved, and having something I can practice for the next 35 years. I’m experimenting with a new moto for my club: Aikido, the martial art for the rest of us.
During a time when I had moved away from my home kenpo karate school, I spent about six months attending an Aiki Kai school. I thought it would help, because my original style incorporated what my instructor referred to as Aiki Jiujitsu. This was, I think, his reinterpretation of the large, circular movements, joint locks, and redirection of attacks as opposed to direct opposition. While I found my time in the Aiki Kai school useful for broadening my understanding of ukemi and tori, I was put off by what you described in this video, the dogmatic adherence to specifics of technique. I couldn't say, at this late date (it was over twenty years ago), whether the instructors simply didn't know why things had to be "that way", or if I was too new of a student to bother giving the whys (my own personal philosophy is that students should understand "why" to better execute "what"), but I certainly never got a satisfactory answer. As I have continued my own martial arts journey, I have found times where the physical concepts from Aikido are applicable. Just as, in attending a Tae Kwon Do seminar, I found a great deal of overlap with my Karate experience, so too in my Hapkido and Judo classes do I find overlap with Aikido. I don't think there's exactly a Grand Unified Theory of martial arts, but there are certain universal principles that apply across styles. My own goal has been to learn as much about those universal principles as I can. Having a better understanding of how those different styles came to be, and to focus on different aspects of martial arts, has been a wonderful journey. Thank you for your work spreading the research and factual history that cuts through the propaganda and marketing. You're right- if the research was so easy to access, more people would know about it! Even as a (not to toot my own horn, but it's what i do for a living as an English teacher!) skilled critical reader, I lack the cultural and historical knowledge to access and confidently identify reliable resources. I love your reading lists, and have been driving my wife to tears of frustration in adding them to my shopping and reading lists! Thank you again, and happy holidays!
This part 3 of the series is my favorite one! It's so sad how the Aikikai didn't integrate Tomiki or other styles. Heck even Gozo Shioda was "left out"? Great series Tengu 👺!
Yeah I’ve always wondered what might have been there. It’s possible we end up right back here, but I still think it’s a shame. I’m very much a “mutt” of Aikido styles and I genuinely believe I’m only better for it.
I’m shifting heavily that way. I’ll probably have a video out about it early into the New Year. I’m still young (30), but old enough to recognize my body doesn’t work the way it did even 5 or 6 years ago. My “fight” has shifted very much from being able to fend off some hypothetical attacker to the fending off the very real, very daily attacker that is the ravages of age. I’d really like to be 70, 80, 90 doing this stuff. Maybe not at the same brisk speed, of course, but also not worrying about how that one bad fall on the ice might literally end my life.
As I understand the history and developmental path of various martial arts more clearly, the more I realize they are almost like companies. They are products and they need marketed. They all are subject to the time period and economy that they are nested in. They are effected by culture along with politics both internal and external. I'm sure changes in technology (firearms?) created a huge change in the demand for practical martial arts. Companies can adapt to meet the needs of their customers, or can appeal to new demographics....or they can keep beating the same old dead horse and fade away into obscurity. Very interesting and good series. Would love to see some actual "demonstration" from you of practical Aikido, or just standing locks and throws that take some inspiration from it if you don't want to call it Aikido.
Yes, I think you’re on the same wavelength as me here. Martial arts are really this intersection of culture, politics, economics, etc. and, absolutely, they are largely designed to be financially lucrative. I think failing to see martial arts as this nexus point of all these factors is one of the major blind spots in more casual discussion about them. As for demo’ing, I’d like to get there at some point, but for the moment there are just a lot of obstacles. It’s on my itinerary, I Just can’t commit to it at the moment (I have a few videos on the channel explaining why). In the mean time, I’d recommend @MartialGeeks channel. I think I’d do a handful of things slightly differently than him, but it’s mostly semantic. I’ve had a good relationship with he and his channel and he has quite a few demonstrations of wristlocks in an MMA sparring context. He also has a video somewhere over there about their probably never being as effective as something like a single leg or whatever-something I agree with. Would recommend that to hold you over in the mean time!
As an Aikido practitioner myself, I really do appreciate this series. It was an interesting take on Aikido (and Judo), if events mentioned are somewhat over-summarised, which is hard not to do -- you did better than I ever could. Some thoughts: The Aikikai has, at least, degraded into a focus on the techniques, as named by Kisshomaru, as the core of the art, rather than a focus on body development concepts, and "Aiki", which I believe was more the founder's ideal, wrapped as it was in his spirituality. This is the "past" that you allude some people wish to return to, but don't explain what you mean by it. As a means of learning physical integration -- the techniques existing for the purpose of testing one's physical and mental integrity against forces in all directions, it admittedly becomes more like a Chinese art, but it does address the often suggested ideals of a smaller, weaker person being able to persevere over a larger, stronger one. And yes, there are people who have taken "aiki" (their body development, NOT Aikido) into MMA dojos and found ways to make it work, as they learned to fight, and integrate it, but they don't go about making showy demonstration videos. But, this circles around to the idea of changing how, and what is practiced in Aikido...and so it goes... Lastly, it'd be interesting to get the thoughts of Peter Goldsbury (the past IAF chairman), but I gather he isn't in good health.
Well done with your video presentation. Regarding your question asking where are the Aikidoka who also have a broad martial arts background in other arts, well I somewhat do. I teach a lot of Aikido techniques however in a completely different context than an Aikido class. I teach Aikido in BJJ, Karate, Kudo and in Army Combatives and everyone really appreciates the skill transfer however I don’t think this would be possible if I didn’t have a very strong background in the other arts. Also considering all of my Aikido has come from the Shioda, Tomiki and Mochizuki schools, there is a much stronger link to Judo and karate making the transition much easier for me. I have been training Aikido for 40 years now but also karate and Judo. BJJ I started in 1994 ten years after starting Aikido. I have watch all of the arts that I have crossed trained in go through continuous changes with the biggest challenges coming after the founder of the art had passed away. I have much respect for Aikido however it seems to work much better as an adjunct to karate such as the Sabaki we see in Enshin or Ashihara karate. Or in developing a better understanding how to do Kodokan Goshinjutsu or exploring Kyokushin Goshinjutsu links to Aiki Ju Jutsu or wrist locks for BJJ comps. It’s even answered some important questions about dampening the power of someone holding your body Armour in the Army Combatives world. People are very interested to learn the Aikido snippets of techniques or concepts but within the context of their art. They are not keen on the art in its own right interestingly enough. I can’t blame them as personally, every time I want to make a shout out for Aikido some poor example of it is shown on the internet that just makes one feel that there are so many poor examples of Aikido that it generates a wall of noice that is near impossible to pierce. Maybe Aikido is better served as a concept supported by a different baseline structure? My name is Paul Cale and I hold a black belt in three styles of Aikido (Yoshinkan, Yoseikan and Tomiki schools) but also Kyokushin Karate, Kodokan Judo, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Kudo Daido Juku and Taekwondo which I started out with in 1979. I created the Australian Army Combatives Program and served in the Australian Army most of my adult life. What to do for Aikido is very hard to answer however I don’t believe it will survive in its current state. For me, the answer is in the repackaging and representation of the “best of elements” but also my perception of Aikido and experience is not that of the Aikikai. Not that I have a personal problem with the Aikikai, it’s just that I have very little experience with them. Keep up the good work. 🙏🏻
I think your story parallels a lot of the Aikidoka in my personal life that I have a lot of respect for; they all have a very broad (and deep) understanding of the larger martial arts landscape. I do think this is, unfortunately, becoming rarer, though. It could just be Internet-itis, but it seems as if martial arts become more and more compartmentalized these days. There is a lot of tribalism that doesn’t serve anything, imho. Thanks for your input.
On the topic of immediate post-WW2 martial arts: Lance Gatling once pointed this out, but although there were Japanese that rejected militarism and anything pre-WW2 after the war ended, but some tried to cling onto anything "Japanese" that the postwar allied occupation and the loss of their empire couldn't take away. I think a lot of initial success of things like Aikido and Karate-do had a lot to do with this; most people are patriots deep down and when they aren't really allowed to openly be patriotic, they'll find other ways... it's not like this is unique to Japan, a lot of Germans said the 1954 World Cup was when they could finally feel "proud" of their nation again. Viewing martial arts as a cultural heritage meant to be preserved, I feel like Aikido's role until recently was preserving old martial arts techniques. Certainly it could have been done through other means, even Japanese stage fencing "tate", but this is what we got... so what can I say. As for the future... well... I've seen more Aikido schools joining Kobudo demonstrations alongside the aforementioned stage fencing people. So I feel like at least some lines are going to be fossilized.
Yeah, this is a solid point. This script is one that probably went through the most revisions in the series (maybe on the channel) and the reality is that, as a survey, I had to sacrifice some deeper rabbit holes. I think you are correct, as is Lance Gatling. I just ended up needing to draw the line of exploration somewhere.
Thank you I really enjoy your content. Something that I think you would enjoy is watching Barry Robinsons mastering the pivot tutorial on dynamic striking. It’s a 9 hour master class in using tenkan, irimi tenkan in context of boxing, Muay Thai and grappling. I’m an ex Aikidoka only shodan level with experience in iaido, kendo and a number of Japanese kenjutsu school as well as black belts in kickboxing and judo plus a background in Muay Thai too. I fell back in love with aikido and aikiken after watching that tutorial and seeing the potential for the footwork. In Barry Robinsons language check out his make yourself long footwork, swivel pivots, step pivot out, and pivot in and you will see direct correlation. I’m sure unbeknownst to him, he is just working with effect positions as he is very base and position focused in his approach to fighting.
@11:24 whole this entire campaign against the predecessors/co-creater by aki-kai was The big split for A bunch of black belts in the system once they found out that info. Because I started aikido ing. As a teenager I wasn't aware of all of the in fighting... But I did know part of our group came from aki-kai... But it was swept under the rug just like the way the Protestant Reformation just kind of says the forefathers of the church... But never mentioned Catholics in name. Love the videos!
I’ve almost made the Protestant-Catholic analogy on this channel so many times lol. It really is a great framing for much of this stuff, I just also don’t want to dip my toes into religion and invite a whole other type of comment ha
@TenguMartialArts dude... Religion and 20-ft poles... Seem too close for me. I really do appreciate everything you're doing with your channel. I just watched your supercut version of all three together and it basically explains everything around aikido that everyone needed to get on board with.
In addition to the videos themseves in this series, I have been quite impressed by the high level of thoughtful discussion in the comments. Well done to all FWIW. New subscriber and hope the channel gets alot of traction. CR
That is genuinely a point of pride for me on this channel. We may be small, but I think the discussions that happen hear are broadly thoughtful and constructive. In the martial arts space, that’s tough to find, imo. Very pleased and thankful to have a following that values these things.
The mistake the Founder made was he didnt stick with Tohei and went with his son.I was in the aikikai system then and there was harmony in general in US aikido. But the aikikai split off teachers, and teachers split off. It was a real blood bath.I belonged to many aikikai dojos and was told I couldnt train there. I was also going to be one of Toheis first black belt, took the practice test but there were strings attached. I was an 18 years old kid and didnt do japanese politics then refused to take the actual black belt test in public test and left aikido soooooo disappointed in the lack of harmony. Koybashi & Fuyara senseis in particular. Stellar teachers. Since then did everything. The art still has a special place in my heart especially the old feeling of ohana. You won't find that an mma gym.
I know that there's a limited time for the video, but I think it's also worth mentioning Aikikai's past relations with Saito Morihiro Sensei of Iwama and Tohei Koichi Sensei of Shin Shin Toitsu.
Yeah, unfortunately the brisk pace (even though it’s still like 1.5 hours lol) definitely left loose ends. Saito was another one that could arguably be in the “written out of history” list. I think he was well-treated during his life, but my understanding was that his son took over Iwama and then was sort of… ousted? Asked to leave? I’m not sure how to phrase it as I’m not sure how antagonistic the situation was. But at any rate, the younger Saito departed from the Aikikai after losing his stewardship of the Aiki Shrine. Again, like the other practitioners being cut loose, I think this is a massive shame.
Thanks for the interesting thoughts - Aikido is in the end a modern descendant of the Koryu schools, but not as modern as Judo, the sword still plays a role. What function should Aikido fulfill today - there are better alternatives to almost all aspects and similar to Koryu before it, Aikido continues to lose importance. Maybe this is unstoppable - if there can be a meaning, then I think more like Tai Chi, Qi Gong or Yoga, only as a Japanese version and always practiced with a partner. Health and relaxation are the focus, but also communication and physical closeness - these are also valuable aspects that Aikido offers exclusively.
I’m not too sure how familiar you are with aikiken and the different off shoots, but I think it would be really interesting to see some videos on the why aikiken is less practical than other styles or systems. I agree that it is. I recently started searching different ways other schools/styles approach the kumitachi series and found massive differences in the complexity levels and number of techniques covered in saotomes system which intrigued me as I am familiar with the classic aikikai syllabus. But also studying the katori Shinto style and asayama Ryu style I found myself using a lot more of there movements when free sparring than my aikiken (although I am very grateful of the aikiken as that helped me pick up other systems much faster plus understand distance, timing and angles. Sorry for the long rant I’d just be interested to hear what other people’s opinions were in aikiken short comings and other systems they felt were more practical.
Aikiken is to teach/reinforce the principles and movements of Aikido. It is not a sword style. Osensei took pieces of real sword styles and either changed them or kept it intact but reformulated to fit Aikido philosophy. Notice that it is not called Ryu (school style) but is called Ken (sword).
About a decade ago I befriended a gen X hippy. And I'd say he was overall a positive influence on me, but he definitely had his quirks. One of them being that he had this pretty extreme suspicion of anything even remotely competitive. You could bring up board games to him and he'd talk about how people feel the need to compete and dominate one another. Thinking back to that it's struck me that I've never heard a millennial or Zoomer ever express sentiments like that. I think it was even kind of anachronistic for a gen Xer to think that way. I'm pretty sure video games were what killed it off. The hipsters and socialists of the new generations all grew up gaming. Point is Kisshoumaru bet on the wrong horse with that one.
That’s my reading, too. He bet on the wrong horse. I think there probably are ways in which competition could be addressed without changing Aikido much-probably video incoming on that-but yeah, betting on the sort of… naive hippy-ism of the age was pretty nearsighted. I suppose it’s easy to cast judgement in hindsight, but then again, many peer martial arts seem to have figured this out at the time.
Line about western people larping as samurai’s hit home, since that is exactly what I did as a young boy. I loved anything Japanese, I loved Kurosawa’s films and although I did not admit it then, doing Aikido was a way for a teenager to pretend being the Toshiro Mifune, whose Western counterpart Clint Eastwood is merely a less handsome and less charismatic version. Only when I visited Japan years later did I understood that he extent of my outright fetishisation of Japan and how much I detested the right-wing conservative stagnation of the 21st century Japan. Japan I so much loved never existed except in my fantasy, likewise my martial art skills was merely an illusion. Then again, I was really good at that demonstrative side of thing back then and people genuinely thought I was some sort 16-year-old master and so on, since I could jump over people with ukemi etc. I have since done boxing and bjj and while they are cool, I rather just try to improve my deadlift, since I’m not really a fighter nor am I that competitive either. I’m also aging and I’m not sure how much wear and tear my body can hold anymore. I have a though about HEMA and Judo, but if I could do “grappling tricking” which Aikido is, while still staying in shape and doing a bit of playful wrestling every now and then, I would jump back in. Sadly aikido does none of these things well. And what I know of most aikidoka’s, this is what they actually want as well. They don’t give a damn whether it works or not, they wanna do some cool shit. Which is why most casual practitioners do any sport, that’s why you have jump kicks in karate and weird sommersaults to leg locks in BJJ. What I don’t want is some incelesque asshole telling me that my hand is pointing 5.7% to wrong direction and therefore my technique won’t work for REAL as well as some weird little schisms about this style and that between bunch of people who could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag and who are completely out of shape to boot. Let’s make it about peace, harmony and bunch a hippies tricking for fun. Hey, isn’t that what lit the spark in US with BJJ initially? Maybe we can do a wrestling class twice a week and there’s your practical self-defence. Let’s call it Peruvian Daito-Ryu of whatever. It’ll be fun!
Honestly-and I do mean this like super genuinely-I WISH Aikido had the balls to be “grappling themed tricking.” I actually have a video coming out about that probably early next year, because it’s something that has been on my mind a lot. I think Aikido suffers because it just doesn’t want to go all in on anything. But I think it’s MUCH closer to achieving that “tricking” identity than anything else. It just has to be comfortable saying that, no, this isn’t for fighting. And I think that’s… fine? Like, personally, I really do enjoy taking break falls and giving them out in a cooperative manner. It actually is a lot of fun and I think that is probably the most likely way Aikido could reach a market these days. It just needs to accept that means it isn’t this “super deadly ancient samurai art” which… I don’t know, I’ve just never been super taken with to begin with. Any way, I’ll probably be talking about something pretty similar to what you’ve described here soon and I’m very much in the same boat. As for the stupid detail stuff yeah, it’s dumb. I sort of get it if you’re trying to be a carbon copy clone of some teacher but, frankly, I know of very few people who want that. The only “small detail adjustments” I view as legitimate are ones that involve safety. There are a few positions that don’t seem immediately dangerous that can be; a big one is trying to catch yourself when you’re breakfalling. I’ve seen more than one collarbone to that way. But that kind of detail is qualitatively different than “turn your pinky toe 2.6333 degrees to tap into the Yin-Yang ley line” type nonsense that’s out there.
I think he’s one of the few that had a martial mindset. If we want to take Aikido that direction, I think Nishio, among other similar figures (Kuroiwa, Mochizuki, Saito, Tomiki, Chiba, etc.) are good “bridging” figures. I don’t think any one of them necessarily went far enough if the aim is to make Aikido truly martial, but they are several more steps in the correct direction if that’s the aim.
I did Ki-Aikido for years and it's long been in my mind that Aikido is something of an anachronism that has failed in it's marketing. Most of the high level Aikido-ka I know are in their 60's, and fewer people are joining all the time as they really don't see the point of the art. Ki-Aikido in particular took the 'New Age' route in a fairly extreme way but even the roots of that with Nakamura Tempu, a Meiji Era spy, are pretty dark and the paradox of Aikido as a path of enlightenment rooted in far-right ideology isn't lost on me and over time I find I'm less and less interested in the practice itself although I do have 'skin in the game' so to speak, in terms of time invested.
You're definitely onto something, but I think this is true of many historical things beyond Aikido and Japan. There's the fairytale of history that benefits those in charge, then there's the reality of how it was really done. There's also a common theme of the over generalized summary that is on top of the practical and methodical reasons people position themselves to remain in control through changes and unrest of others. Tons of people in history who really did the work but didn't get the credit, that is not unique to Aikido or Japan. But I know you mention that. I'm going to dig through your videos to see if you've talked about Koichi Tohei's impact or what you think about Tenshin Aikido (Seagal's Aikido style), they have tried to do many things that you have mentioned about moving Aikido forward into the modern era and what people are looking for. Would love to see what you think of them. Last thing I'll say on a personal note, I still think Aikido is a good generalist intro to Budo. It covers more areas of martial arts, but in a very beginner/basic level: buki waza, tachi waza, ne waza, nage waza, atemi waza, katame waza, etc. Not exactly the best in any area, but it covers a broad range and may be a good entry for people who want to dive into a specific area later. Example: going from Aikido to Judo, you will understand throwing and pinning much better. But no weapons. Likewise, you can start in Aikido and move to Iaido and other koryu and have a deeper understanding of weapons in Aikido. This happens a lot with my colleagues. Many started with Aikido, then moved to Iaido, BJJ, etc, and still train in Aikido for new reasons. They get their competitive or performative itch out with other arts, then use Aikido more for mind-body exercises. Thanks again for the research and videos!
I am not sure I understand why judo's supposed anti-competition stance is important for you to drive your point home. Judo has an explicit and specific focus on randori (which is not competition but that method of training lends itself to competitive comparison (which the word shiai almost literally expresses: "meeting of trial"). Kano did disfavour competition for its own sake (criticising the overly use of defensive posture - jigo tai - in randori/shiai) in a sense where it would lead to competitors merely playing the ruleset so to speak but competition as a pedagogical tool is key to good judo. I mean the guy was on the Olympic committee trying to get judo into the Olympics. It seems a little cynical to write this off as "good marketing" and it's surely a long way from that to "begrudgingly accepting" competition.
The issue with this is that Kanō was very much on the fence about the Olympics, for example. My reading has always been that he was on the committee primary to stay in control of Judo’s direction. On competition, however, I think my guiding source in interpreting Kano’s position comes from his dealings with Mochizuki. I’m going to paraphrase this story greatly: Basically a young Mochizuki won two competitions in a single day, missing his normally scheduled lecture with Kanō. After arriving late, Kanō scolded him and pretty much spelled out what competition was for in his mind: testing your progress. To Kanō, competition was supposed to be occasional and solely for the purpose of measuring one’s own growth. Contrast this to today where there is a competition circuit and, in many ways, entire martial arts are built around competition as opposed to the other way around. I must believe that Kanō would have particularly disliked the notion of building athletes on 4/8 year cycles solely for Judo competition. Having said all that, Kanō clearly saw value in competition for marketing. Is it any wonder that the most popular stories of early Judo are of the art winning the police tournament or overcoming this or that famous Jiujitsuka? At the end of the day, Kanō was pretty clearly opposed to competition outside of its very limited use as a measuring stick. His participation in things like the Olympic Committee or his mobilizing tournaments to spread the word about Judo seems to largely be a recognition that competition is an inevitable piece of the space. It is, therefore, better to be in the driver’s seat even if he probably preferred that people would self-regulate.
Oh... And about the history being known for a while to at least some Aikido practitioners, even outside of Japan, is true. I've known about this for at least 20 years since the age of message boards. Progressively of course. Sources were not as abundant back then.
It’s definitely out there, just not… in dojos? For some reason? It was cut from my script, but actually academics largely has this issue, too. Most public schools are like 20-30 years behind in terms of history developments in many cases. I actually had a peer back in grad school who was Japanese that was parroting a lot of the samurai mythology back to our mutual JP history instructor who was just like… no… that’s not at all how it went. This student was baffled that his education pre-university had been so off the mark in terms of history. There is just this missing link between the people that research and the layman that seems to need to be addressed. In the schools, I’m sure it’s mostly down to funding and calcified bureaucracy. In Aikido dojos, I largely suspect that it’s mostly down to people just preferring the mythology to the history.
Arts come and go all the time. I think the first thing to establish before thinking about how to popularize aikido is if and why it’s worth popularizing. If the philosophy about peace and harmony was always bogus, and it was never very functional as a martial art, why is it important to save?
it would help to establish what aikido actually is, and why it might have value. from a technical perspective, it seems like it threw out the majority of techniques from a much more complete system and distilled them down into a small number of techniques that, while they may teach a certain way of thinking or being or moving (and what that is is not clear), are limited, highly idealized, and not very functional. Perhaps a null hypothesis from the point of view of martial proficiency is why not revive and train in daito ryu.
I know that I chose Aikido for my son because he's autistic. At BJJ dojos I could see that each dojo had a crew out to have fun with torturing him, probably as practice for their eventually joining the police force so they could doing the same thing legally on the street. I don't expect he would win a street fight with Aikido, but I don't want him in street fights. Somehow I've never been in one myself and I've lived in a lot of places. If he can simply break free from a grab or avoid an attack long enough to run away then I have confidence that it is giving him some value as a martial art. Thee rest I consider social skills on how to live with physical contact. Then again I consider his cross country running a martial art. I guess that's a niche market, but considering how many autistic people there are and the rate going up, perhaps that's a growth market that can substain a Martial Art which is not about how to beat the crap out of weaker people.
For aikido to remain relevant, it has to evolve like other martial arts. You are correct about the need for aikidoists working and testing their martial art against other martial arts. This is healthy. ruclips.net/video/YoM5vs5Stg0/видео.html
“The cultural punchline.” What a great channel name. Shinwa Taido from Inoue is available to reference from this video. Excellent video Tengu, thanks from Bagauzhang. ruclips.net/video/ko0zTHgaRik/видео.htmlsi=Ftuhc0FBCZSN1mDY
ruclips.net/video/YeHxlzrGTog/видео.htmlsi=KGh_CR8nU6d6Qf90 Regarding the symbolism of the sword, I suggest also this beautiful interview to a Japanese swordsmith.
To be honest the only way I see it becoming more accepted in today's world is aikido showing practicality in resistance, it doesn't have to be MMA, just showing the techniques work when someone is resisting would garner interest, I've heard many club bouncers talk about how they use it, I may be wrong but I did see an old video saying how daiti ryu jujutsu was used by guards to protect the elite during assassination attempts ,that's one Avenue, another is one point that you brought in the no foot sweeps in aikido video, you talked about how sumo was the closest to practical aikido, I agree with that and that could be a starting point, whether it would sumo style competition or sumo wrestlers using some of those techniques, or even allow sumo to be taught in aikido classes, from my knowledge apart from punching and kicking, sumo aikido can be used in sumo, that's just my two cents.
Thank you I really enjoy your content. Something that I think you would enjoy is watching Barry Robinsons mastering the pivot tutorial on dynamic striking. It’s a 9 hour master class in using tenkan, irimi tenkan in context of boxing, Muay Thai and grappling. I’m an ex Aikidoka only shodan level with experience in iaido, kendo and a number of Japanese kenjutsu school as well as black belts in kickboxing and judo plus a background in Muay Thai too. I fell back in love with aikido and aikiken after watching that tutorial and seeing the potential for the footwork. In Barry Robinsons language check out his make yourself long footwork, swivel pivots, step pivot out, and pivot in and you will see direct correlation. I’m sure unbeknownst to him, he is just working with effect positions as he is very base and position focused in his approach to fighting.
![Aikido in Context [SUPERCUT]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/s3vjBQqCjcU/mqdefault.jpg)
![Aikido in Context [SUPERCUT]](/img/tr.png)
Really good stuff thank you. As a practitioner for 35 years who has never studied the history, your summary is thought-provoking.
As for where we should take the art - I’m doubling down on conflict resolution, how cool it is to be move and be moved, and having something I can practice for the next 35 years. I’m experimenting with a new moto for my club: Aikido, the martial art for the rest of us.
During a time when I had moved away from my home kenpo karate school, I spent about six months attending an Aiki Kai school. I thought it would help, because my original style incorporated what my instructor referred to as Aiki Jiujitsu. This was, I think, his reinterpretation of the large, circular movements, joint locks, and redirection of attacks as opposed to direct opposition. While I found my time in the Aiki Kai school useful for broadening my understanding of ukemi and tori, I was put off by what you described in this video, the dogmatic adherence to specifics of technique. I couldn't say, at this late date (it was over twenty years ago), whether the instructors simply didn't know why things had to be "that way", or if I was too new of a student to bother giving the whys (my own personal philosophy is that students should understand "why" to better execute "what"), but I certainly never got a satisfactory answer.
As I have continued my own martial arts journey, I have found times where the physical concepts from Aikido are applicable. Just as, in attending a Tae Kwon Do seminar, I found a great deal of overlap with my Karate experience, so too in my Hapkido and Judo classes do I find overlap with Aikido.
I don't think there's exactly a Grand Unified Theory of martial arts, but there are certain universal principles that apply across styles. My own goal has been to learn as much about those universal principles as I can. Having a better understanding of how those different styles came to be, and to focus on different aspects of martial arts, has been a wonderful journey.
Thank you for your work spreading the research and factual history that cuts through the propaganda and marketing. You're right- if the research was so easy to access, more people would know about it! Even as a (not to toot my own horn, but it's what i do for a living as an English teacher!) skilled critical reader, I lack the cultural and historical knowledge to access and confidently identify reliable resources. I love your reading lists, and have been driving my wife to tears of frustration in adding them to my shopping and reading lists!
Thank you again, and happy holidays!
This part 3 of the series is my favorite one! It's so sad how the Aikikai didn't integrate Tomiki or other styles. Heck even Gozo Shioda was "left out"? Great series Tengu 👺!
Yeah I’ve always wondered what might have been there. It’s possible we end up right back here, but I still think it’s a shame. I’m very much a “mutt” of Aikido styles and I genuinely believe I’m only better for it.
Great video. Thanks for all the work that went into it. Best wishes for the new year.
Happy and safe holidays to you and your’s as well!
Quality of life as we age. Boy, everyone needs to hear that one. My priority too. Merry Christmas! Love the channel.
I’m shifting heavily that way. I’ll probably have a video out about it early into the New Year. I’m still young (30), but old enough to recognize my body doesn’t work the way it did even 5 or 6 years ago. My “fight” has shifted very much from being able to fend off some hypothetical attacker to the fending off the very real, very daily attacker that is the ravages of age. I’d really like to be 70, 80, 90 doing this stuff. Maybe not at the same brisk speed, of course, but also not worrying about how that one bad fall on the ice might literally end my life.
I really liked this series. Very well done!
As I understand the history and developmental path of various martial arts more clearly, the more I realize they are almost like companies. They are products and they need marketed. They all are subject to the time period and economy that they are nested in. They are effected by culture along with politics both internal and external. I'm sure changes in technology (firearms?) created a huge change in the demand for practical martial arts. Companies can adapt to meet the needs of their customers, or can appeal to new demographics....or they can keep beating the same old dead horse and fade away into obscurity. Very interesting and good series. Would love to see some actual "demonstration" from you of practical Aikido, or just standing locks and throws that take some inspiration from it if you don't want to call it Aikido.
Yes, I think you’re on the same wavelength as me here. Martial arts are really this intersection of culture, politics, economics, etc. and, absolutely, they are largely designed to be financially lucrative. I think failing to see martial arts as this nexus point of all these factors is one of the major blind spots in more casual discussion about them.
As for demo’ing, I’d like to get there at some point, but for the moment there are just a lot of obstacles. It’s on my itinerary, I Just can’t commit to it at the moment (I have a few videos on the channel explaining why). In the mean time, I’d recommend @MartialGeeks channel. I think I’d do a handful of things slightly differently than him, but it’s mostly semantic. I’ve had a good relationship with he and his channel and he has quite a few demonstrations of wristlocks in an MMA sparring context. He also has a video somewhere over there about their probably never being as effective as something like a single leg or whatever-something I agree with. Would recommend that to hold you over in the mean time!
Fantastic series
As an Aikido practitioner myself, I really do appreciate this series. It was an interesting take on Aikido (and Judo), if events mentioned are somewhat over-summarised, which is hard not to do -- you did better than I ever could. Some thoughts:
The Aikikai has, at least, degraded into a focus on the techniques, as named by Kisshomaru, as the core of the art, rather than a focus on body development concepts, and "Aiki", which I believe was more the founder's ideal, wrapped as it was in his spirituality. This is the "past" that you allude some people wish to return to, but don't explain what you mean by it. As a means of learning physical integration -- the techniques existing for the purpose of testing one's physical and mental integrity against forces in all directions, it admittedly becomes more like a Chinese art, but it does address the often suggested ideals of a smaller, weaker person being able to persevere over a larger, stronger one.
And yes, there are people who have taken "aiki" (their body development, NOT Aikido) into MMA dojos and found ways to make it work, as they learned to fight, and integrate it, but they don't go about making showy demonstration videos. But, this circles around to the idea of changing how, and what is practiced in Aikido...and so it goes...
Lastly, it'd be interesting to get the thoughts of Peter Goldsbury (the past IAF chairman), but I gather he isn't in good health.
Well done with your video presentation. Regarding your question asking where are the Aikidoka who also have a broad martial arts background in other arts, well I somewhat do. I teach a lot of Aikido techniques however in a completely different context than an Aikido class. I teach Aikido in BJJ, Karate, Kudo and in Army Combatives and everyone really appreciates the skill transfer however I don’t think this would be possible if I didn’t have a very strong background in the other arts. Also considering all of my Aikido has come from the Shioda, Tomiki and Mochizuki schools, there is a much stronger link to Judo and karate making the transition much easier for me. I have been training Aikido for 40 years now but also karate and Judo. BJJ I started in 1994 ten years after starting Aikido. I have watch all of the arts that I have crossed trained in go through continuous changes with the biggest challenges coming after the founder of the art had passed away. I have much respect for Aikido however it seems to work much better as an adjunct to karate such as the Sabaki we see in Enshin or Ashihara karate. Or in developing a better understanding how to do Kodokan Goshinjutsu or exploring Kyokushin Goshinjutsu links to Aiki Ju Jutsu or wrist locks for BJJ comps. It’s even answered some important questions about dampening the power of someone holding your body Armour in the Army Combatives world. People are very interested to learn the Aikido snippets of techniques or concepts but within the context of their art. They are not keen on the art in its own right interestingly enough. I can’t blame them as personally, every time I want to make a shout out for Aikido some poor example of it is shown on the internet that just makes one feel that there are so many poor examples of Aikido that it generates a wall of noice that is near impossible to pierce. Maybe Aikido is better served as a concept supported by a different baseline structure? My name is Paul Cale and I hold a black belt in three styles of Aikido (Yoshinkan, Yoseikan and Tomiki schools) but also Kyokushin Karate, Kodokan Judo, Gracie Jiu Jitsu, Kudo Daido Juku and Taekwondo which I started out with in 1979. I created the Australian Army Combatives Program and served in the Australian Army most of my adult life. What to do for Aikido is very hard to answer however I don’t believe it will survive in its current state. For me, the answer is in the repackaging and representation of the “best of elements” but also my perception of Aikido and experience is not that of the Aikikai. Not that I have a personal problem with the Aikikai, it’s just that I have very little experience with them. Keep up the good work. 🙏🏻
I think your story parallels a lot of the Aikidoka in my personal life that I have a lot of respect for; they all have a very broad (and deep) understanding of the larger martial arts landscape.
I do think this is, unfortunately, becoming rarer, though. It could just be Internet-itis, but it seems as if martial arts become more and more compartmentalized these days. There is a lot of tribalism that doesn’t serve anything, imho.
Thanks for your input.
On the topic of immediate post-WW2 martial arts: Lance Gatling once pointed this out, but although there were Japanese that rejected militarism and anything pre-WW2 after the war ended, but some tried to cling onto anything "Japanese" that the postwar allied occupation and the loss of their empire couldn't take away. I think a lot of initial success of things like Aikido and Karate-do had a lot to do with this; most people are patriots deep down and when they aren't really allowed to openly be patriotic, they'll find other ways... it's not like this is unique to Japan, a lot of Germans said the 1954 World Cup was when they could finally feel "proud" of their nation again.
Viewing martial arts as a cultural heritage meant to be preserved, I feel like Aikido's role until recently was preserving old martial arts techniques. Certainly it could have been done through other means, even Japanese stage fencing "tate", but this is what we got... so what can I say.
As for the future... well... I've seen more Aikido schools joining Kobudo demonstrations alongside the aforementioned stage fencing people. So I feel like at least some lines are going to be fossilized.
Yeah, this is a solid point. This script is one that probably went through the most revisions in the series (maybe on the channel) and the reality is that, as a survey, I had to sacrifice some deeper rabbit holes.
I think you are correct, as is Lance Gatling. I just ended up needing to draw the line of exploration somewhere.
Thank you I really enjoy your content. Something that I think you would enjoy is watching Barry Robinsons mastering the pivot tutorial on dynamic striking. It’s a 9 hour master class in using tenkan, irimi tenkan in context of boxing, Muay Thai and grappling. I’m an ex Aikidoka only shodan level with experience in iaido, kendo and a number of Japanese kenjutsu school as well as black belts in kickboxing and judo plus a background in Muay Thai too. I fell back in love with aikido and aikiken after watching that tutorial and seeing the potential for the footwork. In Barry Robinsons language check out his make yourself long footwork, swivel pivots, step pivot out, and pivot in and you will see direct correlation. I’m sure unbeknownst to him, he is just working with effect positions as he is very base and position focused in his approach to fighting.
@11:24 whole this entire campaign against the predecessors/co-creater by aki-kai was The big split for A bunch of black belts in the system once they found out that info. Because I started aikido ing. As a teenager I wasn't aware of all of the in fighting... But I did know part of our group came from aki-kai... But it was swept under the rug just like the way the Protestant Reformation just kind of says the forefathers of the church... But never mentioned Catholics in name. Love the videos!
I’ve almost made the Protestant-Catholic analogy on this channel so many times lol. It really is a great framing for much of this stuff, I just also don’t want to dip my toes into religion and invite a whole other type of comment ha
@TenguMartialArts dude... Religion and 20-ft poles... Seem too close for me. I really do appreciate everything you're doing with your channel. I just watched your supercut version of all three together and it basically explains everything around aikido that everyone needed to get on board with.
In addition to the videos themseves in this series, I have been quite impressed by the high level of thoughtful discussion in the comments. Well done to all FWIW. New subscriber and hope the channel gets alot of traction. CR
That is genuinely a point of pride for me on this channel. We may be small, but I think the discussions that happen hear are broadly thoughtful and constructive. In the martial arts space, that’s tough to find, imo. Very pleased and thankful to have a following that values these things.
The mistake the Founder made was he didnt stick with Tohei and went with his son.I was in the aikikai system then and there was harmony in general in US aikido. But the aikikai split off teachers, and teachers split off. It was a real blood bath.I belonged to many aikikai dojos and was told I couldnt train there. I was also going to be one of Toheis first black belt, took the practice test but there were strings attached. I was an 18 years old kid and didnt do japanese politics then refused to take the actual black belt test in public test and left aikido soooooo disappointed in the lack of harmony. Koybashi & Fuyara senseis in particular. Stellar teachers. Since then did everything. The art still has a special place in my heart especially the old feeling of ohana. You won't find that an mma gym.
I know that there's a limited time for the video, but I think it's also worth mentioning Aikikai's past relations with Saito Morihiro Sensei of Iwama and Tohei Koichi Sensei of Shin Shin Toitsu.
Yeah, unfortunately the brisk pace (even though it’s still like 1.5 hours lol) definitely left loose ends. Saito was another one that could arguably be in the “written out of history” list. I think he was well-treated during his life, but my understanding was that his son took over Iwama and then was sort of… ousted? Asked to leave? I’m not sure how to phrase it as I’m not sure how antagonistic the situation was.
But at any rate, the younger Saito departed from the Aikikai after losing his stewardship of the Aiki Shrine. Again, like the other practitioners being cut loose, I think this is a massive shame.
Thanks for the interesting thoughts - Aikido is in the end a modern descendant of the Koryu schools, but not as modern as Judo, the sword still plays a role. What function should Aikido fulfill today - there are better alternatives to almost all aspects and similar to Koryu before it, Aikido continues to lose importance. Maybe this is unstoppable - if there can be a meaning, then I think more like Tai Chi, Qi Gong or Yoga, only as a Japanese version and always practiced with a partner. Health and relaxation are the focus, but also communication and physical closeness - these are also valuable aspects that Aikido offers exclusively.
I’m not too sure how familiar you are with aikiken and the different off shoots, but I think it would be really interesting to see some videos on the why aikiken is less practical than other styles or systems. I agree that it is. I recently started searching different ways other schools/styles approach the kumitachi series and found massive differences in the complexity levels and number of techniques covered in saotomes system which intrigued me as I am familiar with the classic aikikai syllabus. But also studying the katori Shinto style and asayama Ryu style I found myself using a lot more of there movements when free sparring than my aikiken (although I am very grateful of the aikiken as that helped me pick up other systems much faster plus understand distance, timing and angles.
Sorry for the long rant I’d just be interested to hear what other people’s opinions were in aikiken short comings and other systems they felt were more practical.
Aikiken is to teach/reinforce the principles and movements of Aikido. It is not a sword style. Osensei took pieces of real sword styles and either changed them or kept it intact but reformulated to fit Aikido philosophy. Notice that it is not called Ryu (school style) but is called Ken (sword).
About a decade ago I befriended a gen X hippy. And I'd say he was overall a positive influence on me, but he definitely had his quirks. One of them being that he had this pretty extreme suspicion of anything even remotely competitive. You could bring up board games to him and he'd talk about how people feel the need to compete and dominate one another. Thinking back to that it's struck me that I've never heard a millennial or Zoomer ever express sentiments like that. I think it was even kind of anachronistic for a gen Xer to think that way. I'm pretty sure video games were what killed it off. The hipsters and socialists of the new generations all grew up gaming.
Point is Kisshoumaru bet on the wrong horse with that one.
That’s my reading, too. He bet on the wrong horse. I think there probably are ways in which competition could be addressed without changing Aikido much-probably video incoming on that-but yeah, betting on the sort of… naive hippy-ism of the age was pretty nearsighted.
I suppose it’s easy to cast judgement in hindsight, but then again, many peer martial arts seem to have figured this out at the time.
Line about western people larping as samurai’s hit home, since that is exactly what I did as a young boy. I loved anything Japanese, I loved Kurosawa’s films and although I did not admit it then, doing Aikido was a way for a teenager to pretend being the Toshiro Mifune, whose Western counterpart Clint Eastwood is merely a less handsome and less charismatic version. Only when I visited Japan years later did I understood that he extent of my outright fetishisation of Japan and how much I detested the right-wing conservative stagnation of the 21st century Japan. Japan I so much loved never existed except in my fantasy, likewise my martial art skills was merely an illusion. Then again, I was really good at that demonstrative side of thing back then and people genuinely thought I was some sort 16-year-old master and so on, since I could jump over people with ukemi etc.
I have since done boxing and bjj and while they are cool, I rather just try to improve my deadlift, since I’m not really a fighter nor am I that competitive either. I’m also aging and I’m not sure how much wear and tear my body can hold anymore. I have a though about HEMA and Judo, but if I could do “grappling tricking” which Aikido is, while still staying in shape and doing a bit of playful wrestling every now and then, I would jump back in. Sadly aikido does none of these things well.
And what I know of most aikidoka’s, this is what they actually want as well. They don’t give a damn whether it works or not, they wanna do some cool shit. Which is why most casual practitioners do any sport, that’s why you have jump kicks in karate and weird sommersaults to leg locks in BJJ.
What I don’t want is some incelesque asshole telling me that my hand is pointing 5.7% to wrong direction and therefore my technique won’t work for REAL as well as some weird little schisms about this style and that between bunch of people who could not fight their way out of a wet paper bag and who are completely out of shape to boot.
Let’s make it about peace, harmony and bunch a hippies tricking for fun. Hey, isn’t that what lit the spark in US with BJJ initially? Maybe we can do a wrestling class twice a week and there’s your practical self-defence. Let’s call it Peruvian Daito-Ryu of whatever. It’ll be fun!
Honestly-and I do mean this like super genuinely-I WISH Aikido had the balls to be “grappling themed tricking.” I actually have a video coming out about that probably early next year, because it’s something that has been on my mind a lot.
I think Aikido suffers because it just doesn’t want to go all in on anything. But I think it’s MUCH closer to achieving that “tricking” identity than anything else. It just has to be comfortable saying that, no, this isn’t for fighting. And I think that’s… fine?
Like, personally, I really do enjoy taking break falls and giving them out in a cooperative manner. It actually is a lot of fun and I think that is probably the most likely way Aikido could reach a market these days. It just needs to accept that means it isn’t this “super deadly ancient samurai art” which… I don’t know, I’ve just never been super taken with to begin with. Any way, I’ll probably be talking about something pretty similar to what you’ve described here soon and I’m very much in the same boat.
As for the stupid detail stuff yeah, it’s dumb. I sort of get it if you’re trying to be a carbon copy clone of some teacher but, frankly, I know of very few people who want that. The only “small detail adjustments” I view as legitimate are ones that involve safety. There are a few positions that don’t seem immediately dangerous that can be; a big one is trying to catch yourself when you’re breakfalling. I’ve seen more than one collarbone to that way. But that kind of detail is qualitatively different than “turn your pinky toe 2.6333 degrees to tap into the Yin-Yang ley line” type nonsense that’s out there.
What are your thoughts on Shoji Nishio Aikido?
I think he’s one of the few that had a martial mindset. If we want to take Aikido that direction, I think Nishio, among other similar figures (Kuroiwa, Mochizuki, Saito, Tomiki, Chiba, etc.) are good “bridging” figures. I don’t think any one of them necessarily went far enough if the aim is to make Aikido truly martial, but they are several more steps in the correct direction if that’s the aim.
@TenguMartialArts what do you think it takes to make Aikido truly martial?
Maybe in future some word on Kobayashi Aikido?
@kurohabaki4101 Kobayashi seems to have been pretty bad at transferring his ideas to his students. The art died with Kobayashi with all due respects.
@RoonVonBismarck meguri principle for example?
@kurohabaki4101 Yup
I did Ki-Aikido for years and it's long been in my mind that Aikido is something of an anachronism that has failed in it's marketing. Most of the high level Aikido-ka I know are in their 60's, and fewer people are joining all the time as they really don't see the point of the art. Ki-Aikido in particular took the 'New Age' route in a fairly extreme way but even the roots of that with Nakamura Tempu, a Meiji Era spy, are pretty dark and the paradox of Aikido as a path of enlightenment rooted in far-right ideology isn't lost on me and over time I find I'm less and less interested in the practice itself although I do have 'skin in the game' so to speak, in terms of time invested.
You're definitely onto something, but I think this is true of many historical things beyond Aikido and Japan. There's the fairytale of history that benefits those in charge, then there's the reality of how it was really done. There's also a common theme of the over generalized summary that is on top of the practical and methodical reasons people position themselves to remain in control through changes and unrest of others. Tons of people in history who really did the work but didn't get the credit, that is not unique to Aikido or Japan. But I know you mention that.
I'm going to dig through your videos to see if you've talked about Koichi Tohei's impact or what you think about Tenshin Aikido (Seagal's Aikido style), they have tried to do many things that you have mentioned about moving Aikido forward into the modern era and what people are looking for. Would love to see what you think of them.
Last thing I'll say on a personal note, I still think Aikido is a good generalist intro to Budo. It covers more areas of martial arts, but in a very beginner/basic level: buki waza, tachi waza, ne waza, nage waza, atemi waza, katame waza, etc. Not exactly the best in any area, but it covers a broad range and may be a good entry for people who want to dive into a specific area later. Example: going from Aikido to Judo, you will understand throwing and pinning much better. But no weapons. Likewise, you can start in Aikido and move to Iaido and other koryu and have a deeper understanding of weapons in Aikido. This happens a lot with my colleagues. Many started with Aikido, then moved to Iaido, BJJ, etc, and still train in Aikido for new reasons. They get their competitive or performative itch out with other arts, then use Aikido more for mind-body exercises. Thanks again for the research and videos!
I am not sure I understand why judo's supposed anti-competition stance is important for you to drive your point home. Judo has an explicit and specific focus on randori (which is not competition but that method of training lends itself to competitive comparison (which the word shiai almost literally expresses: "meeting of trial"). Kano did disfavour competition for its own sake (criticising the overly use of defensive posture - jigo tai - in randori/shiai) in a sense where it would lead to competitors merely playing the ruleset so to speak but competition as a pedagogical tool is key to good judo. I mean the guy was on the Olympic committee trying to get judo into the Olympics. It seems a little cynical to write this off as "good marketing" and it's surely a long way from that to "begrudgingly accepting" competition.
The issue with this is that Kanō was very much on the fence about the Olympics, for example. My reading has always been that he was on the committee primary to stay in control of Judo’s direction.
On competition, however, I think my guiding source in interpreting Kano’s position comes from his dealings with Mochizuki. I’m going to paraphrase this story greatly:
Basically a young Mochizuki won two competitions in a single day, missing his normally scheduled lecture with Kanō. After arriving late, Kanō scolded him and pretty much spelled out what competition was for in his mind: testing your progress. To Kanō, competition was supposed to be occasional and solely for the purpose of measuring one’s own growth.
Contrast this to today where there is a competition circuit and, in many ways, entire martial arts are built around competition as opposed to the other way around. I must believe that Kanō would have particularly disliked the notion of building athletes on 4/8 year cycles solely for Judo competition.
Having said all that, Kanō clearly saw value in competition for marketing. Is it any wonder that the most popular stories of early Judo are of the art winning the police tournament or overcoming this or that famous Jiujitsuka?
At the end of the day, Kanō was pretty clearly opposed to competition outside of its very limited use as a measuring stick. His participation in things like the Olympic Committee or his mobilizing tournaments to spread the word about Judo seems to largely be a recognition that competition is an inevitable piece of the space. It is, therefore, better to be in the driver’s seat even if he probably preferred that people would self-regulate.
Oh... And about the history being known for a while to at least some Aikido practitioners, even outside of Japan, is true. I've known about this for at least 20 years since the age of message boards. Progressively of course. Sources were not as abundant back then.
It’s definitely out there, just not… in dojos? For some reason?
It was cut from my script, but actually academics largely has this issue, too. Most public schools are like 20-30 years behind in terms of history developments in many cases. I actually had a peer back in grad school who was Japanese that was parroting a lot of the samurai mythology back to our mutual JP history instructor who was just like… no… that’s not at all how it went. This student was baffled that his education pre-university had been so off the mark in terms of history.
There is just this missing link between the people that research and the layman that seems to need to be addressed. In the schools, I’m sure it’s mostly down to funding and calcified bureaucracy. In Aikido dojos, I largely suspect that it’s mostly down to people just preferring the mythology to the history.
Ki-musubi is the goal. Most people don't get that and so try to aim for something else.
Arts come and go all the time. I think the first thing to establish before thinking about how to popularize aikido is if and why it’s worth popularizing. If the philosophy about peace and harmony was always bogus, and it was never very functional as a martial art, why is it important to save?
it would help to establish what aikido actually is, and why it might have value. from a technical perspective, it seems like it threw out the majority of techniques from a much more complete system and distilled them down into a small number of techniques that, while they may teach a certain way of thinking or being or moving (and what that is is not clear), are limited, highly idealized, and not very functional. Perhaps a null hypothesis from the point of view of martial proficiency is why not revive and train in daito ryu.
I know that I chose Aikido for my son because he's autistic. At BJJ dojos I could see that each dojo had a crew out to have fun with torturing him, probably as practice for their eventually joining the police force so they could doing the same thing legally on the street. I don't expect he would win a street fight with Aikido, but I don't want him in street fights. Somehow I've never been in one myself and I've lived in a lot of places. If he can simply break free from a grab or avoid an attack long enough to run away then I have confidence that it is giving him some value as a martial art. Thee rest I consider social skills on how to live with physical contact. Then again I consider his cross country running a martial art. I guess that's a niche market, but considering how many autistic people there are and the rate going up, perhaps that's a growth market that can substain a Martial Art which is not about how to beat the crap out of weaker people.
They wat? Ru saying they bullied him? Or did I misunderstand?.
For aikido to remain relevant, it has to evolve like other martial arts. You are correct about the need for aikidoists working and testing their martial art against other martial arts. This is healthy. ruclips.net/video/YoM5vs5Stg0/видео.html
“The cultural punchline.” What a great channel name. Shinwa Taido from Inoue is available to reference from this video. Excellent video Tengu, thanks from Bagauzhang. ruclips.net/video/ko0zTHgaRik/видео.htmlsi=Ftuhc0FBCZSN1mDY
ruclips.net/video/YeHxlzrGTog/видео.htmlsi=KGh_CR8nU6d6Qf90
Regarding the symbolism of the sword, I suggest also this beautiful interview to a Japanese swordsmith.
To be honest the only way I see it becoming more accepted in today's world is aikido showing practicality in resistance, it doesn't have to be MMA, just showing the techniques work when someone is resisting would garner interest, I've heard many club bouncers talk about how they use it, I may be wrong but I did see an old video saying how daiti ryu jujutsu was used by guards to protect the elite during assassination attempts ,that's one Avenue, another is one point that you brought in the no foot sweeps in aikido video, you talked about how sumo was the closest to practical aikido, I agree with that and that could be a starting point, whether it would sumo style competition or sumo wrestlers using some of those techniques, or even allow sumo to be taught in aikido classes, from my knowledge apart from punching and kicking, sumo aikido can be used in sumo, that's just my two cents.
Yeah, they can start by using real attacks. I promise you, I'll never grab your wrist.
@@MeasuringDataunless there is a weapon in his hand and you have nothing but your hands
@@MeasuringData Oh, please don't.
I think there are ways forward, but probably not as a martial art in the sense it’s popularly imagined.
Thank you I really enjoy your content. Something that I think you would enjoy is watching Barry Robinsons mastering the pivot tutorial on dynamic striking. It’s a 9 hour master class in using tenkan, irimi tenkan in context of boxing, Muay Thai and grappling. I’m an ex Aikidoka only shodan level with experience in iaido, kendo and a number of Japanese kenjutsu school as well as black belts in kickboxing and judo plus a background in Muay Thai too. I fell back in love with aikido and aikiken after watching that tutorial and seeing the potential for the footwork. In Barry Robinsons language check out his make yourself long footwork, swivel pivots, step pivot out, and pivot in and you will see direct correlation. I’m sure unbeknownst to him, he is just working with effect positions as he is very base and position focused in his approach to fighting.