Aikido?

**Zerstörer90** · Posted On: 7/08/2012 3:11pm

Originally Posted by Ben armstrong

i would suggest against aikido for anyone new to martial arts. you need something direct and fast paced like kickboxing or kenpo. not that you should beleive anyone who says its junk. ive made use of it more then a few times in bad places. felt like i was wasting my time for years though so it Can be more trouble then its worth.

Originally Posted by Ben armstrong

well im not gonna candy coat it. its really not a great choice for self defence but its not suppose to be. ueshiba ment for it to be a way to strengthen your mind and spirit.

I won't candy coat it either. Aikido is next to useless training in comparison to any alive art. I trained in Aikido for years, and diligently believed all of the Kool-Aid. I even used it in a few minor situations, and thought I was pretty good at fighting. We trained hard. I thought I had t3h r34l 41k1d0. I trained six days a week for two years as a full time job at my Aikido dojo. I helped teach classes and do public demonstrations.

After one Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Lesson, I took our first student (highest ranking) and repeatedly took him down, passed his guard (if you can even call it that), took his back, and tapped him out. His excuse afterwards was: "I could've hit you at any time and ended the fight". So, being the idiot I believed him. Not being an idiot, I started doing some Boxing.

The next time we sparred with full head gear, mouth guards, 4.5 oz grappling gloves, and our sensei there to stop it if it got out of hand. Now, whenever I threw anything with kinetics behind it his head popped back like a pez dispenser (because of his refusal to keep his hands up), and he fell to the ground, and my sensei would sternly tell me not to "try to take his head off", which I honestly wasn't doing, I was going 50%, as expected in sparring with someone new (not to mention I kept reminding him to put his hands up or he'll get popped; I thought I was being nice.). So I started throwing arm punches at him and focusing on footwork. He tried to throw me a few times, but thanks to my (at the time) month of BJJ and Judo training, he was unable to have any real control over me and i easily reversed position and ended up dropping punches (mind you, still arm punches) on him while he curled up in the fetal position.

TL;DR : Aikido is next to useless in terms of self defense or fighting training

P.S.
Before this incident I was actually kind of afraid of this guy because he had trained in Aikido for 3 times as long as me and was soon going to be testing for Black Belt.

**daishi** · Posted On: 7/08/2012 9:31pm

I'm a little confused...are you saying you took one BJJ lesson then went back to your aikido school and took someone's back? That's too bad that someone you looked up to let you hit him in the face a bunch. That's disappointing.

**Zerstörer90** · Posted On: 7/09/2012 12:16pm

Originally Posted by daishi

I'm a little confused...are you saying you took one BJJ lesson then went back to your aikido school and took someone's back? That's too bad that someone you looked up to let you hit him in the face a bunch. That's disappointing.

LOL, ok I can see how that was misunderstood. He wanted to see the things I learned from the lesson. I was surprised too, I only used moves they taught me at the first lesson and I completely destroyed him in grappling. Sloppy Double leg takedown, then Double-underhook pass to side control, knee slide to mount, and then he'd panic and roll over, choke was right there. He kept trying to grab my fingers when I had the choke sunk in too. Didn't work. This sequence happened three times, with no effective resistance.

Disappointing is a good way to put it. And I wouldn't really say "look up to" as much as "respected the skills of". Now I'm much more skeptical of his claims and his "authority" in the martial arts. And he didn't let me punch him in the face, to his credit, he was trying to stop that from happening. He just had literally nothing to offer.

I wasn't attacking off-balance, and I was refusing to reach with my punches. I landed short combinations and then angled off and kept my feet moving. I would feint one big punch(Right hook), and he would jump on it because he thought it was "that big punch" that he had been training for. Then I would take an angle the left and stick him with a left-hook, straight-right combo. Rinse, Repeat. And though I was throwing sissy arm punches at him, he was bloody and gave up around 2.5-3 minutes into sparring.

**daishi** · Posted On: 7/09/2012 11:44pm

Ok, that makes more sense. I first thought you were saying that you jacked up some BJJ fools with your aikido..which didn't jive at all with your first couple of statements. Took me a minute to figure it out, but yeah, that makes sense. I started regularly grappling after doing aikido for 11 years and karate since I was 9. Definitely a humbling experience...but in a good way. My focus this last month or so has been pulling off aikido techniques in karate sparring or judo/jujitsu randori. Its always fun to do that...albeit rare.

**Ben armstrong** · Posted On: 7/10/2012 11:33am

i dont think getting formally owned made his spirit or mind any stronger lol so maybe he should have had it explained to him how it wasnt that kind of ma before he signed up. the problem is people often dont listen at all when they are told that.

**Ben armstrong** · Posted On: 7/10/2012 11:45am

i look at it like a side dish. without the main meal its useless. i find more oppertunity for a successfull bind after an opponants been hit with a knee or two.

**Ben armstrong** · Posted On: 7/10/2012 12:01pm

btw im from fitchburg ma and ive wanted to learn bjj for awhile but i cant afford a gym. is there a forum i can find someone to teach/practice it with me in my city or near? im not a competative person,i just wanna learn. im also a good sport when it comes to taking more then a few punishing hits or defeats in sparring/practice. i dont mind as long as im learning plus im kinda use to it lol. had alot of sibling rivalry growing up and that can be brutal xD

**Zerstörer90** · Posted On: 7/10/2012 2:00pm

Originally Posted by Ben armstrong

i dont think getting formally owned made his spirit or mind any stronger lol so maybe he should have had it explained to him how it wasnt that kind of ma before he signed up. the problem is people often dont listen at all when they are told that.

Oh but it does. Through defeat we are humbled and our egos are lessened. There is no escaping defeat. We all lose. You can either learn something from it, or choose not to. He was not defeated that day by me, but by his own ego. In a friendly sparring session he repetitively refused to correct fundamental mistakes resulting in him getting beaten far worse than was necessary. Even after the match he refused to acknowledge the error of his ways and improve.

A few months ago, I asked him if he wanted to try it again and he responded with something to the effect of: "I don't believe we need to go that hard in order to learn martial arts. I believe it's counter-intuitive to what Aikido is about, and will hinder my training."

That's when I quit Aikido for good and took up combat sports. It's not a "side-dish". It's going vegan. And as another thread on this site has taught us, don't go full V-tard.

Also about the knees comment. At what point are you no longer practicing aikido and begin practicing something else entirely? I personally like to think that the fundamental concepts of aikido (relaxation, evasive movement, rhythm & timing, etc.) still help me today. But then again those concepts can be applied to anything. I use absolutely none of the aikido technique I learned, save some of the falling techniques and those neat wrist stretches that can help prevent carpal tunnel syndrome.

**Ben armstrong** · Posted On: 7/10/2012 2:55pm

i still practice aikido i just dont go to the gym for it anymore. on the subject of defeat..your right ^_^ cant argue that. i still like aikido either way i guess. myles,a friend of mine started teaching me about thai boxing sometime around oct. 2009 though i couldent tell you exactly when and as for aikido its been so long i dont remember when i quit (the gym) ive really only learned/practice basic thai boxing. as much as i like practicing i dont have the time to dedicate myself as much as id like and finding a ride to myles appartment isnt easy so i seldom see him.