I have spent over 20 years exploring and developing my Aikido. I have competed in BJJ, MMA, HEMA, Sub-Wrestling, and even fought with the Dog Brothers all in an effort to understand the martial art of Aikido. I have combined all of what I know about Aikido into what I call my approach to Aikido.
Great video, explaining differences in systems and logics of different martial arts and fighting disciplines. All are equally deserving respect and praise, as they focus on different stuff, all valid depending on the situation. Hein’s content is definitely one amongst the top 3 in web about aikido. I practice aikido since long time, i recognize high competence and a straight to the core approach here. Hats freakin’off
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Thank you for the video Sensei. I've practiced aikido religiously and had a break for some years. I like this video, but being honest i've also always enjoyed the fact that aikido kind of deters the people who usually comment or hates on it. I get that people want "effectiveness", but the fact of the matter is almost no aikidoka has that as a goal in my opinion. If they like it they stay training because it is infinitely deep and extremely technical, not to mention a lot of fun. To me It's really something else, an "art" in the truest sense of the word. I like the fact that O-Sensei Morihei Ueshiba was an enlisted soldier in the Russo-Japanses war, the thought that he had enough of war and wanted to preserve the "martial spirit" in a peaceful way, is really a beautiful notion to me. It kept me fit, it made me mentally stronger and not to mention peaceful and it also gave me the ability to fall in the most graceful way imaginable. I really don't want anything else from it. It is also a way to meet so many pleasant and interesting people. To me it is the most magical thing i've ever experienced. Take from this what you want, but that is all i have to say. Sorry i got a little long-winded, but it felt good to write this.
Hmmm- if you're going to say that, then why not say it controls the body? Ikkyo connects at the elbow, thus directly controlling it. That elbow control can be used to control the shoulder as well- but it can also be used to control the body, which would be more useful than the shoulder. However it can also be used in that same way, to control the hand, which is probably its most useful application. However to say it controls the shoulder without controlling the elbow is incorrect from any perspective.
I hope all the people who think aikido is useless will watch this. I've been trying to explain to others that aikido is not a set of techniques but rather concepts and philosophy that are like advanced training once you have a good foundation in martial arts. This video explains everything perfectly. Every aikido student should watch this.
Love it! 😂 I'm laughing because this tells me to keep on my ukemi and aiki taiso. Tenkan has saved in many situations.For example. Most people who slip on ice break bones 😮.
Watching these videos in order, I’m amazed at the revelations here. I trained in aikido in the 90’s for about three years. Wish so much my sensei had explained all this. It would have made me better at it much more quickly. Even years, decades after I stopped, the biggest thing I took from the experience, was actually Mai ai, distancing, and moving off the line, counter intuitively often moving in a direction that if I had never trained would seemed crazy. I remember many of the techniques but the principle of distance and the line are the most useful. Of course in confined areas it is less easy. Also moving straight back is a little more clumsy (and also need to know what or who is behind you) and much easier for the attacker, but is useful in the initial stages. Oh, and the other useful thing that seems still ingrained enough is ukemi. Falling. I haven’t gotten in any altercations in these decades, but have fallen a few times on ice, and other instances and my learned instinct have protected me. But I so wish I had heard these great explanations when I was training. It all makes sense now. The “unnatural” attacks, etc. Having been in and seen some actual street fights, I have always thought it was so crazy. You often see an aggressor, and someone who doesn’t want to fight, and at some point the one who doesn’t want to fight seems to shrug mentally, and think “oh well, I guess I have to fight” and immediately get in a karate or boxer stance and get inside the distance as if they were in a boxing ring with a referee. They don’t even think about passively making the opponent over commit.
@@ChuShinTani i don’t understand why aikido teachers do not explain to their students that aikido only works when we hold a weapon? No one is going to grab our wrist and not let go otherwise. When have our backs taken, our opponent will grab our waist and not our wrist if we r unarmed. I have good friends in the dojo not taking ukemi because they confused and it gives bad feeling when practicing aikido. Good people are being labeled jerks in the dojo for being confused and not taking ukemi. Some real jerks that are bigger are actually jerks and not respecting the hand blade that is Supposingly a knife. There are a lot of martial arts that explicitly state that it is a weapons are like FMA or kendo etc. it’s not like those practitioners are going around with blades stabbing ppl. Why can’t we just share this information? The practice and movements will make a lot more sense too for beginners , otherwise aikido is being alienated into so weird forms.
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.
Sadly the internet is a place of "you cannot believe face value" and for sure to make sure you debunk things sadly there is no other way... You gotta go in person. Proof only comes from being there not watching videos and then thinking its tricks. But good videos otherwise.
Well here’s the thing: lots of martial arts teach de-escalation. It’s not unique to aikido. Furthermore, combat techniques were created in the event that conflict resolution fails. Fighting is always a last resort, but necessary at times. This is where I, and many others, disagree with the philosophy of aikido
If by "teach" you mean that most martial arts say something to the effect of: you should only use fighting as a last resort, or always avoid fighting- I agree, most martial arts schools say this type of thing. If you mean that they actively teach de-escalation, I disagree. Grappling arts teach closing the distance, limiting mobility and taking your opponent down- that doesn't do much for de-escalation. Striking arts teach, finding your most beneficial distance then repeatedly striking your opponent until they quit or die. Again not much for de-escalation there. Aikido offers a systematic way to increase distance between you and an attacker, giving you an honest chance at de-escalation. I also agree that sometimes non-physical resolution fails. Aikido answers with weapon use while distancing and buying time- also a sound strategy in such situations. Thanks for the comment.
This is why many Aikido schools now are pretty useless. Left wing have hooked on to it and made it into a group of people walking around while holding hands. I fought off a knife attack and have thrown and choked people out cos of my aikido training. You don't need 20 years of training to by empathetic with people.
I would disagree strongly. How many times in their life does the average person have to deal with knives and chokes compared to the number of times they have to deal with an angry family member, co-worker, boss, or neighbor? It is way more practical to master the early stages of conflict. The people who have mastered using others thoughts and emotions against them are the ones who actually rule the world.
Thank you for creating an approachable framework for aiki that shows the entire continuum, and I like the approach for working back up towards friendship and love.
Asymmetric conflict: my opponent is in conflict with me, but I'm not in conflict with the opponent. Mental aspect: it is as it is, and social emotions are not active. When the social emotions are off, there is no myself and it's the state of observer. In a state of observer, I do not act because there is no I. Action is caused by body reflexes and spontaneouty. So it's not about moving along this scale vertically. It's about leaving the scale. Practical aspect: one can test that in a dojo from curiosity, but three points need to be taken into account: accept everything wrong what uke does, accept own errors and accept interriptions from the trainer. Stay in the observer state. From current masters that I know personally, Philippe Gouttard understands that well. He always speaks about acceptance and requests ukes to fight.
@@ChuShinTani Yep, but your understanding of asymmetry is parallel response, though in opposite direction. I speak about no-response and "not-doing" (I suspect, Castaneda has invented his story of not-doing because he practiced karate) 😊
@@AikiCircus The relationship is always on a scale of relationship- you can't remove yourself from that scale unless, you stop having a relationship. Not having a relationship is the opposite of "making human beings one family." Families are relationships.
I stoped on "aindo isn't about fighting". First, it depends on what you mean with "fight". Then, you mention about energetic harmony. I'm not sure I agree with your translation of aiki, although, it seems obvious to me that for the practitioner to deal with an attack (leading situation to an of energetic harmony) you must learn and to do it and know what it is. One need to be a good uke (know how to attack properly and to protect him/herself) so the waza can be understood and executed. Also, lots of relevant sensei believe atemi (striking) is fundamental on aikido. So can't agree Aikido isn't about fighting (martial art).
Talk, talk, talk in all American videos. Better with Japanes martial art videos. They're actually showing the techniques. I visited USA once and I just couldn't stand all endless talking and screaming. Talk slow and low for god's sake.
Beautifully articulated. A while ago, during a yudansha session, my Sensei posed us all a question. "If you could describe Aikido in one word, what would it be?" After much thought (and several days later) I answered him after class one night. "Synergy" I said. "Working with what you are given to create something that is more than the sum of it's parts." I feel this definition holds in your own framing as it has no polarity. It can be both a positive synergy (towards friendship) and a negative synergy (towards conflict). Thanks for the introspective video.
I'm glad to see you posting because you are one of the few Aikido people I still follow. This was really well thought out, and I liked it. But I'll tell you, 20 years ago I would have absolutely loved it. But in those 20 years I have seen many things that made me question what I thought I knew. I think Ueshiba's art is exactly as you say, and I believed in it for a long time, but as I got older, , I have had occasion to re-examine my *Weltanschauung* . I think being tolerant of others is a laudable goal, but experience has shown me that being tolerant of the intolerant only causes intolerance to grow. Flower Power is great stuff, but you can't be kind and gentle all the time; it doesn't work. I think of it this way; studying conflict is like wearing a suit and tie, and studying peace and love is like wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. If I'm dressed formally and informal clothes are called for, I can take off the tie and roll up my sleeves, but if formal attire is necessary and all I have is my shorts, I can't make a suit and tie just appear. Nonetheless, it was a great video and I encourage you to keep posting.
I remember commenting on another video - which I believe was critical of aikido - that perhaps looking at aikido as a martial art or combat system is the root of the problem. If one approaches aikido as a philosophy or approach to conflict resolution, it might be more impactful. In short, aikido should focus less on the physical exercises (5%) and more on the study of interactions and relationships (95%). Then again, my perspective is from the outside looking in.
Very well explained and impactful concept. This truly is something that martial artists need to focus on to be any good, whether anyone realizes they're doing it or not.
Yes- it's called Japanese Jujutsu. The systems you listed are simply specialized versions of Japanese Jujutsu. So you can generally get good at all of those areas, or specifically get good at one.
It would be good if you could show an actual example of this. Get someone to do some hard sparring with you where they have full intent to. I had to edit my comment several times so that it would post but I think you know what I'm saying.
@MartialArtsJourney is the only other aikidoka who I have seen gain experience of other martial arts and use it to teach aikido in a more practical and realistic way. I'd love to see you share ideas and experiences.
This. Really love this agreement between the two of them. It is easy to just say "Aikdo sucks!" but if you define the proper context, in this case survival and de-escalation many of those techniques can work, rather than trying to beating someone else up. As I understand, Aikdo is not meant to teach how to fight, but to not to fight, and try to get the hell out of it asap.
Interesting chat... As for "internal power", and Chris will know past arguments or opinions on this subject, which I put down to biomechanics and body conditioning... Tomiki explained how Ueshiba was able to do his "tricks" by the subtle use of isometrics... Personally I found I was able to do all these "tricks" fairly easily, so I don't really see what all the fuss was about when this was debated and argued about on Aikiwebb?.... Dan Harden & other "experts" on this subject didn't want to tell us how or why, which I find strange... A marketing ploy?.... Anyway, I've practised isometric exercise since my late teens... I found I could do all the so called "ki " tricks these "masters" of internal power demonstrate and so can Chris... The true sense of real ability is when you can perform aikido waza under real pressure, which I was an adherent of in the Tomiki aikido system also known as shodothugs, or heretics by the "traditional" orgs in general? According to many we DO NOT PRACTICE "aikido"... I find that weird and very strange...To me, body conditioning is very important if you want to be successful in ANY martial art.... What I find sad is the politics which have destroyed how and why this "martial art" is so fragmented... But its good to see that many latter adherents are questioning what they're taught and experimenting to find out!!.... Maybe that will bring aikido, as Ueshiba saw it, back to some respect as to its effectiveness by other martial artists and the arguments which abound on the internet and RU-vid ... Competition when young, to assess one's own ability, as a form of some kind self defence is obvious..... Later to see it as a health system when older, is fine... I disagree with Guillaume saying competition is wrong. Winning and losing in competition is all part and parcel of taking part... You are only "champion" until the next competition... It develops friendship & respect for your fellow player... That varies in what school you adhere to?.... But like him I'm being honest in our differing views ... To me, any teacher should be able to prove his or her worth if challenged, or have someone take his/her place IF challenged? ... Ueshiba did this when he was getting old, so what's the problem?... Therein lies the problem aikido now suffers and why its so ridiculed with fat, unhealthy obese "sensei" throwing their over cooperative ukes with ease!! .... The obvious is never obvious?... But there you go, its a personal choice when its boiled down to its key techniques... Kata is kata, free flowing or not, no one technique practised is exactly the same every time... Thats also obvious!! 👐
Great video and explanation. Also, understanding that Traditional Jujutsu is a Battlefield Art helps explain why it is heavy on attacking, control, and domination. That’s like MCMAP (Marine Corps Martial Arts) is going to be heavy on battlefield tactics vs self-defense. Aikido is based more on survival and self-defense which is why space and getting away is more important. Modern Jujitsu is more about competition and sport which why it doesn’t consider weapons. The more you introduce weapons and the threat of death, the more sports art start to look traditional
I started watching this thinking it would be rubbish, but actually it's very good. I trained for over 20 years, in various schools (and taught). It's always how the guys that look weedy and beardy are often the ones that are tough as nails. Thanks for this.
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
