There is an often-overlooked defensive aspect of Aikido that gives it an advantage when dealing with multiple assailants. Muggings, riots, and feudal battlefield situations often involve multiple opponents, and this is exactly the area where Aikido offers something that unrelated martial arts, including MMA, do not. The technique is ‘simply’ to use the bodies of the attackers as 150-pound self-propelled shields or projectiles. Once a well-formed joint lock has been applied, the adversary can be moved about to block the approach of others. Projections/throws can be used to ‘bowl’ others down. I rarely hear of this, or randori in general, being mentioned as a strength of Aikido. Back in the day, I participated in a number of public demonstrations lead by Sensei Simcox, 6th dan head of the Virginia Ki Society. Sometimes he ended the demo by inviting three or four people from the audience to come up on ‘stage’ and try to attack him. Granted, the attacks were rather tame because there was no anger behind them & Sensei Simcox was using his high-level skill to avoid hurting anybody, but it still made it clear that nobody had a clue of how to approach him without getting caught up in the redirection of Ki.
It sounds at about 4:30 that Ellis is agreeing with the leading question that in the Warring States period, Bushi were inducted and trained in boot camps, but that's not accurate, and I don't think he heard that question correctly. There was a system of conscription and mass training of peasants under the Ritsuryo system, which was a 10th-11th century thing, the period before hereditary professional warriors came into prominence. Last I checked, we're not really sure how Bushi inculcated the actual arts of war, but it's probably not a deep question as they were a class of people, and sons were raised knowing they would take up their father's arms one day, and the sort of community-level exchange that Ellis goes onto to describe is a very straightforward explanation.
Loved the discussion. Have you all discussed the lines of ki and practically making a move work? I would love to hear that. I seem to always struggle in that area.
Great Asian co-prosperity sphere is something that Chinese people(and pretty much all Asian nation that invaded by Japan at the time) absolutely HATE it. And Japanese solder did lots lots of war crimes. Many Western people only know Nazi concentration camp and genocide but rarely know what Japanese solder did during the occupation. But, at the pre Japanese invasion, actually there are many Chinese warlord and government generals invite Japanese military personnel to China to be military advisor. Just a little bit history I know and happy to know when O Sensei go to China, he is not engaging those bad stuff, but I’m sure lots of people want to kill him just because he is a Japanese. So, because all of that, When I’m train Aikido, it makes me less sad because of the history😂 I love Aikido by the way!!!! ❤❤❤❤
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