No Attack In Aikido? The First Principle Says Otherwise

There is an elephant in the room that is so large it isn’t simply a case of nobody talking about it. It’s so big that somehow most people don’t even notice it. At this point, the elephant is the room. It relates to a simple concept that you hear about aikido all the time. Namely, there is no attack in aikido. This has become a fundamental part of the art. There is even a quote from O Sensei about this in the Art of Peace as translated by John Stevens:

There’s a serious issue with this entire concept. Regardless of what you believe, certain techniques can only function if the aikidoka attacks. To consider the truth behind this, let’s consider shomen uchi ikkyo omote. 

Ikkyo Omote

This is a bothersome technique. That’s slightly annoying as it’s also the first principle. In many dojo, this is the first technique that beginners learn. It can be used to form a foundational movement to lead into the other principles as well as some throws. The problem though is that it’s almost impossible to make it work. The difficulty lies in the entry.

You Have To Be In

Right from the beginning, sensei tell students to do shomen uchi ikkyo omote against a rising arm. In contrast, shomen uchi ikkyo ura is against a falling arm. The fundamental difference therefore becomes the timing. If you are slow to respond you should do ura, if your reaction time is good then you should do the omote version. 

As a side note, this should also apply when training statically. Uke’s attack should reflect those motions. For ura, pressure should be towards the nage, but for omote, the arm should be lifting away from them. It’s an invitation to follow the motion. The focus on harmony between uke and nage means this is the only way it can be, and still hold to that aspect of aikido.

The take-away here is that for ikkyo omote to be successful, you have to complete some form of irimi before the strike down takes place.

What If You Are Not In?

The problem arises in ikkyo omote when you realise that it’s almost impossible to be that fast. Studies have shown that the body’s reaction time is faster than action. Essentially, the gunman that draws second wins. There’s a big catch to that though. You have to know the attack is coming and what it is. That’s easy to do in a gunfight when the other person is 20 paces away. It’s not so easy when the opponent is 1 metre away with at least 9 weapons to chose from (head, elbows, fists, knees, feet).

You don’t know what attack is coming, so the action, shomen uchi in this case, will always beat your reaction. That means you’re going to get hit, every single time. Unfortunately, that breaks another aspect of aikido, namely that you don’t get hit.

Let’s assume for a moment, that the aikidoka correctly guesses that a shomen strike is coming. They are watching for the raise of the hand and begin entering as it goes up. It takes a lot of effort to move your entire body from a stationary position into the ikkyo entry. It’s going to take the uke a lot less time to lift the arm. A collision of forces is almost inevitable. By the time the aikidoka completes the irimi, the strike will have commenced. What we now have is a conflict of energy. The uke is coming down but the nage is going up. Now we’re fighting.

What the aikidoka is facing then is a situation where they have to enter to maintain harmony but don’t know it, and are going to either get hit, or end up in a fight.

This Is A Major Problem

Whether aikidoka want to admit it or not, this is a serious issue for the art. There are several accepted theoretical principles in aikido which include:

• Step off the line of attack and do not get hit
• Maintain harmony with uke
• There is no attack in aikido

Ikkyo omote teaches that while you can do the first of those, sometimes, the next two are mutually exclusive. The average person is not fast enough to accomplish both of those against another average person. To maintain harmony, without attacking, would require a level of reflex that borders on precognition. 

An argument is sometimes made here that maintaining harmony is wrong. It seems that there may be a cultural miscommunication around this idea. A better spin would be: restore the status quo to the current environment. Regardless of which you prefer, that still doesn’t resolve the issue with the third aspect, ‘Do not attack.’

You can maintain harmony/ restore order, but you cannot do it without attacking. Not with ikkyo omote.

The Simple Solution

There is a way out of this that is beyond simple. The aikidoka must attack. It really is that easy. Apply Occam’s Razor and the answer is obvious.

Attacking forces ikkyo omote as an outcome rather than trying to manufacture it as a response. Attacking makes ikkyo omote a viable technique, reacting does not. It’s very simple in operation too. All nage has to do is enter towards uke and attempt to strike them in the face. The uke will either raise their hand or be hit. If they raise their hand then ikkyo omote will take place. If not then they have just been hit. Those are the two outcomes and both are compatible with the nature of aikido.

It may seem like this is against the message of modern aikido, and in some ways it is, but it is in keeping with what the technique teaches. You can even test this to find out for yourself. Ask an uke to really try and hit you with a shomen strike. Have them attack with full commitment to the shomen uchi. Allowing for luck, and primed reflexes, you’ll still be too late 10 times out of 10.

No Attack?

As noted above, ikkyo omote is an annoying technique. Part of that is because it makes a mockery of the idea that there is no attack in aikido. That’s one of the first things most people are told, “There is no attack,” yet here we have a foundational principle that tells us the exact opposite. Combine that with O Sensei’s statement and it’s even worse.

The saving grace of this is probably in the concept of sensen no sen, but that in itself is problematic. O Sensei also said that sen sen no sen does not apply to aikido. What’s an aikidoka to do then?

Maybe it’s time to accept the misunderstanding around harmony and reframe what O Sensei said about attacking. In that context, aikidoka could admit the requirement to hit people. Incidentally, reframing it is very easy, simply take one step back and look at the situation. You are already under attack, you just struck first. There are circumstances where violence is inevitable, so you’re already under attack. Striking first would restore harmony.

What Does This Mean For Aikidoka?

Regardless of what we may like to think and say. No matter how many aikidoka proclaim there is no attack in aikido, ikkyo omote says otherwise. This is not a bad thing though. There are many benefits to this concept. The most obvious is that aikido takes a big step towards becoming a functional martial art again. One that can be used for non-dojo confrontations. 

It also forces a greater acknowledgement of the philosophical aspects of the art. When aikido is entirely defensive, it’s easy to let things happen and blame the other person for the outcome. Now, there is a decision to make. Do we attack or not? That’s a decision that is going to have consequences, some of which are more severe than others.

Ikkyo omote, along with other techniques not mentioned above, suggest that there is attack in aikido. This is contrary to the accepted wisdom about the art. Nevertheless, the implication is there, and when you look around you’ll see it in other places too. Perhaps it’s time to step away from the idea that there is no attack in aikido, and consider the alternative.