Learning what it feels like to be hit

There is an interesting conundrum in aikido that is simply neither acknowledged nor talked about. It’s actually built into the fundamental training method of the art and, in my opinion, is a bad thing. Aikidoka, in general, do not know what it feels like to be hit.

On the surface of it this is a good thing. The whole point of aikido is that you do not get hit. If you are being hit then you are messing up on Rule #1. I completely accept that and do actually agree.

The Obvious Problem

There is a downside to this though, and it’s actually a really serious one. What we have created is a large body of martial artists that train in an empty hand system that do not understand what it’s like to be hit. This is a very bad thing for several really important reasons. We’re going to examine the martial aspects of it here, there are philosophical ones too but if you can understand the martial ones the philosophical ones should be clear.

The first, and most obvious then, is that if you’ve never been hit the first thing that happens when you are is that you freeze up. You have to mentally process the fact that you’ve been struck by another person and get past it. That’s actually not as easy as you might think it is. It takes time. It takes enough time that when you finally get around to responding the second (or more likely third or fourth) strike will land. Not exactly conducive to your continued survival.

The Secret

The second thing that we never learn is a strange one. I learned this lesson a long time ago through being ambushed and getting in fights (I never started them, I just looked like an easy target before starting aikido). This one is really important and unless you experience it for yourself you won’t quite get it. Here goes:

Being punched in the head doesn’t actually hurt.

If you’re wearing glasses then yes, it hurts, but that’s because you’ve been hit with a weapon (think of the glasses as a weird type of knuckle duster, essentially you’ve been hit with a piece of metal/glass). Being hit doesn’t actually hurt. Not at the time anyway, the pain you feel comes much later.

How to Learn the Secret

The only way to really learn this one, is to get hit in the face and find out. As a learning experience it sounds like a pretty horrible one, and it is. It really isn’t a lot of fun. After all, you’re getting punched in the face. It is of course, entirely possible to go through this experience as nicely as possible. There are ways to do it and I’ve found one that seems to be working.

I went along to the local Muay Thai club and joined. At 40 years old (and very overweight) that was a pretty daunting prospect and I had a fair amount of trepidation stepping through the doors of the gym. They are, unsurprisingly, a nice bunch of men and women. They even teach a kids class (under 10’s). It’s one of the best workout’s I’ve had in years, and nobody seems to be a psychopath, which is nice. Several months in and I am achieving my goal. I am learning what it is like to have somebody actively try to hit you (and because I have a shitty guard succeed).

It’s gentle, they hold back on me and don’t hit as hard as they do at each other, so far. It’s a fact that I think would go unnoticed by most people but after years of scaling ukemi to a nage’s level I can spot it a mile away. As you can imagine I greatly appreciate this.

What Can You Learn?

There’s a lot I could say about this experience. Numerous things I have learned about in a very short space of time but there are plenty of blogs and vlogs out there of aikidoka doing something similar, having an epiphany, and proselytising how aikido needs to modernise. I’m not going to do that because a) I’m not that guy, and b) I think they’re wrong.

What I will say about it though is this. I am putting myself through this experience for a very singular reason, and it’s one I think that all aikido sensei should do for their students. Aikido is a martial art and many people train in it for self-defence. If you don’t know what it’s like to get hit then you’re making that aspect much more difficult if you ever need it. I think all aikidoka should know what it feels like to have someone try to hit you. As such I am attending Muay Thai classes for one very simple reason.

I want to learn to spar so that I can do it with my students in a safe manner. I want to take one student each week and spar with them gently so that they can experience what it’s like to be hit.

Spar With Your Students

I could achieve this very easily with a pair of gloves and the instruction, “Stand there while I hit you.” I’m not going to do that though because I believe that would be counter-productive. This lesson is about helping them understand it’s not that bad, to break through panic, to respond. It’s not about teaching them how to take a hit. It’s about teaching them what it feels like to be under a sustained, continuous assault, with zero avenue of retreat.

In time, I expect them to start using their aikido skills to their advantage during this. Many people say this cannot be done, from the anecdotal perspective of personal experience I say it definitely can.

From a martial stand point the benefits of this exercise have been numerous and I hope to pass these on to my students. In no particular order: 

1. My reaction times have increased slightly.
2. My field of vision now picks up incoming kicks (even to the ankle).
3. I am much more relaxed when under attack.
4. My timing is better.
5. I am getting fitter.
6. I have a very firm understanding of how tiring a fight actually is.
7. I’m moving faster and am actually able to make use of my aikido skills in a live sparring situation.

That last one, did not come easy. It has taken a few months before I was relaxed enough, and comfortable enough, to be able to use the skills I’ve developed over a couple of decades in a different art. As an example I have been able to slip past a jab and enter deeply enough that I could have done irimi nage. I didn’t, because that’s against the rules, but I could have.

Some Downsides

It’s not all sunshine and roses though. There have been, and will continue to be, downsides. I’m getting punched (and sometimes kicked) in the head. This is not a fun experience. While the blows are pulled (and thankfully you don’t use elbows in sparring) this doesn’t change the fact I’m taking sub-concussive blows. That’s not a healthy thing. You can limit the damage through frequency of training but you are still taking damage.

I’m getting hurt. Not intentionally or through malicious behaviour, but just through the very fact that it’s a contact sport. Bruises, aches, pains, these are all par for the course and I fully expected them. In truth I’ve had much worse in aikido classes.

Accept that you’ll suck at first

A final downside to mention is that if you’re not careful about how you do this there’s a strong possibility that you’ll end up deciding aikido is bullshit, quit, and do something else instead. If you’ve spent any time on social media and are aware of certain individuals then you’ll know exactly what I’m referring to. If you were to go into this with high expectations of what you’ll be able to do, with false expectations of how aikido can be used, then you’re in for a rude awakening. 

For instance when starting out in sparring I was tense, ‘keyed up’, and incredibly static. Moving off the line wasn’t an option, because I genuinely couldn’t. I just didn’t have the ability to do it. After 2 decades of aikido that’s a pretty difficult thing to admit, but it’s true. With experience that has now changed, but at first it wasn’t possible. To illustrate this point, during my first sparring session I took a left hook to the head. I didn’t even see it coming.

At that point it would have been so very easy to decide I’d wasted over 20 years of my life on a bullshit martial art. The reason I didn’t was that I was expecting it to happen that way. I was expecting to do a human impersonation of a punch bag. At least at first, and I was right.

My theory then, and according to my sample set of one seems to be true, is that engaging in sparring in a totally different art will provide transferable skills that I can take back to my aikido and pass on to my students. Passing these skills on is the next stage. One student, each class, will be taught the basics and get to spar.

Why not send your students instead?

In case you’re wondering the reason I don’t just send my students to a similar class themselves is that I genuinely do not believe cross training in another art is a useful experience before black belt (or equivalent) level has been attained. That’s a whole different topic in itself though.

A final observation I would make is that, unsurprisingly, it’s hard to mask training in another martial art. They could tell I had training in something and asked about it. I was completely open about my background and why I was there. The most interesting aspect of that conversation went like this:

I said, “Yeah, so a fundamental principle in aikido is that you move off the line of attack, that you never get hit. This means that as a group of martial artists they…”

“Have no idea what it’s like to be hit,” was the interruption.

They saw the problem, and they saw it instantly.