That thing advertised as self-defence? Yeah, that’s not self-defence.
There is an elephant in the room and it’s time to acknowledge it. Let’s discuss self-defence for a bit. How many advertisements for a martial arts class have you seen that do not mention self-defence, usually with a synonym of ‘effective’ attached to it? I can probably count them on one hand. This is a fairly major problem because martial arts classes do not teach self-defence. That statement is likely to put many backs up against many walls. This does not change the fact that it is true. Over the…
How To Choose The Best Course
There is a question that I get asked on occasion which tends to have a fairly standard answer, “How do you chose which course to go to?” I am asked this because the people that know me are aware that I’m highly selective with the courses I attend. I am carer, meaning I don’t have much time to spend away from home, and also do not have a lot of funds to spare, so I must spend them very carefully. In contrast I know people that go to every single…
Quotes That Need to Die #1
There are a lot of quotes in aikido and in martial arts in general. They get tossed around like candy and often there is little consideration of them. I think that some of these quotes need to die. There are various reasons for this. Some are mistranslations, some are just silly, and some wildly misunderstood. Regardless they keep cropping up. This one concerns the lot of a gardener in war. This post’s quote that needs to die is: ‘It is better to be a warrior in a garden, than a…
What will aikido look like in the future?
Another question that has come up on social media recently was, ‘What would you like aikido training in the future to look like?’ Again, this was an interesting and thought provoking question that prompted many responses. I’ve expanded on my thoughts on this topic here. Unsurprisingly, there’s a few factors to take into consideration on this subject. Self-defence The first and most obvious is the self-defence aspect. 99% of people (and that’s being generous) have no real concept of what self-defence actually is. This includes the vast majority of self-defence…
But Really, It’s a Business
A question came up on social media recently that I answered but thought it was important enough to expand on that answer in a different forum. The question was lengthy but essentially boiled down to, ‘Why are most aikido dojo’s run poorly, what is the solution to prevent them from closing?’ This prompted an interesting discussion in many ways, predominantly around the idea that a dojo is a business. Naturally I have my own opinions on this and none of the arguments made against it were, to me, convincing. We…
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.…
How to make aikido better by teaching the ukemi
What it comes to ukemi, I believe that aikido has a serious problem that the vast majority of people aren’t even aware of. It’s a pretty simple one and to find out what it is let’s consider the standard aikido class. As we consider this, reflect on the moment where we teach the ukemi. The Standard Class It begins with the students lining up and everyone bows. There’s a warm-up which will include some stretching, rolling and footwork movements. After the warm up the class will progress onto techniques in which:…
How to Deal With The Swimming Coach Problem
Let’s take a moment to consider the job of a swimming coach. Swimming coaches have a problem that seems a difficult one to solve and that provides them with numerous issues when coaching their athletes. I’ve taken to referring to this problem in capitals. ‘The Swimming Coach Problem’. What is it? Since I’ve gone to the trouble of formally naming it what exactly is it? A swimming coach will almost always find themselves in a situation where they have a group of diverse athletes, all training towards the same goal,…
A Revamped Grading System
The last post was on the concept of grade inflation in aikido and that it has led to overly high standards in non-japanese dojos. The big question though is whether or not there is a way to actually solve or at least alleviate the issue. I think there is and all it would require is a revamped grading system. There are a few ways that this could be done. Just get rid of it The first thing that we could do is abandon the grading system altogether. Return to a time when…
Is grade inflation a problem in aikido?
I have previously alluded to a consequence of having high standards in our gradings. Standards that are higher than what they should actually be. That consequence is grade inflation. I’m not referring to people obtaining a higher grade than the one they should have, I’m actually referring to the opposite. Many people have a grade much lower than they should have. The unfortunate thing for these people is that the keys to unlock the door to the one they should be are always held by someone else. You need a higher grade…