How to make your aikido dangerous again
Last month we introduced a new concept. You shouldn’t be claiming aikido is lethal unless you’ve given it some serious thought, and worked out how to do it. The first part of that is actually quite simple and easy to achieve. The second part though, how to actually make your aikido dangerous, requires a bit more consideration, and a fair bit of practice. The techniques of aikido, the ones we see in every session on the mats, are brutal. As aikidoka we have a tendency to focus on the opposite.…
New Rule #2
It’s time to take a look at the next of our new rules, it’s about aikido being lethal. This is something that so many people are guilty of and it’s time to stop. New Rule #2: You are not allowed to claim lethal effectiveness for aikido unless you can prove it. Aikidoka seem to love to claim that it is ‘lethal’, or ‘too dangerous for competition’, or ‘incredibly deadly if we want it to be’. I understand why we claim that. I really do. There’s a whole host of reasons…
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…
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…