How To Deal With The Idea That Aikido Is Worthless?
Last week a Redditor on the r/martialarts sub posed a question to the group. They wanted to know, “How to feel about your chosen martial art being considered worthless?” Their chosen martial art is taekwondo, but the same question is frequently presented by aikidoka. It’s an issue that affects many that start training in aikido. It’s especially true when they start to interact with other martial artists who are not aikidoka. Statements like ‘aikido is useless’, are not that uncommon. The question then becomes, how do we deal with that?…
Quotes That Need To Die #5
This time our quote that needs to die is, “There are no rules in aikido”. While there are many incorrect quotes about aikido, some are worse than others. This particular quote is a prime example of why you should never trust what someone says without checking it for yourself.* At the very least, you should give some thought to what they are telling you, and consider a slightly wider picture of things. Origins It’s not the easiest to determine where this quote began it’s life. It’s heard in dojo all…
What Makes A Good Training Session? – Part 3
Promote Competition Between Friends Every once in a while the question, “What makes a good sensei?” comes up for discussion. There are many valid answers for this question but this post is going to take a different approach to the standard responses. This month continues the series looking at what makes a good training session? Since the sensei runs the session, a good training session requires a good sensei. The inference being that if you do these things then you will improve as a sensei. This post will be considering…
Why There Should Not Be Competition In Aikido – Part 2
This post is the final entry in the four part series on competition in aikido. The last post started presenting the arguments that competitive aikido is bad. That’s Not How That Technique Is Supposed To Work There is, amazingly, a very close analogy to the idea of competition in aikido. There is an art designed for close personal self-defence that can be looked at in this context. In recent years, Krav Maga has developed a competition aspect. What is particularly interesting is that the arguments around competition in aikido, are…
Why There Should Not Be Competition In Aikido – Part 1
This post is the third in the four part series on competition in aikido. The series started with a defence of competition, this post will begin the arguments against it. Many aikidoka feel that competitive aikido is bad, and they have valid reasons for doing so. We’ll examine them below but note that these are not counterpoints to the arguments in the previous posts. Define Competition People that think competitive aikido is good often point out that you are already competing against yourself. The idea being that to improve you’re…
Why There Should Be Competition In Aikido – Part 2
This post is the second in a four part series looking at one of the most controversial topics in aikido. Competition. The last post started presenting the arguments that competitive aikido is good. This post concludes those arguments. Next week will start to present the opposing view. Is That Technique Valid? It is possible that MMA has the most well-known competitive setting in martial arts today. It may only be beaten into first place by boxing. Proponents of MMA are usually quite willing to point out that there are no…
Why There Should Be Competition In Aikido – Part 1
This post is the first in a four part series that will look at one of the most controversial topics in aikido. Competition. In the aikido community there are fierce divisions over the concept of aikidoka competing with their art. In some places it almost seems like competitive aikido is a dirty secret that we shouldn’t be discussing. This does not change the fact that it does exist, and isn’t going to stop anytime soon. No matter how many letters Aikikai Doshu issue. This post begins the defence of competitive…
Stop Judging Old People For Moving Like Old People
Recently, the Aikikai released the 58th All-Japan Aikido Embukai to YouTube. It’s an interesting watch and, in some places, has prompted much criticism from aikidoka. Some have described it as embarrassing, others have been less kind. These criticisms are a little unfair, but they do shine a light on some of the problems with aikido embu in general. If you watch the Embukai a couple of things should become clear immediately. The first is that in some cases the standard of demonstration was lower than you would expect. There are…
Quotes That Need to Die #4
The next in our series of Quotes That Need to Die is an interesting one for several reasons. It would seem that no particularly famous person has said this. It’s not a quote in that sense. It is something that comes up time and again though, it’s something that everybody seems to know, or at least say. You’ll quite often encounter this whenever the subject of grading or skill level has come up. This is less of a quote and more of a phrase in common use; however, it really…
Does aikido need to modernise?
There is a school of thought in aikido that is almost impossible to miss. You cannot spend any time in an online forum that involves aikido without coming across the statement that aikido ‘needs to modernise’. This is inevitably met with loud voices claiming the exact opposite, and the infighting is off to the races. After seeing this discussion and listening to both sides for many years I have come to the conclusion that it’s annoying and utterly boring. I also can’t help but notice that both sides are wrong,…