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I have heard from people, who have not had any real life fighting experience, argue about pure Aikido vs. Atemi Aikido.
They equate pure dojo training, as real fighting experience. There also seems to be intellectuals who have not fought in the real world, who have convinced many others, that you don't need to train for the real world.
Those with real life experience, are portrayed as not knowing Aikido, as well as not knowing real life fighting.
I returned to the Katsuo Watanabe Tomiki Aikido School operating out of the Westchester Community College located in Valhalla, New York.
My first class there proved that white belts can be dangerous. She was executing a technique and crash landed me onto the back of my head & neck. Whip-lash is an understatement.
By my third class, I had to stop, because my prosthetic leg broke its heel. Oddly enough, it was not as a result of practice. It was damaged walking down concrete steps.
I returned once again to see another white belt and developed a little fear of her. Only simple techniques would be practiced. Only techniques that I knew the expected outcomes.
Since I have retired, I have had a change of training philosophy mindset take place, and it was subconscious. I don't train as though people are trying to hurt or kill me any more.
I actually have time, to look at the minor details, that I have missed all of these years. It is like waking up and smelling the coffee.
I have been in a warrior mode for so long that I overlooked the fine points of my techniques. Now, techniques are actually improving.
I am still a brittle old man, in a young person's mind, who definitely knows his physical limitations. There are no questions about my limits any more. They are like highway lane markers these days.
I would say that many perspectives of Aikido & fighting, have been analyzed to such a degree, that everyone has lost sight of the whole picture.
You can still look good using Aikido techniques in a violent confrontation. That is why you practice for many years. Not everyone is prepared to fight someone proficient in Aikido.
Aikido practitioners look for the flaws in techniques, that criminals and non-practitioners, do not look for. You are defeating yourselves before a violent confrontation has even begun.
You have the element of deceptive skills, combined with surprise, and practice.
I have begun my weight training for my legs. The leg press machine has been good to me. My leg presses are now at 500 lbs. and slowly climbing. Before my ankle injury I was topping out at 1,350 lbs.
My incline bench is still strong at 385 and short of my 405 lbs.
Those are my only primary weightlifting exercises.
My alternate exercise is giant curls.
It is going to take a while. My legs are feeling wobbly at my current poundage. My left shoulder doesn't want to exceed my current weight.
My treadmill workout is limited to walking. Running is out of the question. Too much hardware and not that much bone.
My workouts at the dojo have been very erratic. As soon as I feel funny, I stop what I am doing. The thought of laying in bed for 3 months still lingers in the back of my mind.
The current trend in law enforcement is to utilize younger instructors, rather than older instructors. There is a growing belief, in law enforcement heirarchy, that younger instructors have more to offer.
The argument that older instructors have more experience, as well as training, means nothing. Fresher ideas and younger instructors, bring more to the table these days. The wheel has to b
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I have finally healed and will be returning back to the gym & Dojo to start working out again.
I have recently recovered from a very bad broken ankle, in January, that required a lot of metal hardware. It is now August.
In my past, I recovered from another broken ankle, 2 knee surgeries, a hernia repair of an old gunshot wound, 2 different broken ribs, a broken nose, broken knuckles, knife wounds, concussions, and the list goes on for the last 40 years.
I have great reservations on working out. Young warriors like to test out the old & wounded warrior. If they get me, they have bragging rights. If they lose, it is no loss for them. That is the current NYC mindset.
A little known fact in boxing is that the backfist is an illegal technique. The reason for it being a foul has been lost in boxing history. What I can say from personal experience, as a licensed boxing coach for 13 years, is that it has been a good harassing blow that has wrecked havoc on people.
It is up there, against a good spearing jab. However, it is much easier to learn, and requires a lot less maintenance time when it is perfected.
In January of 1959, I started my martial arts training, after I was beaten up, for standing up against a bully. At that time, people counseled me, to stand up to a bully. It seems that they left out the part whereby the bully beats you up.
It is now January of 2009, and I am within a few years, from retiring from law enforcement. At almost 59 years old, I am still fighting with young people, who can not hear or reason.
By default, Aikido has survived the test of time. The other martial arts had a shelf life. You don't see 90 year old boxers or wrestlers. In Judo, in your 90s, everyone takes it easy on the old man. Aikido however, doesn't have that competitive issue. You can practice with an element of contained realism.
My fighting career has given me the insight, on what works, or doesn't work. I have lost many friends and comrades, to vicious people, with an evil intent to harm anyone.
People have taken niceness as a weakness and politeness as a flaw. I have still survived, for another day.
Last Wednesday, I fell on a sheet of ice, and broke my ankle. As much as I tried to make a controlled fall, it did not work this time. The ice made my controlled fall, go out of control. I was moving far faster than I had anticipated. It will take a couple of months, before I can walk, nornal again.
I now have a plates, pins, and screws holding me together.
New Generation have done it once again. They have started to look for technique flaws, before they have even developed a little skill, with any technique. They tend to resist techniques being taught to them and tend to brag about the short comings of the techniques being taught to them.
Old generation has now resorted to full bore, elephant gun, tactics and techniques. New Generation have been leaving foot prints on walls, floor, and on rare moments, ceiling.
The complaints have started to surface about the inferior techniques being taught to them, even though, they were thrown with the same alleged inferior techniques.
When students look for the flaws, in the techniques that they are being taught, they will never learn. They automatically think that a criminal is thinking along the same lines as they are.
This is not the case. Criminals constantly practice their fighting techniques, until they work.
They do look for flaws. However, they remove any movement that defeats their technique. A student wants to defeat the technique all together.
I have found that the newer generations (X, Y, & Millenniums), do not like to follow old rules, and they tend to modify or create new rules for themselves, after they learn some basics.
Nothing is more disturbing than to have an Aikido class, degenerate into an MMA/UFC class, because of the newer generation's frustration or impatience with their progress. They hold a strong belief that they can learn anything in under 2 hours tops. The thought that some things in life, may take years to master, is alien to them.
I have personally found that not everyone wants to put in an MMA/UFC workout because of the pain factor. Most normal people don't like pain. MMA/UFC practitioners sometimes go overboard with the pain factor and not too many students return after undergoing joint surgeries.
Yet, it is this same group of students, who will try to revert to the very thing that they hated, that also medically retired them from MMA/UFC training. They will to win at almost any cost, providing that it is someone else, is vitally important.
A softer martial art does not appear to be very strong for them.
There is a big difference between street fighting and UFC/MMA fighting. There are some techniques that only work well when you fight. There are also some techniques that only work well in the ring.
In the street, you have whatever the environment is in front of you, that will be your figh
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I have heard from people, who have not had any real life fighting experience, argue about pure Aikido vs. Atemi Aikido.
They equate pure dojo training, as real fighting experience. There also seems to be intellectuals who have not fought in the real world, who have convinced many others, that you don't need to train for the real world.
Those with real life experience, are portrayed as not knowing Aikido, as well as not knowing real life fighting.
The real fight is within the Aikido world. Did you learn to defend yourself and learn a lifestyle? Or, did you learn a lifestyle to defend yourself?
Generally speaking, street fighting can be static and dynamic during the same incident. People can be very large & slow, as well as, be very large & fast. They can have no experience, or, they can have equal or better experience than yourself.
Bad guys generally fight in multiples. There is no such thing as a fair street fight, a fair jail fight, or a fair prison fight. An old prison phrase says, "we are not fighting by Marquese of Queensbury's rules, we are fighting by Marquese from Queens rules!"
Law enforcement officers, at a minimum, can use a gang tackle technique, whereby a dozen officers hit you from a 360 degree tackle. It is not pretty or clean, however, it does bring people down to the cement.
Despite all of this, Aikido can still work within a street, jail, or prison environment. T
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10-22-2010 05:49 PM 
