New Steven Seagal TV Series - Lawman [Archive]

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jason jordan

09-02-2009, 09:46 AM

I normally don't start threads but is this serious?

This may be his best movie yet.......?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KogeJGB4LU0

sammywhip

09-02-2009, 10:07 AM

Steven! Steven! Haha, good stuff.

Dennis Hooker

09-02-2009, 11:42 AM

When this hits TV expect calls to the dojo to jump. I am glad they don't let me answere the phone anymore.

macamboy

09-02-2009, 12:07 PM

Looks pretty serious to me.

I quite like Seagal's movies, but he come's across as a bit of a prat when I've seen him interviewed.

Looks entertaining if nothing else. :)

Michael Hackett

09-02-2009, 01:15 PM

I recall reading in one of my professional journals a few years ago that Seagal Sensei is indeed a reserve peace officer in that parish and is certified as a reserve patrol officer. Shaquille O'Neill was, or perhaps still is, a reserve deputy sheriff in two different counties in two states. While I still enjoy watching "Cops" now and again so I can yell at the screen, most of these police-based reality shows leave me cold. Now that I think about it, most reality shows leave me cold. This one should be little different, but it probably will generate some interest in Aikido.

Trish Greene

09-02-2009, 01:22 PM

This might be a disrespectful statement but over the years Seagal has started to look more and more like Elvis

(Sorry! With all due respect to his talents and skills...)

SmilingNage

09-02-2009, 01:25 PM

The new catch phrase for the Elvisesque Seagal could be " Sankyo,.. Sankyo very much."
har-har

Trish Greene

09-02-2009, 01:28 PM

The new catch phrase for the Elvisesque Seagal could be " Sankyo,.. Sankyo very much."
har-har

Oh my gosh, that just made me laugh out loud while I was on a conference call.. how do you explain this to the group??

ninjaqutie

09-02-2009, 01:29 PM

HAH! You should copyright that! :)

ninjaqutie

09-02-2009, 01:34 PM

This may warrant at least one episode for me.... not sure if I would watch any others after that though

Steven

09-02-2009, 02:01 PM

http://www.aetv.com/news/?id=391368

Suru

09-02-2009, 02:47 PM

I think this will be great! Even though I've never met the man, this seems like something he would enjoy, as a bigger challenge than screenplays. There are approximately 6.02 x 10^24 TV series on these days. I only watched maybe 10 episodes of House, and many of The Office, but I might really enjoy this, especially if I see some Aikido. As was mentioned above, there may be some new Aikidoka because of this, surpassing those motivated by his untouchable guitar collection, songwriting, and movies. Thanks for making me aware of this.

Drew

Mark Freeman

09-02-2009, 03:11 PM

This might be a disrespectful statement but over the years Seagal has started to look more and more like Elvis

(Sorry! With all due respect to his talents and skills...)

To who, Segal or Elvis?:D

ramenboy

09-02-2009, 03:21 PM

hmmmm i don't know.... anyone remember the celebrity cop show 'armed and famous' from a little while back? erik estrada, latyoa jackson, that short guy from 'jackass' and a couple others.... went through training and then went on patrol. entertainng, yeah kinda, but made you worry about the PD....

gdandscompserv

09-02-2009, 03:23 PM

I can't wait!:D

ramenboy

09-02-2009, 03:36 PM

...There are approximately 6.02 x 10^24 TV series on these days...

hahaha drew, i haven't seen the avogadro number in years!!!!!

but isn't it 6.02 x 1023 ? :P

Walter Martindale

09-02-2009, 04:54 PM

The new catch phrase for the Elvisesque Seagal could be " Sankyo,.. Sankyo very much."
har-har

only slightly OT:
Q: What grade are you?

A: Sankyu.

Q: Oh. You're welcome.. but what grade are you?

:)
W

George S. Ledyard

09-02-2009, 05:43 PM

Personally, I'd like to see Segal Sensei paired with Dog Bounty Hunter as a "Reality" TV Show... from a marketing standpoint that would bring in just the right kind of student...

crbateman

09-02-2009, 06:11 PM

Shame on you, George... ;) :D

Fred Little

09-02-2009, 06:14 PM

To be fair, the full title of the series is:

Steven Seagal: Lawman -- Out for Donuts!

David Orange

09-02-2009, 06:27 PM

Personally, I'd like to see Segal Sensei paired with Dog Bounty Hunter as a "Reality" TV Show... from a marketing standpoint that would bring in just the right kind of student...

It should be really interesting to see this show. You can see that he's acting to some substantial degree for this, but he's supposed to really be a deputy. So we'll see how he would really treat a suspect--at least with he cameras on. Any little thing he did wrong could lead to lawsuits against the Parish and insurance problems too, so it seems he'll likely be a very different kind of cop than what he portrays on the screen.

Of course that one moment when he stares into the camera with that classic movie poster pose and face makes you wonder.

You should be able to provide a lot of insight into his police procedures, I would think.

So I'll be interested in seeing how he does things. Maybe it will be good for aikido, but I don't really expect that he would be getting into too much serious stuff for the above reasons.

I wish him good luck with the series and staying safe on the streets.

And the same to all.

David

Rob Watson

09-02-2009, 06:51 PM

Personally, I'd like to see Segal Sensei paired with Dog Bounty Hunter as a "Reality" TV Show... from a marketing standpoint that would bring in just the right kind of student...

Maybe SS can get together with Flavor Flav and thow down some beats! Yeeeah booy! Fight the power!

lbb

09-02-2009, 07:21 PM

The really awful thing is, I have a friend who is probably going to make me watch this with her (I'm not kidding, I crash on her living room couch frequently..the only way to get away from it is to pull a pillow over my head...she made me watch damnear the entire Ultimate Warrior series).

I agree with what David said: I doubt we'll be seeing any fight scenes here, aikido or otherwise.

crbateman

09-02-2009, 07:27 PM

...she made me watch damnear the entire Ultimate Warrior series.What size straitjacket do you take? :p

jason jordan

09-02-2009, 09:47 PM

Michael Hackett

09-03-2009, 12:07 AM

Police work just isn't that exciting and they will film dozens of hours for a few minutes of airtime. They will do everything they can to manufacture some drama, but it really won't be representative of what officers do on a daily basis. Now for me, getting the chance to watch him chase a suspect on foot will be worth the price of admission. For someone who can move so gracefully, he sure runs strangely.

batemanb

09-03-2009, 01:15 AM

Now that

Personally, I'd like to see Segal Sensei paired with Dog Bounty Hunter as a "Reality" TV Show... from a marketing standpoint that would bring in just the right kind of student...

followed closely by

To be fair, the full title of the series is:

Steven Seagal: Lawman -- Out for Donuts!

just made me spray coffee over the keyboard

I' m not going to be excited until I see some actual waza going on.
If they show him teaching I will be good with that, but you know these movie types....Bait you in with what he's known for, and then for the rest of the series you are looking for Aikido and there is none.

Since this is a "reality" TV show following a Police department,I wouldn't expect to see any Aikido at all, other than the bits where he is teaching/ demonstrating to other officers.

Still, if it ever makes it to the UK, might take a peak into the first episode at least:p

phitruong

09-03-2009, 08:30 AM

Personally, I'd like to see Segal Sensei paired with Dog Bounty Hunter as a "Reality" TV Show... from a marketing standpoint that would bring in just the right kind of student...

for a moment i thought you said to pair with Dog Whisperer. i was going to scream "NO! THINK of THE POOR DOGS!"

personally, i think the dog whisperer dude projects better energy than most aikido folks.

ramenboy

09-03-2009, 10:47 AM

...getting the chance to watch him chase a suspect on foot will be worth the price of admission. For someone who can move so gracefully, he sure runs strangely.

hahahahaa i read this and it brought back memories of that chase scene from 'above the law' and i nearly spit out my mountain dew!!!!

as far as the police work itself, i agree. they're going to go through alot of footage before something more exciting than a traffic stop happens.

David Orange

09-03-2009, 10:56 AM

I' m not going to be excited until I see some actual waza going on.
If they show him teaching I will be good with that, but you know these movie types....Bait you in with what he's known for, and then for the rest of the series you are looking for Aikido and there is none.

This is where I see a lot of liability coming in for Seagal, A&E, the Parish and probably more folks if anyone should get seriously hurt during what could be argued to be essentially an action scene manufactured for the sake of entertainment. And the first thing they'd do is subpoena every second of video from all the shoots to show what kind of attitudes Seagal had and what kind of attitudes were being passed along in training the officers. And I doubt any car load of cops would want every moment of their interactions available for a trial lawyer's perusal...at leisure. So I would bet chances are low of seeing Seagal seriously handling anyone on the street.

...at least it won't be another SS movie with bad vocal overdubs.[/quote]

This does explain the funky (read: stinky) accent Seagal was using in the last few of his movies I saw. I couldn't figure out why he now has this thing for bad Louisiana impressions. And now I know.

Still, this does raise some questions as to why he has chosen to portray Louisiana and New Orleans cops the way he does--or at least portrays himself to be one of them. His character is never bounded by law or ranking officers, or any ethical considerations except to kill some guy--find him and kill him. And lately, the "action" scenes have been very choppy and heavily repetitive brutal slam-arounds, where they splice a punch in four times or have the guy crash through the table top about four or five times in quick succession. Not well done, just brutal and repetitive and senseless. And that's how he portrays a Louisiana cop on one of his recent movies.

It will be really interesting to see how he handles the real-life stuff.

David

George S. Ledyard

09-03-2009, 11:25 AM

Darryl Cowens

09-03-2009, 12:08 PM

Will he have a cliche'd sidekick like Sammo? ;)

Chuck Clark

09-03-2009, 12:36 PM

... personally, i think the dog whisperer dude projects better energy than most aikido folks.

The dog whisperer dude grew up as a serious judo student and won championships in the junior divisions.

jason jordan

09-03-2009, 01:28 PM

Well I think by now we all know that "Reality T.v." isn't really Reality. So I won't be surprised to see some Jerry Springer (esque) moments. Just enough for them to say it has action in it.

And to David Orange, overdubs is exactly what he was doing....I just couldn't figure out why? In some movies it was not even a LA. accent but one that was similar to those you here when they announce new scary movie.

All in all I wish him the best. I started Aikido becuase of him even though he runs like a very very tall girl.

Rob Watson

09-03-2009, 01:34 PM

Will he have a cliche'd sidekick like Sammo? ;)

Sammo says "...not out of shape, just fat" My hero!

Marc Abrams

09-03-2009, 02:09 PM

Segal Sensei just may be the only Tibetan Buddhist Tulku who is a also a police officer, has a background in black ops with the CIA, and learned the Blues at the feet of old black blues men in Detroit as a child. AND he does Aikido. Not your average police officer...

George:

You forgot that he also has a knack of falling asleep while playing with stuntmen :D . Now, if all of those activities do not lead to enlightenment, then all hope is lost.

Marc

jason jordan

09-03-2009, 03:02 PM

George:

You forgot that he also has a knack of falling asleep while playing with stuntmen :D . Now, if all of those activities do not lead to enlightenment, then all hope is lost.

Marc

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D Stuntmen that where pink gi's.

Randy Sexton

09-03-2009, 03:17 PM

I will check it out, but I have to agree with Ledyard Sensei. The people who might get interested may not necessarily be the student a Dojo may want but consider that Aikido will have an impact on them. They will either love it or leave it.

Thank ya verrry much,
Doc:eek:

Suru

09-03-2009, 03:55 PM

Looks pretty serious to me.

I quite like Seagal's movies, but he come's across as a bit of a prat when I've seen him interviewed.

Looks entertaining if nothing else. :)

Britishism: "prat?"

Suru

09-03-2009, 04:04 PM

hahaha drew, i haven't seen the avogadro number in years!!!!!

but isn't it 6.02 x 1023 ? :P

I don't know much about Illinois except for an airplane switch in O'Hare, but in the rest of America the underlined 23 would mean 23 repeating after the 10. Until Aikiweb gets superscript, exponents will be written with the carrot (^). I will not tolerate insolence. If you were making a joke, I think I get it. Thanks for actually paying attention with me in chemistry. This number was drilled into my mind. We even had a "mole day" and Tootsie "mole" pops were distributed about the classroom. It still baffles me that my warm hearted, though extremely fascist chem teacher lets us have candy during class!

Suru

09-03-2009, 04:05 PM

I don't know much about Illinois except for an airplane switch in O'Hare, but in the rest of America the underlined 23 would mean 23 repeating after the 10. Until Aikiweb gets superscript, exponents will be written with the carrot (^). I will not tolerate insolence. If you were making a joke, I think I get it. Thanks for actually paying attention with me in chemistry. This number was drilled into my mind. We even had a "mole day" and Tootsie "mole" pops were distributed about the classroom. It still baffles me that my warm hearted, though extremely fascist chem teacher lets us have candy during class!

Ahh, you must see it as Michael Jordan's number! :-b

ramenboy

09-04-2009, 09:16 AM

I don't know much about Illinois except for an airplane switch in O'Hare, but in the rest of America the underlined 23 would mean 23 repeating after the 10. Until Aikiweb gets superscript, exponents will be written with the carrot (^)...

that's true, drew. forgive my 'superscript ignorance.' i was just referring to your original post (#12)listing avogadro's num as 6.02x10^24

N0 0NE DISSES THE AV0GADR0 NUMBER!!!!!! :P

anyways, sorry for the thread drift, guys

back on topic...

should be an interesting 45 minutes in jefferson parish... or however long the series lasts

Ron Tisdale

09-04-2009, 12:15 PM

Speaking of reality shows, that nut who murdered (alledgedly) his wife...wasn't he already married while courting people on that show he was on??? :eek:

Best,
Ron (Reality my @$$)

jason jordan

09-04-2009, 01:47 PM

Speaking of reality shows, that nut who murdered (alledgedly) his wife...wasn't he already married while courting people on that show he was on??? :eek:

Best,
Ron (Reality my @$$)

C'mon now Ron. This is American Media we are talking about, we would never lie about T.V. reality to get ratings or money...That's just not right.

Nothing on Jerry Springer is ever fixed or rigged. It's just good ole American Reality!:freaky: :freaky: :D

Lyle Bogin

09-04-2009, 01:50 PM

Script format:

Steven: "We have a situation."

Steven on radio: "What's the situation."

Steven to camera: "Here's the situation..."

Steven: "Go, go!"

Steven arrives on scene.

Steven: "Everyone, calm down."

Arrest is made.

Roll credits.

jason jordan

09-05-2009, 08:06 AM

Shany

09-05-2009, 03:17 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99E16w0PxCA

its just funny to see him with big glasses acting cool in a sheriff cloths shouting "Get him" with no enthusiasm :D

Marc Abrams

09-05-2009, 05:34 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99E16w0PxCA

its just funny to see him with big glasses acting cool in a sheriff cloths shouting "Get him" with no enthusiasm :D

I think that it would be funnier if they filmed him changing after playing with a stuntman :eek: !

Marc Abrams

PhilMyKi

09-07-2009, 05:18 AM

Britishism: "prat?"

Tudor slang word for arse.

John Lesko

09-07-2009, 08:30 AM

Kevin Leavitt

09-07-2009, 09:18 AM

Question #1:

I am not sure you can answer this globally.

It is not like "Aikido" is one big organization that is syndicated.

There will be some organizations and clubs that will definitely benefit from the publicity of Aikido in the Popular media. Others, it won't make much difference.

Alot of long term success it has to do with Location, Location, Location. Especially here in the Northern Va area as you know!

Sure, you may get alot of newbs in the door to try it out and watch a class or maybe try it out for a while. It may tilt the guy that just has never gotten motivated to come in....but long term, how many folks do you think will stay in the dojo based on a TV show?

I still think anything that brings positive awareness to the art is good. Positive meaning folks come in cause they like what they see...not meaning that YOU the already Aikidoka see. Remember, it ain't you that needs to be attracted and marketed to.

#2

Well my aikido dojo and my BJJ dojo, neither of us do much to market and recruit really. We just train and get word of mouth, and walk-ins. That seems to keep us in business.

The Aikido dojo, probably our best feature is our location in Arlington. We are right across from the metro station, and we are on a main street. So we get alot of walk-ins and folks always need the Metro to get to class. I bet that determines alot about who chooses our dojo over others. Location.

I also think our Website probably helps some too. That is, folks looking for Aikido doing the research can find our basic info and then come by.

The main marketing tool I think is once you get them in the door, they like what they see on the mat. I think this is the most important thing.

in the Insurance business I learned "10, 3, 1". For every 10 people that get exposed to our advertising or check out the dojo, 3 will actually train, and 1 will stick with it. I think that is about right.

What I think we could do better is to try and keep the 3 folks we get on the mat training and maybe turn that 1 into a 2. That would DOUBLE our long term membership by decreasing our drop out rate. I think this is where effort may make a signifcant improvement. Keeping the folks that you already have!

I have no numbers, but as with most martial arts the 1 year drop our rate is very high, especially with Budo.

Alot of the talk on Aikiweb comes from the frustration of reduced standards of training and how to balance good hard, long term training with keeping students interested.

It depends on what you want to do with your dojo. Lots of different strategies.

Most dojos I think, aren't really about making money, but making ends meet and keeping the doors open so we have a place to train. If we can do that, then I think all is good! We do that and so it seems to work.

Dojos also change over time with personalities and shifts in membership levels.

Sometimes you have all white belts and a couple black. Sometimes you have lots of black belts and a few white belts.

Question #3.

Well I am personally working on social media, web 2.0 stuff for "the next generation". I have a blog, but frankly I haven't kept it up lately. I find Facebook very, very useful in keeping in touch with my friends and fellow budoka around the world that I know. I wouldn't call in marketing, but communication, which helps alot.

I think the Social Media and Internet as a whole has done alot to improve and draw folks together. ALOT!

It can help with Seminar marketing and knowledge sharing and increasing good will etc.

However, I think that is more useful on long term folks and as a peer based thing vice attracting new students.

Social Media marketing is a little different than advertising of the past. It is really about getting to know people and building trust and goodwill. Any growth or "profit" that comes out of it is based on second third order effects and not necessarily direct as in attracting new students to the dojo.

AIkido is a tough sale, but we want it that way. Folks have to really want it in order to get on the path. Sure you could bring folks in the door pretty easily by making it entertaining, fun, or selling the hype, but don't you think that would probably be short lived once folks figured it out?

I think the best we can hope for is an increase awareness that might cause folks to check out websites, learn a little more about the art and what we do, and that is good. If a million folks watch the show and 1 percent of them actually ponder Aikido for a few minutes and a few of them who never knew anything about it actually find the path and get on it...then I think we can call it a success!

Linda Eskin

09-07-2009, 11:28 AM

I'm going to go, optimistically, with "any publicity is good publicity."

The most common question, by far, I hear when I mention Aikido is "What is that?" It's hard for people to become interested in something they've never heard of. This could be an opportunity for dojo everywhere to do bits on "what is this Aikido stuff, really?" with their local wandering news reporters, do demos at schools, etc.

I hope there's a theme, in the show, of ending conflict with minimal harm, instead of being as badass as possible (which seems to be the basis for a lot of popular culture. Maybe, could we hope, (like Kung Fu) that the show might offer some refuge,support, and agreement to those who bristle at the "violence is awesome" BS we see everywhere else.

If the show's gonna be on, we should take advantage of it in every way possible. :-)

Linda Eskin

09-07-2009, 11:34 AM

Sure, you may get alot of newbs in the door to try it out and watch a class or maybe try it out for a while. It may tilt the guy that just has never gotten motivated to come in....but long term, how many folks do you think will stay in the dojo based on a TV show?

I'm going to be optimistic about this, too. :)

When David Carradine died there was a tremendous outpouring of sadness and gratitude, with many folks (here, on Twitter, and at the dojo) saying the show had been what first got them interested in martial arts.

Even for people of the temperament to become dedicated students, exposure is necessary. If one has never heard of Aikido, how could one become interested in pursuing it? I had at least heard of Aikido, but what got me into the dojo was a horse trainer (Mark Rashid), and his book "Horsemanship Through Life." Learning of Aikido from a TV show seems no less valid a path than from a book, or from friends.

Kevin Leavitt

09-07-2009, 11:59 AM

I agree Linda!

jason jordan

09-07-2009, 05:45 PM

Linda Eskin

09-07-2009, 06:33 PM

...
3) "Have others experimented w/ new media (facebook, twitter, etc) to attract the next generation aikidoka?".

The dojo where I train uses social media fairly extensively. Many of us are on Facebook, and are fans of the Aikido of San Diego Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/aikidosandiego). Sensei also posts videos from the dojo on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/user/davehhp). And of course there is the dojo Web site (http://www.aikidosd.com/). These were the initial ways I found out about the dojo. I also listened to all of the "Aikido - The Way of Harmony" podcasts, to get a better sense for what Aikido was (after having initially become interested via the book/horse trainer I mentioned above.

...
... Of course word of mouth advertising and a personal invite to visit one's home dojo is best. Just interested in hearing other opinions.

What's the reason for saying a personal invite is best? I don't buy it.

It turns out that I do work with 3 people who have practiced Aikido, but none ever mentioned it (at least not to me). I didn't hear about playing guitar from a friend, or riding horses. No one invited me to come out and do photography with them, or learn to cook. These are all things I saw in popular media, or out in the world, that seemed to suit me, and so I have pursued them, in each case for decades.

I do hear stories (here) about people who brought their friends to the dojo, but the friends quit soon after, or quit when the friend who brought them quit. They were just there because of their friend.

I also don't buy it about badassery selling Aikido. Think of who our TV heros have been in our favorite shows: The Lone Ranger, Kung Fu, Star Trek... All on the side of right and justice. Thoughtful, defending the weak, not causing any more harm than necessary. If we're lucky this could follow that model, and could bring intelligent, compassionate people (who are sick of all the badassery out there) into the dojo.

Michael Hackett

09-07-2009, 06:53 PM

Linda,

Don't buy any lottery tickets then as you won't be that lucky. This show will just be another similar to "The Women of Broward County" or some such. A few minutes of actual police work and lots of personal drama and "inside story" garbage. If you see any aikido at all, it will likely be ikkyo, nikkyo and sankyo as variations of those are taught in almost all police academies with a different name. This just won't be worth watching unless you hail from that area or know someone involved. Empty carbs for the brain.

Linda Eskin

09-07-2009, 10:51 PM

Linda,
Don't buy any lottery tickets then as you won't be that lucky. This show will just be another similar to "The Women of Broward County" or some such. A few minutes of actual police work and lots of personal drama and "inside story" garbage...

You may be right, and far be it from me to defend almost anything on television, especially "reality" shows. But if the "inside story" includes anything about his Aikido, or training Dept. officers in non-lethal and hand-to-hand techniques, there may be a few snippets of value here and there.

The A&E page announcing the show (http://www.aetv.com/news/?id=391368)says "He is an expert martial artist, with a 7th-degree black belt in aikido. Along with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris, he's considered one of the film industry's greatest action stars." That's not a lot, but it's more than I've heard about Aikido in popular media than in... oh, ever.

The Guardian (UK) (http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2009/aug/28/steven-seagal-lawman)said: "It all began 20 years ago," the voiceover thunders, "when Seagal, a world-renowned seventh degree aikido expert, was shooting a movie in Jefferson Parish. The sheriff asked him to teach his men some self-defence and weapons skills. The training was so successful," the narrator growls, "that Seagal was deputised."

The show may be crap, or maybe not, but the little bit of buzz going on around it is still a net positive, and could provide an introduction to the art for some.

Michael Hackett

09-08-2009, 12:12 AM

I think you may be right about the buzz Linda. It may well generate some interest in Aikido with a mass audience, much like his earlier movies did. You may see a little in the training arena, but for the most part, this will probably be so much equine-recycled hay. Hah! Now I'm an art critic too. And I haven't even seen the show. So much for my credibility.

dalen7

09-08-2009, 02:50 AM

Well the view of him slamming the dudes head into the car pretty much shows its not 'real' drama as he states. [Police brutality as he is already handcuffed, etc. So this is staged.]

He is seen sprinting for a few seconds, and it appears he wouldnt last that much longer. Not picking on Segal, Im sure he could whip me around like a rag doll if I went close to him. ;)

However the fact remains that conditioning in the type of atmosphere he is trying to portray is of utmost, and anyone who has been in a ring for a few minutes knows how much commitment it takes just to have the stamina for this kind of stuff.

Sure it will generate interest, but Im not sure how many will be committed, as ones goals have to be pretty defined with Aikido or you can get disillusioned with what you think it can actually do according to the circumstances your faced with. [i.e. for many it may hold up better if they play a bouncer role vs. using it solely as some cop chasing people down. [I think thats why they use tasers now, most cops just dont have the stamina to do the chasing... nor the time. Although some instances are just plain silly to use a taser and Aikido would be useful.]

Dont know, this opens up a whole can of worms... Its a show, so take it for what it is... sit back with some popcorn and get motivated by a motivator and then make your training your own. :)

Peace

dAlen

Nick P.

09-08-2009, 10:50 AM

This might be a disrespectful statement but over the years Seagal has started to look more and more like Elvis

(Sorry! With all due respect to his talents and skills...)

Ahem...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af-Id_fuXFA

...but i agree with your respectful comment, overall.

David Orange

09-08-2009, 11:47 AM

Well the view of him slamming the dudes head into the car pretty much shows its not 'real' drama as he states. [Police brutality as he is already handcuffed, etc. So this is staged.]

It just looks like a number of lawsuits waiting to happen. And shoving the guy's head into the car is hardly what I'd want to represent either aikido or the police. Not a very good start, so far.

David

Mark Peckett

09-08-2009, 11:59 AM

Isn't the aikido guy's name "Seagal"?

Or does this mean George Segal the actor is doing a police reality series?

Or is it Jonathan Livingston Seagull?

Or Barbara Seagull (Hershey)?

Anjisan

09-08-2009, 03:27 PM

All this talk about a surge in interest in aikido resultant from Steven Seagal's new TV show, "Lawman," and/or the fantasy of a future reality show pairing up a Jefferson County deputy sheriff w/ a bounty hunter ...

Hmmm ... Begs the questions:

1) "Do we need a TV show or movie actor to spur interest in aikido?"

2) "What (if anything) do dojo members do to advertise or recruit new students?"

3) "Have others experimented w/ new media (facebook, twitter, etc) to attract the next generation aikidoka?"

... Of course word of mouth advertising and a personal invite to visit one's home dojo is best. Just interested in hearing other opinions.

I believe that this situation is a little bit different--also my post is NOT totally in response to the above post, just primarily the first paragraph. First, Seagal sensei seems to be a bit more than just a television or movie actor. When he came on the scene back in the 80's (Merv Griffin Show and then Above the Law) he was already a 6th Dan in Aikido. Unlike say, David Carridean or Adrian Paul who found the martial arts AFTER being in show business.

Second, I would surmise that his movies have probably driven in far more students than all the camps, seminars, DVDs, books, etc combined from other Shihan that tend to speak to the choir anyway. At least I have not witnessed any recuting booths with lines to sign people up who watched seminars from the sidelines.

Third, I, along with several others, that I personally know got into Aikido because of Seagal sensei. Am I a Kool Aid drinker or blind follower, NO. Furhter, they nor I certainly don't feel that we are some socially inept, educationally challenged individuals--which often seems implied one has to be to have any substuntial respect for the man. I don't watch Bounty Hunter shows or other televison drec and I do have a fair amount of education. When that is implied, it can convey a smugness that does not do the ideals of Aikido justice. This seems to creep in anytime Seagal sensei is brought up.

However, I do feel that he does good AIkido, has done a lot to expose an--up until when he arrived on the scene--obsure art, he most definately has character flaws as do other Shihan which would undoublty show through if the spot light was blazing on them like it does him, and he has demonstrated that AIkido can actually be effective for self-defence.

I had originally come from a kickboxing background and I had heard it said in martial art circles that Aikido lacked self-defence legitimacy, that it was largely good for wrist grabs and self-rightous dogma. I believe that Seagal sensei helped to change some of that as far a perception goes.

Fourth, I feel that all avenues should be explored as far as exposure to grow Aikido. For most of us who don't have Seagal sensei's platform, the grassroots approach can't hurt as well as organizations such a AIKI Extentions. As far as Facebook, Twitter,etc they are certainly avenues that could help as well.

Finally, I guess at the end of the day we should be careful to throw the baby out with the bathwater--he deserves some credit and respect for expanding exposure of Aikido as an ambassador wanted or unwanted. This television show could be a positive for our art or quicly forgotten not unlike some of his movies