Aikido: would you use it?

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[DancesWithGhost]

i would love to hear from anyone who has been in a violent situation, as to whether they used aikido and to what effect?
is it a potent form of defense, certainly the moves can be painful but the skill required to execute them properly seems almost unreal. after all surely if you tried a move out and it failed all you are going to do is agravate your attacker?

also could a fight be won purely with aikido? how many people have practiced striking skills, developed so well in ji-jitsu? would the atemi of aikido be enough to distract your attacker while you apply a technique?

these questions are not actually my opinion but ones i have been asked in the past, for me aikido is a sport that helps develop inner skills as well as physical skills. i think id rather run than fight but then im a coward

[PeterR]

Closest I recently came was with a yakuza wanna be on a train in Osaka. Don't know if we was carrying a knife but he made indications he was.

His throat was targeted for a shomen-ate as soon as I saw metal. I knew I could close the distance fast with tsukuri and that we would be slammed against a corner. I've used that technique many times in full resistance randori although the targeting was more benign. It would still be Aikido as I learned it.

End story - posturing aside he backed down and went to another compartment.

The strike was the technique - not a distraction.

[Ecosamurai]

Originally posted by DancesWithGhost
i would love to hear from anyone who has been in a violent situation, as to whether they used aikido and to what effect?

Lets see, I've known a number of people who've had to use Aikido in a self defense capacity off the mat. Myself included.
Last christmas eve I was on my way to work in the morning, I was a few minutes late I had forgotten my watch and so checked the time on my mobile phone before I got onto the underground. Someone saw me as I was putting it back in my pocket, grabbed my right shoulder and demanded that I give him my phone, to which I politely replied 'no'. He asked again and then attempted to punch me in the lower abdomen, I responed with some sort of kokyunage (not exactly sure which one I wasn't paying attention), his legs came up from under him until he was practically horizontal in the air at roughly my chest height, then he fell straight down on his back making a very satisfying thump as he hit the pavement.
I went and caught my train and was only about ten minutes late in the end. As far as I could tell (as I was walking away to get my train) he wasn't hurt just a bit dazed, and confused as to how exactly he'd ended up on the floor.

So if someone says that the attacks in Aikido don't happen 'on the street' i.e. holding the wrist or the shoulder etc.. I usually just tell them that story :)

Mike Haft