Complementary art to Aikido?

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[akazmi]

Hello,

I am very new to Yoshinkan Aikido, having only been learning for one month. Obviously every martial art has its strengths and weakness. From what I have been reading in books and in the forums, aikido has its weaknesses as well. Since I have time on my hands, what would be a good complementary martial art to take along with aikido? Something that would compensate for the weaknesses of aikido. I love aikido, both the philosophy and the practice, but I would like to be able to defend myself reasonably from most, if not all, forms of attack. Thanks for the responses, I respect all the artists on this forum greatly!

[JJF]

Hi Akazim!

Well.... for selfdefence purpose ? I guess you should drop all the high-kicking MA's, and of cause most of the weapon-classes. I have never tried jiu-jiutsu, but I guess you can find a very self-defence focused form of jiu-jiutsu, so maybe that would be a good art to pick up.

Bruce Lee's Jeet Kune Do is supposed to be very focused on working in real life so maybe that would be good as well.

Perhaps you can find a Karate-style or Kung Fu style that has self defence as a primary goal, but I guess that it's all and all more about which dojo you choose rather than what martial art or style you pick. Go see what they do in different dojos in beginners class and talk to the students and the teacher. That will give you a good impression of what they focus on in that dojo.

If you on the other hand want to practice a MA that complements you Aikido then perhaps Iaido or Jo-do would be good for you - not all that 'real-life-applicable' thoug.

Hope you find something that suits you.

[Chuck Clark]

It is very helpful to your aikido practice to learn a traditional weapons art.

Shinto Muso Ryu Jo (a koryu stick and sword art) or it's modern adaptation (a short version of 12 basics and 12 seiteigata) which is part of the Japan Kendo Federation is a good addition to your budo practice.

[Nick]

I've learned that Aikido does in fact deal with all attacks, one form or another...

Like Mr. Clark said, a weapons class may be helpful. My limited (very, very limited) exposure to kenjutsu and iaido has helped me with my Aikido.

-Nick

[Dan Hover]

I agree with Mr. Clark that a good complement to aikido is a weapons are especially Jodo or Iaido, although finding a true Koryu(classical art) around your area may be difficult. For empty hand complements I always pimp out non-competitive Judo, as the principles are very similiar, same culture and same terminology, also as Aikido lacks a direct grapple, judo seems to fill this gap.

[Kirk]

Perhaps you should consider a harder/older style of Aikido such as Yoseikan which incorporates elements of Judo and Karate. I train in the Yoseikan style and would highly recomend it as an highly effective self defense martial art particularly if you do find yourself on the ground.

Yoseikan Aikido is also refered to as Yoseikan Budo.

[chillzATL]

I've found that wing chun and other forms of kung fu are very complimentary to aikido in both technique and philosophy. It's very good that want to augment your aikido training with something else. While many people want to suggest that you try something very similar to aikido (jujutsu, judo) I suggest you go for something from the other end of the spectrum. Not only will you develop another perspective from which you judge what you learn in aikido, you will also be able to give better attacks, in both technique and perspective, to your fellow aikidoka. One last thing, practically every martial art was developed with a philosophy that compliments that of aikido, the trick is finding someone with enough respect for the art and the qualifications to impart that aspect into their teachings. goodluck!

p.s. Aikido has no more weaknesses than any other art, it's a matter of how you train. One sensei's weakness may be anothers stongest point. Ask your sensei for answers on things you perceive as weaknesses. If sensei doesn't know, it doesn't mean that it's a weakness in Aikido, it could just be a situation that your sensei has never encountered.

[Edited by chillzATL on September 5, 2000 at 06:21am]

[BC]

One thing to consider when training in more than one martial art simultaneously is the possibility of reducing your ability to really learn and absorb each martial art effectively. I trained in a very "street effective" martial art for several years prior to starting aikido, and can tell you that aikido is also very applicable to self defense. As someone said above, it can depend not only on your instructor, but also how you approach your training and view the art. After more than fifteen years in the martial arts, I can tell you that the most effective things I learned about self defense are mental, not physical. These are such things as awareness of yourself and your surroundings and remaining calm and centered in any situation. Although it can take longer to be able to effectively apply physical aikido techniques, you should be able to learn and apply the mental aspects from aikido as soon as in any other art.

I train in Aikikai style, so I am not as familiar with Yoshinkan, but I have heard that it is extremelly effective from a self defense perspective (why else would so many Japanese police oficers train in it?). For what it's worth I would suggest training only in aikido for a while longer before you try to train in another art as well.

[ScottyC]

akazmi wrote:
Hello,

I am very new to Yoshinkan Aikido, having only been learning for one month. Obviously every martial art has its strengths and weakness. From what I have been reading in books and in the forums, aikido has its weaknesses as well. Since I have time on my hands, what would be a good complementary martial art to take along with aikido? Something that would compensate for the weaknesses of aikido. I love aikido, both the philosophy and the practice, but I would like to be able to defend myself reasonably from most, if not all, forms of attack. Thanks for the responses, I respect all the artists on this forum greatly!

Hello akazmi,

I'm going to take a slightly different direction than the replies you've received so far. Please indulge me just a bit...

Yes, every art has its own strengths and weaknesses. There are several good choices for "complementary" MA's that would supplement aikido nicely.

However, considering you have only one month of aikido experience, I strongly recommend that you do NOT start another martial art at this time.

Your body and your mind are learning completely new ways to behave -- new ways to move, to stand, to act.

Trying to learn TWO different paradigms simultaneously -- and being brand new in both -- would make it much more confusing and difficult.

Very likely, the lessons you learn in two arts will, at best, disagree, and at worst, completely contradict one another.

I would recommend that you pick one art and stick with it until you have attained some degree of proficiency before you start cross-training in another martial art.

Doing this, the lessons of your "primary" art will be ingrained enough that you can learn something new without completely screwing up the original one.

Also, it will likely give you a better perspective to understand both the differences and the similarities of the two arts. I think it will make you a better martial artist in the end.

To be specific, I'd suggest you get your shodan in the first art before you start the second. If you can't wait that long, try and hold out until ikkyu...

These are just my opinions and suggestions. Feel free to heed them, or ignore them. Your choice, of course. Just some food for thought.


Scott

[akazmi]

Thanks for all the great replies to my post. I'm thinking that I will stay with just Aikido for now. To be honest, I live in a smaller town that doesn't have too many arts anyway. Mostly kung-fu and karate, with the odd jujitsu and of course aikido. I was considering taking jujitsu, but given how similar that is to aikido, I would probably have to stop taking the latter. And I'm not sure I want to do that...

akazmi