What do you think Aikido is.

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[dps]

The way World War Two ended for Japan was the beginning of the end of the martial aspect of Ueshiba's martial art. Two atomic bombs and his country being occupied by a foreign power caused him to hide his martial art as a way of love, peace and harmony for the world to unite under. This got away from him as people believed the cover story that Aikido was a martial art that was not martial. Modern day Aikido is; personal developement, healthy exercise, a social club, a philosophy of life, a religion. It is anything but martial.

What do you think Aikido is.

dps

[RonRagusa]

What do you think Aikido is.

Aikido is like one of those all-in-one wood shops advertised on late night TV. It's a lathe, a table saw, a band saw, a router, a drill press, a sander... Seen as one of Aikido's greatest weaknesses, it's adaptability to the training needs and desires of a wide range of practitioners is also one of it's greatest strengths.

In short, Aikido is what you make it.

Ron

[Walter Martindale]

(SNIP) Modern day Aikido is; personal developement, healthy exercise, a social club, a philosophy of life, a religion. It is anything but martial.

What do you think Aikido is.

dps

Depends on the dojo. One dojo I trained in, we wore teeth/mouthguards in case things went WORNG.. Every technique had "here's for inside the dojo, here's for beginners, and here's for "real""
Now in the second dojo in which the sensei gets annoyed if the attack won't cause damage if you don't do your aikido - NO, I'm HERE - hit me HERE - it's my job to not be there when the hit arrives...

However, I've also been in dojo (not many) where it's more "let's dance" than "martial"

[shizentai]

Aikido is a traditional martial art with focus on weapon retention, which makes it sub-optimal for modern confrontations. Its main structural weaknesses are vulnerability to faster attacks done at emptyhand range, and reliance on uke to hold onto nage without motivation. With weapons, uke would hold on to immobilize or take away the weapon, or to protect himself. Without... it starts to fall apart.

Tenshin Aikido and some other modernized sub-styles (like Bruce Bookman's) can significantly bump Aikido's usability in self-defense scenarios, by increasing usability at short range and introducing ways to maintain connection with uke without relying on him to stupidly glue himself to you. This includes shortening many timings, as well.

IMO Aikido should remain a traditional system (but modernized) and not try to morph itself into MMA. The benefit of traditional systems is that they're far more sustainable in training than combat systems, and don't require you to shape your whole life around them with strict diet and recovery. There's a tradeoff you make in lowered ability to defend against trained fighters, but everything in life is a trade-off, and Aikido definitely has its niche. It's nice to have choices.

[MrIggy]

Should be martial art, most people treat it like a hobby.

[Denobudo]

aikido if taught right is just a skimmed version of old japnese jujutsu and every school will teach it a lil different its a very martial art just ask anderson silva or layoto machida they both train for mma fights with steven seagal any martial art is only as good as its teachers and students

[Rupert Atkinson]

Aikido is The Way of Aiki. We are supposed to be studying/researching/practising aiki and ... trying to discover it and make it work. The means are the few waza we have.