Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?
 

AikiWeb Poll for the week of August 14, 2005:

How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?

• I don't do aikido
• Excellent
• Good
• Average
• Poor
• Very poor
  

Here are the current results.

Re: Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?
 

This reminds me of a study that was done about men and driving. When asked the same question as above only the words driving were inserted instead of attacking, over 90 percent of men picked good or excellent.

So we have a statistical problem here. Worse still, if we all feel that our dojos attacking skills are good or excellent, we may be complacent in trying to improve those skills.

Guy
:-)

Re: Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?
 

I believe that it's hard to do an evaluation (self or otherwise) of driving, attack skills, aikido, etc. as much of it is subjective and would be based on our own experience/background. I could go to another dojo or dojang and may be "different" than what I normally practice but I try to avoid the use of labels like "better" or "worse."

I'm also not sure what is meant by good/excellent "attacking skills" that could be applied to myself. Would that mean being able to adapt the attack and ukemi from moment to moment so that it's never inappropriate? Or does that getting well schooled in "attacks" -- specifically engaging in a conflict and resolving it in such a way so that only my own point of view is the one that mattered?

Marc

Re: Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?
 

i'll answer straight up - our school attacks pretty darn well - even though i train at a branch dojo - our sensei studied karate before aikido.

i've heard a lot of discussion revolving around attacking. i think it comes down to good attitude - we are helping each other train, not trying to kill each other......usually.

point was moot in judo. you could call a foot sweep and enter of hip an 'attack' but so was falling down - and bringing tori (nage) with you.

Re: Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido dojo?
 

I recently filmed a class for a project and was greatly surprised at the wide variation in attacking styles and skills within our dojo.

Most specifically, the students with only an Aikido background attacked very similarly and received very effectively, whereas I found my own attacks were rebutted in a totally different way (I come from a largely Karate background).

In context of another martial art, it would probably be argued that my style of attack is of a higher level of skill, however I believe that it adversely affected the way the technique was received, and resulted in my being thrown harder and further than the other students.

Interestingly though, and after many many hours of editing tape, I found myself looking to vary my attacking technique to resemble the style of the other students. I believe, after watching the footage and trying to vary my technique, that the difference in attacking skill and style radically alters your ukemi experience ;)

Re: Poll: How good do you feel is the overall attacking skills ability at your aikido
 

Hi folks,

For me, the contrast in the results so far of this current poll and the previous poll ("How important a part of aikido training is having good attacking skills?") is interesting.

The previous poll showed that the majority (82%) believed that having good attacking skills was critically or very important (38% "critically important", 44% "very important). However, only 36% of respondents of the current poll so far have said that the attacking skills at their aikido dojo is excellent/good (10% "excellent", 26% "good").

Of coruse, these polls aren't meant to be scientifically valid. But, I found the above interesting, nonetheless...

-- Jun