|
Re: Is your Aikido as a Martial Art up to Reality?
I honed my street smarts as a kid in NY walking the streets and parks and riding the subways in the late 60s into early 70s when there was a lot of street crime - as a short girl/woman needed to be able to decide quickly whether to either become invisible or convey being invincible depending on the situation. Managed to scare a couple of folks with instinctive body language. Moved west and In the blighted, druggied Haight Ashbury of the mid 70s, did unarmed community street patrols and security at free concerts, and learned to jump in to break up drunken fights or stand next to a scared person waiting at a bus stop at night.
(Learned to use firearms, too....)
So jump forward 20 yrs to when I finally started training in aikido as a middle aged woman...I don't go to bars, I don't go looking for trouble...I never had ninja or badass fantasies and don't train explicitly for self-defense but I do train with martial intent/awareness and expect my aikido to be one more tool in an existing toolbox if its ever needed.
|