jonreading

For me, Aikido is budo, first and foremost. That is, largely understanding the role of conflict in my life and how to adapt my lifestyle to address the conflict I experience. So for me, if I can say that I understand these two elements and I have adapted my lifestyle in accordance with my understanding then I would say that I understand aikido in my life. I have not done these things yet.

Secondly, the effective application of technical curriculum is variable depending on many things. I think applying aikido waza within its art is one type of effective. I think applying aikido waza outside of its art is another. "Street effective" is the latter and I think very difficult to accomplish if you are limited to waza. I think if you expand aikido to be a budo, you are not limited in doing what needs to be done. In definition, this comes back to how we define aikido.