Quote:
Szczepan Janczuk wrote:
Evolve to become what? Something similar to MMA with sparrings, modern scientific training methods, supplements etc? Why? we have already MMA....
I'm not against difficult physical training; in fact I'm doing it every day. However it must be clear for you -- what is a final goal of these "‘improvements"?
|
This topic came up in class last night.
A lot of the more subtle aspects of aikido just won't work on MMA people. Why? Because they've deliberately trained themselves to ignore it: be very strong, be able to take a lot of punishment, and just wade in and impose your will.
Which is fine, but let's not pretend it has anything more to do with "real" fighting than aikido dojo training does.
What happens if you give either person a knife? Heck, what happens if you simply introduce the possibility that either person *might* have a knife?
Suddenly taking punishment becomes much less important, and being attuned to your partner's most subtle movements becomes much more important. Suddenly this whole business of very dynamic, connected ukemi makes a lot more sense.
Which is not to say that aikidoka are good knife fighters, but rather to suggest that "beating MMA guys" is not necessarily the right goal, either for "self-defense" (whatever that means) or for studying the aspects of aikido that make the art unique.
Katherine