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Old 04-15-2013, 03:28 PM   #6
Cliff Judge
Location: Kawasaki, Kanagawa
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 1,276
Japan
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Re: Can we see that aikido is all over the place in MMA?

For me, a video showing some Aikido technique being demonstrated by an Aikido teacher, and then something that kinda looks like the same general thing being done in an MMA ring is a better argument for "see, Aikido incorporates some stuff from MMA" than the other way around.

Unless the fighter in the ring actually owns to Aikido training (is that the case?) then you don't have a real link between the two sets of things.

There is nothing technical that is unique to Aikido. The techniques derive from a few jujutsu systems which had them in common with many other Japanese systems, which had them in common with many other non-Japanese systems. The principals are not really unique either. To put it bluntly, if there is something we do that actually works in the ring, the guys who spend 40+ hours a week working with an MMA fighter who has negotiated x% of the cash prize of a fight if they win will likely figure it out and they will probably skip the step of asking someone who wears a hakama.

What makes Aikido unique, I think, is more along the lines of how it is trained and what it gives us in terms of philosophy. What we do on the mat versus what we don't do, what our process is for resolving questions, and just the flavor of the experience. Most of that stuff is utterly out of category for MMA and vice versa.
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