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Old 07-12-2007, 10:48 AM   #49
Paul Sanderson-Cimino
Dojo: Yoshokai; looking into judo
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 434
United_States
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Re: Aikido Techniques are Weapons Techniques

I agree with much of the above; this has gone a long way in giving me a (potential) answer to the question of how aikido can be 1) seemingly very sophisticated and well-developed and 2) seemingly of little use in its (at first) apparent venue -- weaponless fighting.

One caveat, though: I think that it's important not to start saying that aikido is meant to help an unarmed person take weapons off of multiple assailants. I much prefer the description of "grappling techniques for when two people (who have weapons on them but not readied) get into close quarters" or "when a person has got a weapon out but is being prevented from using that weapon effectively by a hold". (I think it would be interesting to look at judo and wrestling in this light: the former at least seems to also have this idea potentially going.)

I like Chris' explanation regarding specialization, as well. It's not that aikido training is totally inapplicable in a pure unarmed fight; just that it's not specialized for it. It might even be worse than "natural reactions" or basic brawling.

I'm going to see if I can put together some practice under these sorts of conditions. If "Aiki-boxing" and related exercises help show what aikido's not, the next step might be finding what aikido is.

Last edited by Paul Sanderson-Cimino : 07-12-2007 at 10:54 AM.
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