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Old 05-05-2008, 05:52 AM   #1250
DonMagee
Location: Indiana
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 1,311
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Re: Aikido does not work at all in a fight.

The solution is kinda simple to change the world. In this day of show me all one has to do is take say the aiki power Dan is talking about and go win something like the olympics in judo. An entire generation of martial artists will have to deal with what they have tossed off as old folk mumbo jumbo. Then with a little luck, as they learn the art they will find out it's not about fighting.

This is what Uesihba seemed to do. He seemed to go pick fights or show up in the right place to engage in one to show people a better way. That practice seemed to die with him (and his first students) however. And in that day, with only word of mouth and maybe some poor video to spread the word, it's not surprising this was forgotten. But I tell you that if you put a guy in a judo match who is unthrowable and doesn't even seem to defend, you will convert them by the thousands, maybe millions. Sure they wont be coming to be find the way of peace, but many will find what they wanted, and what they ended up with might be different things. Just like the guys who start showing up for my judo class who want to be better fighters, and find themselves learning about the art and culture of judo along the way.

I use the olympics as a example here because it is reasonably high profile that most people in judo would see it. Also, unlike say the UFC, it is also reasonable that anyone with the proper skills could get to that level (or at least the national level) without a good PR staff (Getting in the UFC is a lot of politics, getting into high end judo is simply skill).

I'm not trying to call anyone out. I'm just stating that the simplest answer (and one that would kill this thread cold) has been there from the first day aikido was named. In fact it was the method the founder seemed to like to take.

- Don
"If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough" - Albert Einstein
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