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Old 11-24-2005, 10:36 AM   #32
George S. Ledyard
 
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Dojo: Aikido Eastside
Location: Bellevue, WA
Join Date: Jun 2000
Posts: 2,670
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Re: Aikido against judo

Quote:
Ben Joiner wrote:
Just a quick coda from the UK. I understand that to all you ladies and gentlemen from US the most effective self defense means carrying a gun and learning how to use it/deal with the consequences of using it, and that no-one's likely to attack you who's had any training in MA etc. This may be very true of the average American. It is not really the case over here. Whilst gun crime is unfortunately on the increase it is alcohol related violence that tops the charts in the likely risk of personal injury cat'. There is something of a drinking and fighting culture in areas of most town centres at night. People who go looking for trouble often know how to punch without giving their balance and falling over. They'd be pretty stupid to go looking for trouble otherwise. Many people especially in Wales have grown up playing rugby - a full contact sport with elements of grappling. I don't think it's that strange for someone relatively new to the art to wonder how their techniques would stand up under the pressure of a 'real' encounter. Especially if they've played anround with friends and had difficulty executing effective technique. As has already been stated the answer is to train hard with the right teachers and be patient. I Just feel that the question should perhaps not be dismissed so readily by those speaking from within a cultural paradigm that may not be the same as the posters.

Just my two pennies.

Ben
Actually, unless you live in some horrid neighborhoods over here its really the same. The only people I know who've used their training in self defense situations, aside from my police students, were all at places where males consume alcohol. Stay away from those places and the liklihood of the average middle class person needing to use a technique for self defense is very small.

Yes, you don't have the ability to carry firearms that we do but you don't have the liklihood of encountering a firearm used against you that we and quite a few other countries have (Russia being high on the list). The big danger in the UK is edged weapons. Once again , usually used without any warning in a fight, often from behind by a mate of the guy you are fighting. There are some films of this on various sites on the web... very scary stuff. But I'd rather have Aikido in a crowded multiple attacker situation in which people might / probably have edged weapons than Muy Thai or BJJ for sure. The only people who do REALLY effective training for this type of situation is the Russian martial Arts folks. We actually do some of their drills when we practice randori - three person knife attacks at close range. Nothing scary, all done it slow to medium speed but it gives you a sense of how you'd have to move in a real situation...

Even in your country where guns aren't very likely, I'd rather have a weapon of my own than deal with a knife attacvk empty handed. Canes are still legal anywhere. One from Canemasters will take the same beating as an expensive bokken. Facing a bunch of skin heads who really want to hurt you, I'd definitely want to have my knife if I couldn't have my gun. It's just realistic. Technology changed things hundreds of thousands of years ago. It's how this puny little being who wasn't big, wasn't strong, wasn't fast, could become the dominant animal at the top of the food chain. Nobody but a fool would purposely choose not to have a weapon when he could reasonably expect to encounter weapons being used against him.

George S. Ledyard
Aikido Eastside
Bellevue, WA
Aikido Eastside
AikidoDvds.Com
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