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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
Hi everyone
Last night i bought in new years eve at the biggest club in my home town, there were nine fights, five resolved easily, door staff there on time, two were physical attacks toward me one backhand as a short guy was walking away and another was an ashtray attack a swipe holding an ashtray. And my Aikido didn't even cross my mind to use, what i'm trying to say is, surely after two years it should have been natural to do at least something? Instead of the rather unsightly grappling, messy but effective takedowns that naturally spring to use.
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The thing is, actual combat will always look messy and ill-preformed. No matter what you train and how much you train. This was a point I was trying to make, but forgot to.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
The AIkido i have been taught and i have been taught by three main instructors at our dojo...who all seem to disagree on certain things (which may have something to do with it i dont know) seems to be uneffective for a job where every night there will potentially be an attack. Erik i dont know how long you've been doing aikido, but say its a year, shouldnt you feel comfortable you could do something? A Thai Boxer whos been attending class three times a week for a year, or a boxer, or a BJJ would be effective...but as Aikidoka most of us after this time are still..."errrr will this work?" which is really really bad if your learning the art purely to defend yourself in a real life situation.
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This was something I was trying to get at with my last post. I'll talk about it in a bit.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
I think that is it, thats what i feel it is. I started AIkido because i wanted to learn self defence for the streets. This is what i was told i would learn at my dojo, and this is what i read online for the most part. But looking back, it was the wrong art for me, because the self defence it teaches you isn't real and i feel for those wishing to become effective in a short time 6 or so months, definitely not.
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Effective is a tricky word. Effective how? I train to be effective against highly trained grappler in a sport competiton. I could say that would make krav maga 100% ineffective. The street really isn't a well defined goal. However, I can totally understand your points on leaving aikido.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
If i look further into Krav Maga and find its about killing people as fast as possible then i will have made another mistake and keep searching.
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I'm sure you will find this to be the goal. Krav was designed for military use. But never look at it as a mistake, only a stop on the path.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
Just at this point it seems like the next natural stop for me. Krav teaches grappling and multiple opponents, where as BJJ is just one opponent. Obviously in a situation with regards to my job i'd need the more than one opponent training.
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I'm not a big fan of the whole, we teach multiples training. I have not found any training I've found suitable for this goal. More on that later.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
Ok then i should have come to your Dojo Don. The aikido you are beign taught sounds like the kind of thing i am looking for. But because everyone seems to have a different Aikido. Unless you aikido has a specific name...im back to square one.
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You might be suprised to know that I do not training aikido any longer. I train judo, bjj, and mauy thai. Which of course leads me to my point I have been talking about making.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
Id say one month in and feeling i can do something is brilliant for what ten or so classes? aikido im 2 years in and still dont even "feel" like i could do something. Your questions seem more like attacks and i feel ive touched a nerve. Dont take it personal. You're probably much much better at learning Aikido then i was. Im just sayin how i feel about it and why im choosing another art to try.
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Sorry if you think I am attacking you. But in fact, I'm just using you to spout my propaganda :-)
My point is, that training methods define how useful something is. And that the training methods being shown in that video are no different that 100% of the aikido out there.
In fact, I find those training methods lacking, because they rarely included full on sparing. The reason I said that I know what I can do, is because I actually do it on a nightly basis. I know when i'm out classed, what I can do in a given situation. Sparing as given this to me, so has competition. I can almost look at a person now and size up how they will be in a fight.
So maybe what you are looking for is what you will not find in krav maga. I know I did not find it there. I found more of the same, static repetition without any sparing. Sure it was faster and we hit each other hard, but we were not alive in our practice. It sounds like you know what you want out of your practice, but not how to judge what you are getting out of your practice. I suggest reading aliveness101.blogspot.com or looking up matt thornton on google video or youtube.
Here's a few links to save you time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScOPEO31vmI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_T0WLoI6pk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fUZ8DmmWC0
He changed my outlook on what I was doing and allowed me to evaluate (and actually find a method for evaluating) my training. Maybe it will help you. The reason why I am critical about krav is because all the krav I have seen is no different then all the aikido I've seen. And I of course find a problem with aikido training. I simply think you are switching one training method, for the exact same training method.
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Daniel Ranger-Holt wrote:
There is an instructor at my dojo who is fantastic and i really admire him. His aikido is fast, swift and i think would be effective in a fair few of the situations i describe. Ive never seen him attacked with anywhere near a real punch etc. But he looks good and his Aikido i think would stand up to brawlers. But he's been doing it for 17 years.
Thanks to those who responded with kind words and support anyway. Sometimes we just need to be honest almost as Kevin Leavitt put it and if its not working, find something that will. Life is too short to spend 5 - 10 years learning a self defence art, when you can learn it in 3-6 months, then improve on whats there. The more i look into this, the more Aikido and the whole thing has really dissapointed me in fact.
But please please no one take anything personally...of course we love our art i understand that. But it is only that...a martial art.
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My only advice is to take the advice of those who have been down the path and know what is ahead.