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Old 04-01-2010, 05:04 AM   #84
sakumeikan
Dojo: Sakumeikan N.E. Aikkai .Newcastle upon Tyne.
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Re: What is AIKI ? - fantastic video

Quote:
David Yap wrote: View Post
Hi,

The person who uploaded the video of Hakim sensei on Youtube should remove it at once. The video does not do justice to him.

I am amazed that posters of high rank and experience here can pass judgment on him not knowing him as a person or as a martial artist and not even knowing what the video was about. I have no access to Youtube while here in China but I can guess which video it is based on the description posted here. The video was probably taken from one of his classes or seminars. While Hakim sensei has his own dojo, he routinely teaches at other dojos in Jakarta and at other Indonesian cities. The ukes appearing in the video might not even be his own students. Anyone in the west who has trained in Silat would know that Indonesia is the birth place of this fighting art and any other MA would be frowned upon there. Hakim sensei is a respected Aikido teacher in Indonesia and was an instructor to the Presidential Guards, and that, said much about his martial integrity, Aikido included.

The things done on the video were part of the training tools to understand or to demonstrate the principles of aiki and indeed certain rules or scenario must be present; such as aggression, sincere attacks and connections, etc. The line demonstration was to illustrate connections.

Those who have had attended the last two IAF conferences in Japan may remember Hakim sensei leading the Indonesia delegation in the embu and will have no doubt about his martial integrity in aikido. I first met Hakim sensei in 2004 during the 9th IAF and following that I have trained with him at least three times during his visits to Kuala Lumpur. Most time, he did not bring his own students with him as uke but the results were quite similar with others' students. It was my privilege again to attend his class last Sunday. At the onset, he told the class that he would not teach waza (students should learn waza from their own teachers) and he would not teach self-defense or fighting (those who want to fight would be better off learning TMA or FMA). His class was about the application of kokyu in the waza (non-mechanical) and about aiki and aiki principles -- when/why it works and it doesn't.

I took ukeme for Hakim sensei, I attacked him honestly but you wouldn't see me flopping about like a fish out of water -- perhaps I wasn't giving him a 200% attack. I cannot answer for those who did or those who lay on the mats unable to get up as if drained of energy. But I can say that the ukes were not trained to make him looked good, I definitely wasn't. My objective at the class was to observe, feel and learn. I did not attend his class just to make him look good or make myself look good by taking beautiful ukeme.

He did not do any "no touch" throws on me. Leading the opponent's mind is one aiki principle; the sales/marketing people and the lawyers are very good at this -- the power of suggestion. Some people can be easily lead/manipulated while some cannot. Manipulations can be in any/many forms (e.g. by gesturing or by touching) -- either use singly or in combination. I believe O sensei and high level Daito-ryu teachers could do it very well. It can be duplicated but the question is how good your duplication is. It is a skill that one either has or not. For me, soft touching skill is already so hard to duplicate, no touch is soooo very far off my grasp.

Happy duplicating (from the land of duplications)

David Y
Signing off from Shanghai
Hi,
Whether Hakim Sensei is good , bad or whatever is not the issue here.The issue is the display of so called Aikido on Youtube.Quite frankly this type of demo does nothing for the promotion of Aikido.
Floppy ukes, no sense of martial spirit in the attacks and the uke biting the dust at the earliest opportunity is pretty bad.
Whoever posted this stuff should remove it asap.Its about time some people had a reality check.
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