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Old 04-25-2013, 10:50 AM   #48
jonreading
 
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Dojo: Aikido South
Location: Johnson City, TN
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Re: Can we see that aikido is all over the place in MMA?

Quote:
Cliff Judge wrote: View Post
So you are talking about separating the heart of Aikido - aiki - and making a waza out of it that you can train apart from the history, traditions, organizations, philosophy, spiritual goals, and cultural underpinnings of Aikido.

I think that would be a fine thing for a motivated individual to devote him or herself to. I don't think of it as a problem for "the art" as you put it earlier though. In fact I am not sure why you would want to continue to use terms such as aiki if you are going to be rid of all of that stuff.

I am of the opinion that what you come up with will be no easier or faster a path to skill than any traditional form of Aikido, and without the trappings, you might get fewer people interested in it. Maybe these aren't concerns.

I am also strongly of the opinion that it wouldn't be much of a disruptor in the marketplace of MMA technologies. If you are going into a ring where you must grapple or beat your opponent into submission, BJJ and Muay Thai will still be the go-to systems.

But it sure would be something if I were wrong! I dare you!
Well, I don't know about "separating" the art. What I am thinking about is looking at the parentage and drawing from the larger education of aiki, rather than the child art of aikido. Much in the same fashion as algebra, while a distinct form of math, still relies of the foundation of a mathematical education. In this sense Lee's comments are accurate - aiki is old stuff; we are not "inventing" anything. More likely, we are re-discovering an education process. There could very well be a reason the processes dissappeared - they may not be better than the aiki-do process.

I think this is a problem for the aikido community because I think there is a practicing segment of the community that is not practicing aikido with aiki. Drawing upon that larger education will therefore be impossible. I think this was part of the problem the early shihan encountered - the task of educating new students in aiki without the significant training background from which many of the early shihan came.

I think MMA is developing very fast. Most fighters share experience in the same arts - kickboxing, wrestling, ju jutsu, etc. They are branching into other arts to see what can be useful. Karate and judo are [relatively] new comers to the sport. One trick can win a fight... sometimes a big fight. If it works, they will come...

Jon Reading
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