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Old 05-14-2013, 06:12 PM   #5
Conrad Gus
 
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Dojo: Eclipse Budo
Location: Victoria, BC
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 274
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Re: How long does it take to understand Aikido? How long to use it effectively?

I tell beginners that the movements feel strange and unnatural for 6 months to a year, but then your body gets used to them a little bit more. That's not "understanding", but there is a distinct shift.

By around shodan, I think most people have a grasp on why aikido will eventually be effective and also have a pretty good grasp on why their own aikido still needs a lot of work. That's not "effective" or "understanding", but there is another shift in there somewhere.

As far as using it effectively, I think it depends on how you train. There are lots of people that will train their whole lives in a certain way and will never be really effective, because that's not really what they are training for (whether they know it or not).

On the other side, Kawahara Sensei (in Canada) apparently told his students that they could expect to be effective by around 3 dan, which is around 15 years or so for most people in the CAF (but it would still depend on the person, etc.) It seems to me like he intended for his students to be able to actually be effective with aikido (most people who trained with him agree that he himself definitely was).

I don't know much about it, but I've heard that the Yoshinkan Senshusei course is only 11 months and most people come out of it pretty kick-ass, but that's yoshinkan for you.

Aikido isn't impossible to understand or to use effectively, but it sure it difficult and time-consuming! If you compare it to something like karate, there is a lot more complexity and subtlety (IMHO) that really must be grasped before a technique will work in real life. A weak karate punch or kick can still be effective, but a poorly-executed aikido technique is worse than useless, hence the long training time to effectiveness.

My own intuition is that the more "magical" your aikido style is, the longer it will take to gain understanding and to be effective (approaching infinity). If you're learning how to break necks, backs, shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers you'll be effective pretty fast, but your aikido will always be kind of brutish. If you're learning how to make people fall over with your mind from 30 feet away . . . well good luck with that one. Somewhere in between lies a nice balance that most of us think is realistic and fun for a hobby practitioner. Find your own preference and make sure your teacher and organization are going for the same level.

Whenever I get stuck or frustrated with learning aikido, I ask myself: "Why did I pick such a difficult art?". I always get the same answer: "Because aikido is awesome."
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