Rupert Atkinson

I have been doing Aikido since I left high school ... and am now 53. I agree with the article and recognised Aikido as part-fake almost straight away. Why? Because I did Judo before Aikido and Jujutsu alongside it. I also did Tomiki Aikido for ten years which is very practical. However, just as TaiChi is 'The Grand Ultimate' so can Aikido be. I recognised something for me in Aikido, right from the start ... the almost insane concentration on perfection of technique that is lacking in most other arts. That is what I get out of Aikido and why I have never quit. For me, Aikido contains the grammar of movement. Aikido has never been for self-defence for me. It can be, but it takes years. For that - I have WingChun and various other stuff - I made my own little self-defence art in fact. Like, if someone attacks me ... this is what I will probably do kinda stuff. I did that in the 80s and still go through it from time to time - it is easy. I have kept my self-defence stuff separate to my Aikido ... most of the time. For me ... Aikido is just 'The Way of Aiki' ... learning how to manipulate my partner's energy. And there is no reason you could not take those ideas and use them in Judo or Jujutsu or wherever. That's it. But I know people who only do Aikido will likely never understand where I am coming from. I once learned Iaido from a guy who only did Iaido. He was fairly OK at it but his complete lack of knowledge of any martial art other than that severely hampered him. He was 100% a Mr Technical kinda guy and would explain everything in intricate detail and yet had no first-hand knowledge of anything he was talking about. Kinda like the guy who likes trains and builds comprehensive train-sets in his attic. He actually knows nothing about real trains, but could talk about them all day and to the uninitiated would be the great expert. Anyway, if you learn Aikido, what you learn helps you learn other arts easily ... but it seldom works the other way around (which should spark you a clue as to its value). So... if you are not prepared to wait for self-defence to mystically materialize, and it won't, you should stretch your wings a little and go broaden your experience. Or, if you are happy just to train Aikido, which is also great fun, just get on with it. This is all just common sense.