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Old 01-31-2006, 02:02 AM   #28
Edwin Neal
Dojo: Ronin
Location: Henderson, North Carolina
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 597
United_States
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Cool Re: Self-defense art?

Charles, i was there in 87-90 at the Naval Supply Depot and at Yokota Air base some too...

George, i do think the definition of SD is a little hard to pin down, but most people DON'T have any serious training and even with the rising popularity of MMA it is still unlikely that any aikidoka would encounter such a person in a SD situation, and the relatively 'unknown' style of aikido is surpriser even for them... just ask the GJJ guys about my SNEAKYO(TM) nikkyo in guard that sets up many other possibilities... as to LEO with all respect to them, IMHO alot are relatively speaking poorly trained, they have too many other things on their plate to really put considerable time into it, but they also illustrate my point... a little goes a long way... they are also not in a SD situation they are trying to arrest, in a SD we are trying to live and/or escape...
as to performing under stress that is part of the beauty of aikido... there is joy in repetition... you don't defend with your brain, but with your fighting spirit and physical movements... your body does it... shin no mushin...adrenaline is liquid ki...
i still take issue with "complexity"... after "trying" to do judo and GJJ i would argue that aikido is easier in some ways!!!... take TKD there is no way i could execute some of those kicks under stress... ever watched some karateka/tkd spar? bounce bounce flail flail... all that beautiful technique gone...
Simple gross motor physical movements in aikidoka's repetoire
atemi waza(99% per Osensei an "essential" skill, sometimes a stopper see charles' post), ikkyo(FIRST teaching/principle), irimi nage, tai no henka tenkan (cited in post about the child), sayu nage, kaiten nage(great against shoots), kata otoshi, aiki otoshi, ude osae, sumi otoshi, koshi nage(although i still have problems with it), kokyu nage(lots of varieties)... it seems to me many of the moves in aikido start with simple gross body movements chained together to great effect ie 'gestalt'... sum is greater than the parts... the 'control' of the dojo ingrains this precision and power into our waza through repetition... te waza 'might' be a little more 'complex', but i have always felt comfortable with them...
The example with Shioda Shihan... well thats a little misleading... no one was trying to execute 100%... they did not want to injure the GI's... I bet Shioda did not use his 'metsubushi' backfist to the eyes (one of my favorites) as he entered for the throw... and his mind did not become captured by his foes sword(jab)... as a less experience aikidoka might in a 'sparring' situation... especially as most dojo do no sparring... even light sparring...
with respect to all...the MYTH of not functional in a timely manner, retold by generations of aikidoka only reinforces the belief in it... it is indoctrinated... teaching methodology does not try to address this but takes it to be fundamentally true and so reinforces it even more... reread the posts above... i hope more people will share... true it is anecdotal, but i will trust my fellow aikidoka's anecdotes

however, we never get to the top of the mountain... it is always one more step...

Edwin Neal


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